Time Management: How to make time to do the things you love.

Have you noticed how you can find time to do certain things (like binge-watch yet another box set on Netflix ) but not do other things? Like write that book, bake that cake, plan that trip or organise that cupboard which you’ve been meaning to do for years now?

Or maybe you’ve been planning on meeting up with an old friend for months but it never quite happens? The idea gets bandied about with enthusiasm ‘oh yes we MUST meet up for coffee soon’ but then no plans are made and it still remains something on your to-do list!

Firstly, consider what the problem is. Is it actually lack of time?!

First lockdown proved to me that lack of time hadn’t been what had stopped me doing things. Suddenly we had all the time in the world. Months and months of free time lay ahead of us and still I didn’t start writing that book. I did do some writing, I started writing out my favourite recipes on a new cooking website, but the  book idea lay dormant. 

During lockdown I managed to find time to watch 170+ episodes of Silent Witness, and several other box sets. I drank my way through box after box of tea bags and pot after pot of fresh coffee. I took loads of online courses to improve my social media skills, my copywriting skills, my zoom hosting skills. But the book remains unwritten

Time to allow yourself to do whatever it is that you love

I talk to anyone who will listen how I love writing, yet often I don’t let myself write. I find ways of procrastafaffing (you know, faffing on and procrastinating) Suddenly I can find a pile of paperclips that need stacking or maybe my pencils need sharpening. Or the cats bowl needs a few more biscuits. You get the picture.

Finally I realised that I needed to give myself permission to write. I also needed to set up a time and space to write. When my children were at school I used to go to a specific coffee shop with my notebook straight after school drop off every Tuesday, get a large latte and 2 hours on the parking and write whatever was in my head into my notebook.

Since they left school I’ve not found space in my diary to do this on a regular basis. I get the impression that what I need to do is to get a specific time written into the diary on a weekly basis. 

Clearing space to make time

To make this work I may have to drop something else, or create space by streamlining things so I have more time. So I need to look at where I can save time. Are there any processes I can automate to make life easier? Could I make more meals in the slow cooker, freeing up time in the evening to sneak in more writing? 

Instead of fitting writing in in between other things, maybe I should do my writing first? Maybe I could do some first thing in a morning along with my morning tea?

Maybe you could do the same. Starting the day with doing the things that you love doing (as long as it’s NOT playing the Tuba!) and then hopefully the rest of the day will flow around it, filling in the gaps. Rather than having to find a time to do the thing you love

What do you think? 

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