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How to Take CONTROL of Your TIME and Get MORE DONE! | Laura Vanderkam


time also has this big relationship with
our memory and how we perceive it we
cannot make more time
but time will stretch to accommodate
what we choose to put into it are you
watching this on your phone after you
hear this you may want to put it away
for a while need motivation we believe
she’s Laura Vander Kim and here’s my
take on her top ten rules to success
okay let’s kick it off with rule number
one manipulate your perception of time
there’s a couple ways of looking at time
I mean one is very straight forward it
marches forward we have 60 seconds in a
minute 60 minutes in an hour and once
the second is gone it is gone you cannot
get it back so there’s that but time
also has this big relationship with our
memory and how we perceive it and when
we think about how much time we have
that’s actually a function of how many
memories we have of any given unit of
time I mean one way of thinking of this
is if you go on a vacation somewhere
exotic you know it can feel like a week
has passed before breakfast because your
brain has no idea what it needs to
remember and so it’s remembering all of
it and as it’s remembering all these
things it’s making you feel like you
have more time whereas if you consider
an average Tuesday I mean most people
can’t even remember getting dressed in
the morning and getting to work somehow
it happened but it’s just gone right
it’s not there at all and so when you
know that you can start to manipulate
this your perception of time you can put
more memorable things into your life one
thing I tell people is to try to answer
the question of why today is gonna be
different from any other day in your
life and if you can answer why it’s
different you’re more likely to remember
it and if you have more days that you
remember you start to feel like you have
more time rule number two define your
priorities in life one of the women
whose time logs I studied she goes out
for a Wednesday night for something she
comes home to find that her water heater
has broken and there is now water all
over her basement if you’ve ever had
anything like this happened to you you
know it is a hugely damaging frightening
sopping mess so she’s dealing with the
immediate aftermath at night next day
she’s got plumbers coming in day after
that professional cleaning career
dealing at the ruined carpet all this is
being recorded on her time log winds up
taking seven hours of her week seven
hours that’s like finding an extra hour
in the day but I’m sure if you had asked
her at the start of the week could you
find seven hours to train for a
triathlon could you find
seven hours to mentor seven worthy
people I’m sure she would have said what
most of us would have said which is no
can’t you see how busy I am yet when she
had to find seven hours because there is
water all over her basement
she found seven hours and what this
shows us is that time is highly elastic
we cannot make more time but time will
stretch to accommodate what we choose to
put into it and so the key to time
management is treating our priorities as
the equivalent of that broken water
heater and to get at this I like to use
some language from one of the busiest
people I ever interviewed by busy I mean
she was running a small business with 12
people on the payroll she had six
children in her spare time I was getting
in touch with her to set up an interview
on how she had it all that phrase I
remember it was a Thursday morning and
she was not available to speak with me
of course
right but the reason she was unavailable
to speak with me is that she was out for
a hike because it was a beautiful spring
morning and she wanted to go for a hike
so of course this makes me even more
intrigued and when I finally do catch up
with her she explains it like this she
says listen Laura everything I do every
minute I spend is my choice and rather
than say I don’t have time to do X Y or
Z should say I don’t do X Y or Z because
it’s not a priority I don’t have time
often means it’s not a priority rule
number three make a three category
priority list I know it often happens
Friday afternoon if you’re working a
Monday through Friday schedule you’re
kind of sliding into the weekend at that
point maybe even hiding out so nobody
finds you it’s really hard to start
anything new on Friday afternoon but you
might be willing to think about what
future you should be doing and if you
spend a little bit of time on Friday
afternoons planning the week ahead you
can turn what might be wasted time into
your most productive minutes of the week
so Friday afternoon
minutes make yourself a short three
category priority list for the next week
career relationships so making a three
category list reminds you that there
should be something in all three
categories so that right there it’s
gonna nudge you to plan a more balanced
week and have a more balanced life it
doesn’t have to be long just a few short
things in each but look at your week see
where they can go front load the week if
you can do as much of it as you can
Monday and Tuesday because you know what
stuff’s gonna come up it could be good
stuff could be bad stuff but by planning
the week ahead and putting what matters
to you into your schedule first you
vastly increase the chances that that
stuff gets done rule number four chunk
down your goals
how can people allocate a usable amount
of time to things that they’re
passionate about but that are ultimately
gonna take a long time to do how do they
keep that from being overwhelming how do
they make sure that they have success so
they’re not discouraged do you encourage
people to think of their life in in a
year chunk and smaller chunks so if it’s
a big project like writing a book you
want to say in that year-end holiday
letter that you wrote a book well then
you can start breaking it down and
putting things related to that on each
week’s priority list right so maybe this
week you think well what step could I
take toward doing that well I’m gonna
write you know just what is the thesis
of my book alright I did that great
that’s all I have to do alright the next
week I’m gonna write maybe a couple
chapters I think could be in that great
you’ve done it the next week you start
writing a little outlines in each of
those chapters okay I’ve done that
moving for it you don’t want to
overwhelm yourself you want to don’t
want to bite off more than you can chew
but if you are writing 1,500 words a
week for the rest of the year you’re
gonna have a book at the end of it and
not a short one actually so it’s these
little things done repeatedly if you
only you know set yourself a very small
goal but you meet it and then you just
keep going you can do amazing things
rule number five
put down the phone are you watching this
on your phone after you hear this you
may want to put it away for a while I
found that the most relaxed people check
their phones
half as often as the people who felt
most rushed we often think that we have
no free time but we do we just chop it
up by looking at headlines social media
alerts or maybe email and then we find
it hard to relax
I’m not saying give up the phone but
next time you have a little chunk of
time maybe while you’re waiting for a
phone call to start try doing something
other than unlocking your screen use the
time to reflect I found that people who
use bits of time to journal or meditate
or do other reflective activities felt
like they had a lot more time than
people who spent those minutes on social
media rule number six use the concept of
100 dreams I love this concept of 100
dreams what is that how do people use it
why is it important yeah so this was a
great exercise that a career coach
shared with me many years ago which is
you know it’s a good answer to that
question of people think they have no
time and so they don’t think of what
they want to do with their time and then
when time appears we do whatever is
easiest because we don’t think we have
any time we haven’t thought about it so
that’s why we wind up scrolling around
on our phones all the time the list of
100 dreams sort of helps to solve this
so completely unedited list of anything
you want to spend more time doing so the
first third is easy because people often
want to travel more so it’s like the 33
countries they want to visit so we got
that all right but after that it starts
getting a lot harder if you’re like oh
well there’s that state park and our way
you know we lived here for six years
we’ve yet to get to or I’d you know
really want to bike more there’s a
couple bike trails through my house I
want to do or you know I should read
poetry or I’d like to go try that
restaurant somewhere or you know get to
the library and do whatever like you
start to get far more doable as you get
toward a hundred you know I have to come
back to the several times to actually
get to a hundred but then having this
list when you have open time or you’re
making your priority list for the
upcoming week you say well let me pull
something off that list you know maybe
this is the weekend I will go to that
state park or you know I will go for
that bike ride and you know Tuesday over
lunch if that’s an option in your life
and then you’re doing cool things all
right
rule number seven build the life that
you want when people find out I write
about time management
they assume two things one is that I’m
always on time and I’m not I have four
small children and I would like to blame
them for my occasional tardiness but
sometimes it’s just not their fault
I was once late to my own speech on time
management
we all had to just take a moment
together and savor that irony the second
thing they assume is that I have lots of
tips and tricks for saving bits of time
here and there sometimes I’ll hear from
magazines that are doing a story along
these lines generally on how to help
their readers find an extra hour in the
day and the idea is that will shave bits
of time off everyday activities add it
up and we’ll have time for the good
stuff and I question the entire premise
of this piece but I’m always interested
in hearing what they’ve come up with
before they call me so some of my
favorites doing errands in a way where
you only have to make right-hand turns
being extremely judicious in microwave
usage so it says three to three and a
half minutes on the package we are
totally getting in on the bottom side of
that and my personal favorite which
makes sense on some level is to DVR your
favorite shows so you can fast-forward
through the commercials and that way you
save about eight minutes every half-hour
so in the course of two hours of
watching TV you find 32 minutes to
exercise which is true you know another
way to find 32 minutes to exercise don’t
watch two hours of TV a day right anyway
the ideas will save bits of time here
and there add it up we will finally get
to everything we want to do but after
studying how successful people spend
their time and looking at their
schedules hour by hour I think this idea
has it completely backward we don’t
build the lives we want by saving time
we build the lives we want and then time
saves itself rule number eight never use
the snooze button pressing snooze is a
lousy way to start your day not only is
the sleep bad in little chunks of time
but you’re not getting up and starting
your day either so it’s really the worst
of all worlds I always tell people just
set your alarm for the time you actually
intend to get out of bed enjoy every
last minute of sleep right up until that
point and then go about your day but I
really think that good mornings are
about having better days how we start
our days really sets the tone for the
rest of our hours and so if you start
your day with this battle with the
snooze button well that’s gonna take you
through the rest of the day constantly
feeling behind but if you get up and do
whatever it is that you intended to do
you’ll have a much better day rule
number nine get out of a routine where
teens are great things and you talked
about this and many of your guests have
talked about this and the importance of
routine because they make good habits
automatic right so we want to have good
routines in our lives but we don’t want
routines to be the only things in our
lives because then every day is the same
as every other day so ways to think
about this sort of authentically when we
think about like what am I gonna do on
this weekend well I could just you know
watch TV put her around the house and
then it will feel like I didn’t really
have a weekend or you can maybe make a
list of you know anything in life or you
know the world you might want to see
particularly for thinking about a
weekend you know things within two hours
of your house probably that you’re gonna
want to see but anything you might enjoy
things your family members might enjoy
and then you can look at say well what
of those things could I put into my
schedule and you know on an average day
it might be something as simple as
trying a new restaurant for lunch or
having a conversation with a colleague
that you’ve always just kind of waved to
in the hall it could be participating in
a meeting that you normally just observe
like you actually speak up but when you
do little things like this you feel like
you have more time and if you really
pause and enjoy these things and take in
what’s happening then you can stretch
the experience of time itself and rule
number 10 the last one before a very
special bonus clip is use your time
wisely there are 168 hours in a week 24
times seven is a hundred sixty-eight
hours that is a lot of time if you are
working a full time job so 40 hours a
week sleeping 8 hours a night so 56
hours a week
that leaves 72 hours for other things
that there’s a lot of time
you say you’re working 50 hours a week
maybe a main job and a side hustle well
that leaves 62 hours for other things
you say you’re working 60 hours well
that leaves 52 hours for other things
you say you’re working more than 60
hours well are you sure there’s once a
study comparing people’s estimated work
weeks with time diaries found that
people claiming 75 plus hour work weeks
were off by about 25 hours you can guess
in which direction right anyway and 168
hours a week I think we can find time
for what matters to you if you want to
spend more time with your kids you want
to study more for a test you’re taking
you want to exercise for three hours and
volunteer for two you can and that’s
even if you’re working way more than
full time hours so we have plenty of
time which is great because guess what
we don’t even need that much time to do
amazing things but when most of us have
bits of time what do we do pull out the
phone right start deleting emails or
otherwise we’re puttering around the
house or watching TV but small moments
can have great power you can use your
bits of time for bits of joy maybe it’s
choosing to read something wonderful and
the bus on the way to work I know when I
had a job that required two bus rides in
a subway ride every morning I used to go
to the library on weekends to get stuff
to read made the whole experience almost
almost enjoyable breaks at work can be
used for meditating or praying if family
dinner is out because of your crazy work
schedule maybe family breakfast could be
a good substitute it’s about looking at
the whole of one’s time and seeing where
the good stuff can go I truly believe
this there is time even if we are busy
we have time for what matters and when
we focus on what matters we can build
the lives we want in the time we’ve got
now I’ve got a special bonus gift from
Laura on how to go to bed earlier that I
think you’re going to enjoy but before
or that it’s time for the three-point
landing questions let’s go from just
watching the video to taking action here
we go question number one where do you
need to use your time more wisely number
two what’s the routine that you need to
get out of and number three how we use
the concept of 100 dreams there are
people who exercise on a shockingly
regular basis there are people who have
very serious jobs who spend a lot of
relaxed time with their families during
the work weeks there are people who
think beyond the day-to-day firefight
and actually spend time planning and
strategizing about their businesses and
about their careers and the funny thing
is these people all have the exact same
168 hours as everyone else their jobs
are no less demanding and their children
are no less likely to refuse to wear
socks or at least I think so maybe
that’s just my little angels who refuse
to wear their socks but these people
make things happen
they make important things happen
because they get up and they do them
first so they do this little magic trick
I really almost think it is like a
conjuring magic trick where they take
unproductive evening hours the time we
all spend puttering around and watching
television watching other things and
they cut it off they get to bed at a
reasonable time and they turn this
unproductive evening hours into
productive morning hours they switch the
time around they get up and they get
if you want to learn how to manage your
time better go check out the video right
there next to me I think you’ll enjoy it
continue to believe and I’ll see you
there
if you commit all that you are and all
your energy to one thing you’ll we all have the same 24 hours in the day
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