Master Your Time: Mindset Shifts and Strategies to Improve How You Use Your Time
I often hear the following comments when I speak to individuals and groups about establishing improved, healthier habits for their wellness:
“If I only had more time…”
“How do I find the time to do these extra things?”
“My time is not my own.”
“Time. That’s what would solve my problems.”
The hard truth is that everyone has 24 hours in a day. And if we are getting the 7-9 hours of recommended sleep for adults, that leaves us with 15-17 hours to fulfill work, personal, and family responsibilities.
We all have the same amount of time each day-- and we can’t wave a magic wand to get more time added to our daily lives. So, where does that leave us as we attempt to “find more time” to do the things we want to accomplish during the day?
How You Can Improve The Time You Do Have:
There are a few things we can do to find time within our day to build smart habits that lead us toward personal and professional goals that we desire. These include the following:
Do a time audit: look at your daily schedule and for a few days, keep details of how you are spending your time. You may notice there are pockets of time that you better utilize for things that you actually want to accomplish. (To see an example, you can read about Sarah Doyle’s time audit here.)
Create routines that save you time: the more routines that you can create will lessen your mental load so that you can get other things accomplished
Wake up 10 minutes earlier to start your day more centered: beginning your day with a morning practice is a simple way to get started. Set your alarm 10 minutes earlier than normal and create a morning ritual that helps you start the day with intention and focus. My “10-Minute Power Practice” greatly improved my life especially when I was in a state of high stress and overwhelm.
Habit stack on to cues of things you are already doing to set you up for successful routines and new habits: identity routines you already do (like drink a cup a coffee in the morning) and stack it with a new habit you want to create (like a morning “10 Minute Power Practice”); place your journal next to your coffee machine and as you drink your coffee, do your morning reflections.
Use time management strategies to work “smarter not harder”: many individuals use “to-do lists” and calendars to organize their tasks. Utilizing time-chunking or the Eisenhower Matrix can help you focus on what tasks you need to get done and when so that you can solely focus on those items and not multi-task.
Reframe How You Think About Time
If we all have the same amount of time in the day, what if we thought about time in this way instead: “I have plenty of time.”
Someone recently told me that reframe for how she looked at her time. This shift in focusing on having “plenty of time” drastically improved her perception of what she could get done during the day.
You see, when we think “we don’t have the time,” or that “there’s not enough time in the day,” or “I’m too busy to make the time,” then that’s what our brains are going to believe about the time we do have. This is called “value tagging”-- when our brains assign importance to the things we experience in the world. So if we tell ourselves that we “don’t have the time,” then our brains won’t be looking for ways to make better use of our time.
Changing how we look at the time we do have, thus, changes how we consciously and subconsciously view time and how we spend it. In an article from Psychology Today, Dr. Swart writes, “When you do allow your brain to be conscious of and focus on what you want in life, the raised awareness that results will work in your favor to automatically bring opportunities into your life. It’s not magic – it’s just that you are able to see the possibilities to move forward with your dreams in a way that your brain was hiding from you previously.”
Jay Shetty, in his book Think Like a Monk, writes about the “stubborn subconscious” and how our “mind already has certain instinctive patterns that we never consciously chose” (p. 155). However, we have the opportunity to rewire our mindsets and override our thoughts of how we perceive and look at our lives. This can be done with how we look at time.
“Reframing” is the process by which individuals shift their mindset to look at a “situation, person, or relationship from a slightly different perspective” (Moran, 2024). By reframing how we look at time, we give ourselves opportunities to see opportunity within our 24 hours versus looking at the lack of time we may have. We go from a scarcity mindset to an abundance mindset that revolves around the same 24 hours we all have in a day.
Next Steps For Improving How You Use Your Time
For the next week, track your time and see where your time is actually going. Identity areas where you can find better uses of your time.
Reframe your thoughts about time: every time you hear yourself think about the scarcity of time, shift your thoughts to having an abundance of time. This can include thoughts like, “I have plenty of time,” “I have enough time in a day to get done what I intend to get done,” “I am using my time wisely,” or even, “I have the same amount of time as everyone else. How do I want to use it?” After a week, reflect on how this reframe makes you feel and what it enables you to achieve.
Reduce screen time and replace it with something else that’s important to you: this could include working on a new wellness habit, establishing a gratitude practice, communicating with a loved one, going on a walk, reflecting quietly about your day, you name it.
Prepare for the next day the night before: for example, lay out your clothes, pre-pack lunches, pack your work bag, create the next day’s to-do list, etc.
Use idle moments (e.g., waiting in line or commuting) for reflection or habit stacking a new habit you want to include in your daily life: for example, keep a book in your car and read while you wait for your child to be done with school or an activity, or listen to a podcast on a topic that interests you while you commute to work.
Photo credit Luke Chesser
