“Take care of the minutes and the hours will take care of themselves.”– Earl of Chesterfield
Has the clock ripped away your think time? Do you find yourself scratching your head at the end of the day and saying “where did the day go?” As you get older does the clock move faster?
In this week’s blog post we are going to examine the clock and take our hours back so we can have more creative time.
You mean I’ll be scheduling time blocks to be with myself?
With no devices and alone? This act will turn me into a lone wolf flying a glass balloon!
If you need help separating yourself from all the endless media check out this new post on Fear of Missing Out!
Let’s start off by searching for the most lucid time of the day. This is the time of day that your brain is coherent. During this period you can articulate your goals, projects, creations, and gratitude. Sit down, grab some pen and paper and get down all those amazing thoughts that are upstairs. If you have many jobs and kids like myself then two hours of think time shrinks down to thirty minutes. But if utilized, that thirty minutes can completely change your game.
Creating “Think Time” is a lot simpler than it appears, it all has to do with timing. The best way to find out where creative hours live is by spending an entire two weeks tracking your days. Once you know exactly how the clock is running, your next step is to review the results.
Before you jump into the data…I am going to forewarn you…this is going to be scary.
If you are an iPhone/Mac user then your devices come with a built-in feature that tracks your time. I am sure android users and PCs offer some type of tracking system as well. Be prepared to read results that are not what you expected. Especially if you have a project that has been sitting dormant. But to fix a problem, you will need to see where your time is disappearing too. I am tracking my entire online presence with both my phone and my computer. My goal is simple, improve the numbers! When I started this blog I averaged 181 pickups on my phone throughout the day. This is right around the average amount of pick-ups for a smartphone user. This number was mind-boggling to me. Only five pickups were business-related phone calls.
To improve you have to know where your time is going!
We not only need to track our online presence, but we also need to track where our time is going offline. You may surprise yourself to find that wasted time happens both online and offline.
“The problem with binge-watching on Netflix is that you lose three days of your life.” Harland Williams
After we have collected our data, let us start implementing. The easiest way to improve is by making small little steps. This process, the 1% theory by James Clear and is based on improving everything by 1%. Small gains will become big accomplishments. For example, when I first started tracking my progress, I picked up my phone 181 times in one day. I decided each day to think about why I needed my phone. by doing this I was able to cut the number down to 171. Small steps and 1% improvements are what we are looking for. Do this across the entire spectrum of your day and you now have begun to capture back your clock.
Now that we have a general idea of where our time is. And how to improve, let us locate the best time of the day for thinking, creating, and implementing. There lies an hour, or two, each day that is our most productive time. This is a place on the schedule where when you sit down to create, your brain is hyper-focused. For years I tried to write this blog. It wasn’t until I switched my writing time to the early morning. That hour offered a more productive outcome.
Let’s find your best hour!
Focus Time
Sunday
Monday
Tuesday
Wednesday
Thursday
Friday
Saturday
Congrats! You now have the tools. After all, life is more than busy work!
