How to create more hours in your day
March 20th, 2013You are too busy. I know you are. Because so am I, most days. And I’m not sure why, with all the timesaving devices we have on hand. Gosh, I can’t remember the last time I had to handwash all the laundry…oh, wait, that’s right. Never. I’ve never had to do that. All I have to do is push a button.
So busy. I guess we have too many buttons to push. It sucks away our precious 24 hours. And that’s all we get, you know. A finite number of hours in the day, days on this earth. But time is flexible, and there have been times when I think, holy moly, I swear I just added 2 or 3 more hours to the equation.
My friends tell me they have no idea how I do so much. They see me, hair in a ponytail, unshowered at the grocery store. They know I handle all the bills, cook dinner every night, all the stay-at-home mom things. And run a business, work at least 40 hours a week with clients worldwide under my own elbow-greased power engine, no boss to tell me what to do or co-workers to cover my sick days. They know I visit family, plan vacations, take Body Pump and yoga classes a few times a week. Blog. Sometimes get a much-needed eyebrow wax. Read books. Play at the park.
Let me tell you, when I get those 2 or 3 more hours in my day, I’m grateful. And since I know how to make it happen, I really should do it more often. I’m trying. Let me share with you how I do it, so you can try too.
The first thing that comes to mind is hiring help. Though I could write lists upon lists of the many and varied tasks I perform each week, I don’t scrub toilets. I don’t change the cat litter or mop the floors. I hire a housecleaner. What she does in a few hours per month frees up a ton of space for me – not only because I don’t have to be the one mopping the floors but because, hey, look, I have a clean(ish) house.
And that feels good. It feels like less clutter in my world. It makes me more efficient because I can totally release those obligations from my running list of to-do’s.
So hire out. Hire childcare. Oh yes. Moms, I know this is a hard one. Hire childcare so you can work, uniterrupted. Be more efficient. More efficiency = more time. Work from home moms like me have a hard time with that – but even a few hours a week makes a huge difference and is vital to your success. Working moms who already pay for daycare often have an even harder time hiring childcare because the little one is already with another caregiver so many hours per week.
But, yes. We must. Because you need to get your roots touched up and so do I.
Who else can you hire? It doesn’t have to be expensive. It can be a trade – I’ll watch your kid, then you watch mine. Sometimes it IS expensive, and it’s worth it. I just hired an assistant. That’s bordering on “too expensive” for me right now but I have this wriggling feeling in my gut that if I don’t outsource some of the email answering and password setting and website updating I won’t be able to take the next leap in my business. I’ll simply run out of time. More delegating = more time.
When people ask how I do it all, I tell them that I simply don’t. I don’t plan many playdates. I don’t go to many birthday parties. I definitely don’t complete many Pinterest projects or learn to ski.
I say no a lot. I decline evites. I recently ended a paying gig writing for a popular health website. Doing less = more time. It’s a hard skill to learn, this saying no thing. You’ll have to give it a shot. Say no to the next thing you are invited to. I promise, the earth will continue spinning on its axis and you’ll suddenly have time to floss your teeth.
But when I think about adding hours to my day, nothing – and I mean NOTHING – stands out more to me than an experience I had about 6 months ago. I woke up easily, feeling well rested, an hour earlier than usual. Waking up early and feeling rested = more time. I popped out of bed without hesitation and moved through my day like a prima ballerina – hitting all my leaps and turns with precision. Not making mistakes = more time.
In the evening, my husband gave me a surprised look when it was 10pm and I was actively engaging him in conversation instead of melting on the couch. He asked, “What’s going on with you? You’re so awake right now.”
I paused. And remembered. “Oh! It’s the detox. I feel…amazing.”
And we kept talking.
I loved that. I loved having that kind of efficiency in my day, and literally expanding my waking hours. It’s hard to explain until you experience it for yourself. But clean food…it’s clean fuel. It burns really easily and efficiently. There’s no waste. Your body doesn’t spend hours trying to sort out what to do with the sludge and toxins, it just does its job of absorbing nutrients and cleaning itself. The work it tries to do every day gets so much easier when it’s not bogged down in scones and lattes.
And I’m looking forward to that feeling again. There’s a reason I run my detox twice a year. This time, I only have 10 spaces left. I want you all to feel this – to create those extra hours in your day. And I’m dedicated to working with each of you to make it happen. That’s why I can only accept 10 more. Otherwise, I’ll run out of time.
Enjoy your 24 today. Here’s to expanding time and inviting ease in.
