How to Add More Time to Your Day

These 8 simple steps to have more time in your day will amaze you. Quite honestly, change #1 and your entire perception around time will change.

We all want ways to feel like we have more time, right? Have you ever said “if only I had another hour, I could do x,” or even worse, have you ever thought to yourself, “I feel like I’m wasting time?” That's my least favorite thought related to time. You have this life for a reason. It’s time to make the most out of it. The first 7 things are simple "productivity hacks" to increase time, but the real meat of this is item #1.

I have been practicing my #1 tip for saving time every day for years and it has completely changed my life!

#8. Zero Your Inbox: This tip both saves time and gives you peace of mind. Every email that doesn’t need to get taken care of or that is already taken care of goes into my archive. A simple keyword search will bring up any email I ever need so there’s no reason to have them all hanging out in my screen right when I open my email. It feels so much freer and less stressful. Plus, I don’t waste time re-reading emails I’ve already handled but couldn’t remember if I handled. Now, I know it’s handled because it’s archived. So simple!

#7. Set specific social media times: Instead of responding to every post as you receive it, tell yourself you can spend 30 minutes at a specific time during the day to go through it all and respond. Or have a 15 minute morning session and then another one in the evening. Point is, you lose a lot of time when you either let notifications run the show or when you innocently hop on Facebook just for a second and then 10 minutes later you put it back away. Many of us do this up to 10x/day losing so much time! If News Feed gets you feeling hooked, try the Chrome extension "News Feed Eradicator" to replace your entire News Feed with an inspirational quote of your choosing. So easy, right?

#6. Turn off all notifications on your phone: I almost always have my phone on Do Not Disturb and it feels so freeing. Doing this allows you to use it only when you want to, not because you feel the urge to check it due to a notification, which again can lead you down a rabbit hole of losing 10 minute chunks of time here and there all throughout your day.

#5. Stay in the moment: Usually if we are freaking out about time, we're thinking about the future. Freaking out about something DOESN'T help you accomplish it faster. In fact, a sure fire way to LOSE time is to worry about it. If you're worrying about not having enough time, you're not in the present moment. In the present moment you have all the time you need. There is no benefit in worrying about not having enough time in the future. This ties in really closely with tip #1, which is my favorite of them all.

#4. Follow joy: When something feels fulfilling and joyful, it’s leading you down the right path. Following your joy is a great way to be led to the best use of your time. Plus, when you're doing something that you enjoy, you automatically feel like you're best utilizing your time. When you’re at work and you’re no longer feeling productive on a task you’re doing, ask yourself, what could I do that would be productive and joyful? In most jobs there’s a million things you could be doing at any given time or there's a way to make your current task more enjoyable if you allow yourself to get creative. Choose what feels most enjoyable at each moment and raise your productivity. If you have a task that you simply cannot enjoy no matter what you've tried, see if it can be delegated. Everyone has different interests and it may benefit the whole team to give a task you do poorly to someone who enjoys it and therefore does it better. We’re typically better at things we enjoy doing so following your joy can raise your productivity and make you feel happier overall.

#3. Bring books and music with you everywhere: If you feel cheated on time when you have to wait for something (whether in line, at the doctor’s, in traffic), BE PREPARED. Bring audiobooks, podcasts, and music you enjoy. Have your headphones ready or bluetooth hooked up. Or bring good old printed books and have the awesome added benefit of a slight workout for lugging them around! (I guess that depends on what you're reading...) Whatever you need to do to take back your time, you have the power to do so just by simply being prepared. You should never complain about waiting around because you have the power to make the most of that time. While we're on the subject of complaining, don't complain about time, period. It just attracts more of what you don't want.

#2. Cut out commercials: For approximately $15 extra every month (depending on your current plan) you can completely get commercials out of your life. One study found that average TV watchers saved 160 hours per year by cutting out commercials! I have commercial free Hulu, Netflix and Spotify. I do not do cable because I watch very little television, but cutting out ads has made my life so much more enjoyable and if I only want to watch 40 minutes of TV in one day, because my shows are commercial free, that’s 2 episodes of Parks and Rec versus 1! ;)

And now for the grand finale! The main reason I went from being known as someone who was always late and feeling like I was always short on time to feeling stress-free and having time work out for me....

Drumroll please.....

#1. Develop a time abundance mindset: My #1 tip for having for time in your life is to master the mindset of time abundance. I personally consider myself a Time God because I have the mindset that timing will always work out for me and because of that, it does. Period. Changing your mindset around your time is really the only thing you need to do. It is 100x more powerful than anything listed above (although step #5 goes hand in hand with this and they all compliment each other). I went from being someone who was chronically late and hates to plan, to someone who always arrives at the perfect time and doesn’t need to do a lot of planning because things just work out!

How do you master this mindset and have more time in your day? Join others in taking my new course, the "Time God & Goddess Revolution" and experience this radical shift that will not only bring more peace in your life, but also help you manage time with ease and grace. For a limited time, use code "blog" to get over 75% off! Head on over here to learn more and see what others are saying about it.