Oh, I wish I had more time so that I could do this!

How many times have you heard that or a similar statement from others? How many times did you say it yourself? Do you know anybody who says they have enough time to do everything they want?

Chances are that the answer is yes for the first two questions and no for the third. Still, very few people prioritize time-saving over other goals they have: way more people are interested in money-saving tips than in time-saving tips. Yet, time is a great equalizer!

We may all have different incomes, job and family responsibilities, and different support networks, but one thing we all have in common is that we are all given twenty-four hours every day, seven days a week. Time is the only thing money can’t buy, so it’s entirely up to each person to make the most out of the time they have.

Why are women experiencing a lack of time more often than men?

I often give time-saving advice, and I never thought of it as gender-specific. It was only recently, after re-evaluating a few beliefs that I took for granted, that it occurred to me that women suffer from a lack of time more often than men do. Why does it happen?

• No matter how much we talk about gender equality, on average, women still have longer to-do lists than men, both at work and at home.
• When men experience a work emergency, their female partners would make sure nothing bothers them so that they could focus on work problems. Somehow, female professionals are often denied a right “to focus on work,” so they always have to juggle “work-plus” responsibilities.
• Women’s to-do lists often include more things for others than for themselves. I know someone whose to-do list consists of the following sections:

List for the household

List for her daughter

List for her older son

List for her younger son

List for her parent

Personal list

• As a result, women often either de-prioritize their needs and wants or completely eliminate them.
• Women experience more social pressure to be able “to get it all done.”

My “magic”

My friends often wonder how I have time to do so many things. Many believe my key to success is that I need less sleep than an average person. While there is some truth in that, an hour or two a day won’t make such a drastic difference. I think that my true magic is simple: I always do the things I want! Moreover, the only things I do are the things I want to do! You don’t believe it is possible? Keep reading!

How to proceed with time budgeting?

Time budgeting is not for everyone

A friend of mine once said: Hettie is using her money, time, and calories wisely to get the most out of it. Just as counting calories does not work for everyone, keeping close track of time feels like a horrible idea for many people. No pressure! If you feel like keeping track of time ruins your life and takes all the joy out of it, don’t do it! However, if you are really determined to find some time in your life for yet another activity or two, would it be a fitness class, a new craft, or a new book to read, let’s take a closer look at your day and find that time!

Identify your goals for time budgeting

Interestingly enough, we often “do not have time” for things that are not really important to us. Even if we do not consciously prioritize things, we do it subconsciously. When I hear, “I do not have time for yoga,” or volunteering, or learning a new language, I reply, ” It’s just not high enough on your list of priorities.” For example, doing one hour of vigorous exercise a day is my priority. When somebody asks me: don’t you ever feel so tired that you want to sleep this extra time and not go to the gym, I ask, do you ever want to skip brushing your teeth? Do you even not have time for your morning coffee?

That being said,

Step 1. Make a list of things you don’t have time for. Why are they important to fit into your schedule? What will happen if you will never get to them? Do you really want to be able to do these things?

Step 2. When budgeting time, prioritize the things you want to do! The “musts” will still make it to the list, regardless!

Step 3. What are the things you do not want to do but, for some reason, keep doing? Make a list of those as well; we will learn how to delegate.

Get real!

Now is the time for everybody’s least favorite activity: take a look at where your time goes during the day.

Suppose you want to get an hour of exercise every day. That’s not a small task, but you can still find these extra sixty minutes! What time of the day will work best for you? I prefer mornings just because there are fewer chances that nothing unexpected will happen before the start of your workday. If you go to the office, look at what time between your wake-up time and leaving the house time.

For example, “I can never tell where the first twenty minutes after I wake up go!”.

Do you start your day by checking your phone? I do :), and there is nothing horrible about that; just be aware that your first twenty minutes of the day are spent on catching up on world news. Sometimes, I might start unloading the dishwasher or folding the laundry early in the morning when I just woke up. Again, nothing wrong with that; just take note that that’s where your time goes.

Does it take you longer to get from work than to work? Is it because you are hurrying up in the morning and not so much in the evening? Do you move around the house slower in the evening? Do you randomly scroll Facebook “now that the work is done”? Make yourself aware of your netto/brutto time ratio. It does not mean you need to “fix” something, but knowledge is power!

If you are looking for this extra hour, you might be able to shed minutes here and there. It’s possible that you can find an extra thirty minutes in the morning and another extra thirty minutes in the evening. Maybe you could start work earlier and leave earlier instead? Or the other way around?

Calculate the actual time costs.

Let’s continue with the same one-hour-a-day exercise goal. What gym facilities do you have available? I have a gym in my building’s basement and a gym at work. Both are free. The office gym is bigger and has more equipment. Should I go there instead of my building gym? If I needed motivation, I would probably choose to go to the office gym. However, I am motivated enough, and the only thing I am interested in is time-saving.

Although it might seem that the time cost is the same in both cases, it is not. When I go to my building gym, I change into my gym clothes immediately after I wake up, and I am down there in ten minutes. After I am done with my workout, I can go straight to the shower and get ready to go to work.

If I choose to go to my office gym, there are several extras:

• I need to pack my gym clothes
• Even if my gym has showers and all the supplies, I still need to pack my cosmetics and take my day clothes with me
• I need to change into my day clothes before I get out of the doors, then I need to change into my gym clothes at the gym, then take a shower, unpack and pack. Overall, I spend at least twenty extra minutes.

It is not a problem at all if I know about it, and I choose to work out at a fancy gym at a cost of twenty extra minutes. However, it is a problem if I “think” I will be at my desk on time and I am twenty minutes late. Would I choose to shorten my workout next time or skip it entirely and not bother with packing my gym clothes and all these other things? To avoid surprises, make sure to have realistic time estimates.

Budget with a buffer

Even if you estimate the time you need realistically, it is still important to budget the time buffers between activities. Even if I work out at my building gym from 5 AM to 6 AM, it does not mean that I start my shower at 6 AM; it will happen at 6-10 or 6-15. The same applied to all other tasks. A dishwasher should be emptied. The laundry should be folded. Your groceries were delivered, but you still need time to put them into the fridge (everyone forget that it takes time!). Minutes turn into hours if you are not aware of that. Take note of all these extras so that you won’t get frustrated that “your plan didn’t work.”

Multitasking doesn’t exist.

It is a scientific fact that multitasking doesn’t exist, but there are many things you can do in parallel, thus multiplying the time you have. My time multipliers list includes:

• I have radio apps for all the radio stations I like, and I listen to the world news while I am in the shower.
• I didn’t like audiobooks at first because I could read faster than I listened, but I taught myself to listen to audiobooks when I realized I could listen pretty much anywhere and get through more books than I would ever be able to otherwise. Now, I always listen to audiobooks when I exercise. Oh, and I also learned to listen at 1.2 speed!
• I watch movies and listen to podcasts while cleaning, cooking or ironing.
• I always listen to something while being outside, on the elliptical, or when biking on the bike path, where I do not need to watch the traffic.
• Not exactly multitasking, but close to it: I favor public transportation even if it takes longer because I can use my commute time to do something else. Trains are better because there are fewer chances of getting motion sickness :). I do a big chunk of my non-work emails and social media while I am on the train.

Doing personal things during your work hours

From time to time, you need to do some personal things during your work time, simply because that’s also your doctor’s work time, your contractor’s work time, etc. How do you make it happen and minimize disruption?

• In many cases, it is possible to send an email with a question or request a phone call. You can send this email at any time and reply at your convenience.
• If there is a chat option, use the chat. Many people think it’s less effective, but in reality, it’s a time-saver because it eliminates the wait, and you can do it almost without interrupting your work activities.
• If you need to make a call, choose the right time. Most people try to make these calls either “first thing in the morning” or during their lunch break. This is guaranteed the longest wait time! Instead, try to call at the end of your workday or at the end of that office's opening hours. 4:30 PM is a great time to call to schedule your doctor’s appointment or to get a hold of a person in an SSA office.

Delegating: what, when, and to whom

Remember we created a list of things you do not want to do? Now it’s time to act on that list.

Delegating to paid help

Did you hear about the Eisenhower matrix?

As I already mentioned, don’t worry about the things you want to do. Examine the things you don’t want to do but for some reason believe you should do. Where does each of them fall in the Eisenhower matrix? In the “not important-urgent” quadrant, instead of “do/don’t need your expertise,” put “like/not like doing.”

Make sure to identify the things that fall into the “not important-urgent” and “not important-not urgent” quadrants, and if you live with a partner, make sure your classifications match.

Definitely stop doing things that fall into the “not important-not urgent” quadrant, even if the whole world tells you that’s a must. Try your best to delegate your “not important-urgent” quadrant. Remember, we started from the statement that “time is the only thing money can’t buy,” but the closest thing to buying time is delegating to paid help. Only you would know whether any particular service is worth the money paid for it; it’s your personal preference, not anybody else. Here are some of my preferences examples:

• I do not want to spend time grocery shopping, so I order delivery for most of the groceries I purchase. It takes some time to come up with initial lists, but after that, it’s easy. At the same time, I won’t skip a trip to a local farmer’s market because I love the experience.
• I hate ironing, and I am happy to pay extra for my cleaning person to do ironing for me.
• I love cooking and especially baking, so I would never hesitate to spend time on a Sunday pie.
• I love making breakfast for my daughter’s family when they visit, and I won’t delegate this activity to anyone. At the same time, if I have a fifty-item long to-do list for my Sunday, grabbing breakfast at the corner coffee shop will save me 20-30 minutes, and then I am all for it.

Delegating to your kids

Delegating tasks to your children can be time-consuming. Many times, we don’t delegate because it is faster to do it ourselves. However, I would encourage you to delegate to your kids because, in the long run, they will learn. Eventually, it will help you as a family to save time and do more things together. A couple of things to remember:

• It works well when you genuinely need* their help, rather than when you create a need just to teach them a lesson.
• Be ready to let them do things without correcting every step
• Be prepared for material damage: burned pots and pans, ruined clothes, etc.
• Be ready for the consequences, like she might pack five dresses and one underwear for a three-day trip
• Don’t scold for things done wrong
• Praise for things done right
• Don’t tell: it’s our house, and we all need to keep it clean because, most times, they don’t care. Instead, say: I like it when our house is clean, can you help me?

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*When I was a single mother of three and worked in the downtown office, it was challenging to get my kids to their after-school activities. By the time my younger children were eleven, we had a rule about making dinner: each workday except Friday, one of them was making dinner (and we would have pizza on Friday night). That was to make sure that when I came home from work, I could take them to their activities right away. There were days when they would forget, and then there were no activities because dinner had to be made.

Another example: Last fall, my daughter had a very bad knee injury, and when I came to visit them, I was shocked to see my three-year-old granddaughter unloading a dishwasher without even being asked. She saw that the washing cycle was over, pushed a stool close to the dishwasher, and started unloading and putting all the utensils where they belong.

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Delegating to your partner

This part is very personal, and everybody has their ways of sharing chores, so I will just give a couple of ideas:

• Let go of“traditional” chore assignments and instead consider individual preferences.
• Household chores are not the only area where you can help each other. For example, I often ask my spouse to help me with presentation slides because I am horrible with graphics.
• If any of you is better at “finding how to do things” or asking the right questions to Grandfather Google, by all means, delegate that! This will help you to minimize your overall time.

My to-do lists

To-do lists and time budgets are closely related. I always make to-do lists for weekends, which help me estimate how far off I am from my plans. I always put my “wants” on top because, as I said, I will do other things anyway. I know I won’t skip my strength training and my bike ride. I won’t skip watering the house plants and washing my clothes. I still put all of these activities on my weekend list because I like to see how many things I crossed off the list, and I like to see my progress. However, if I want to do something that is outside my regular things, I would put it on top so that I know that I need to fit it in.

If you are doing it for the first time, it would help if you could write down an approximate time for this task.

Don’t forget the time buffers.

Don’t forget that you need to eat during the day.

You do not need to do things in the exact order you put them down, but if you’ve already planned activities for your “awake time” for both Saturday and Sunday and you still have twenty more things on your list, you’ve probably overestimated :).

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Personal example

Two weeks ago, I was getting ready to go on vacation. My flight was on Sunday evening, and as you can imagine, I wanted “to finish everything” before I went. To make things more pressing, I was going to have house guests several days after I would be back from vacation, so I knew that there were only a few things I could leave “until I am back.”

Usually, I prioritize my bike rides, but this time, I knew I would have many opportunities to bike while I was vacationing, so I de-prioritized them. I went for an early morning volunteering shift on Saturday because I knew I wouldn’t be able to volunteer with this group until mid-August.

The shift ended at 9-30 AM, so I thought it might feel like the day just started. However, I also promised my daughter’s friends that I would get them into the aquarium on my family pass. When I said I would do it, it felt like I had time, and it all fits in, but in reality, when I got out of the Aquarium, it was already 11-15. Then I made a mistake, and instead of taking Uber home, I took public transportation because that’s what I originally planned. When I got home, ate my lunch, and made a call, which I had to make before 2 PM, I was already about two hours behind my plans.

I looked at my list again. There were things that absolutely had to be done before I left, such as packing and visiting my mom. For all the rest, I reordered the list. A couple of movies that I planned to rent and watch were pushed to “after I come back.” Several emails were pushed to “on the plane.” Writing this article was pushed to the next Saturday when I will still be on vacation, but have a quiet day.

There were still many to-dos that were left unfinished when I headed to the airport the next day, but I knew that everything that had to be done before departure was done, and also, I wrote a couple of emails while I waited for my flight.

While on vacation, I was periodically looking at my remaining list. The things that were still out there were mostly regarding catching up with people, watching some podcasts, etc. Since these were the things I wanted to do, I did some of them while on vacation. And yes, about these movies. I realized that I didn’t really want to watch two of them; I just put them on my list because people were talking about them. And I will watch the remaining one when I am back:).

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So, let’s do it again.

Look at the items that didn’t fit into any time slot. Are all of them urgent? Maybe you didn’t put the most urgent/important/wanted things on the top of your list. What items in your list have deadlines? Are any of these deadlines later than Monday morning? Can you reorder your list? If there are items from the second quadrant (important/not urgent), can you schedule them for next weekend with higher priority?

Hint: if you find some “not urgent” items being rescheduled for several weeks, that probably means they are not that important, and you can remove them from your list. Otherwise, just do it! Make them the highest priority for next week, and make sure to cross them off your list first!

How to approach “big tasks.”

At this point, people often ask me what to do when you have a “big task.” For example, if you need to write a grant or a research paper, divide it into smaller tasks!

When I worked on my book, my atomic tasks could be:

• Finish review of Chapter 2.
• Insert new pictures for Chapter 3
• Update picture references in Chapters 3 and 4
• Plan for Chapter 5.

These atomic tasks do not even have to be “logical” pieces; they could be something like:

• Review the first five pages of Chapter 2
• Review the second five pages of Chapter 2

Whatever helps you to happily cross the items off your list helps!

What if your plan is not working?

Sometimes, your perfect plans won’t work. Life happens, and something urgent may come up. What are your next steps?

1. Don’t feel miserable! Life happens. If you don’t put any plans together, life will happen anyway. You’ve probably still done more than without the plan.
2. Have a backup plan! I wanted to go for an early morning bike ride on Tuesday, but it looks like it will start raining. Fine, I am not going for a bike ride, but I can do an elliptical workout in the gym.
3. Take care of the urgent matters that came up or finish that task, which took two hours instead of thirty minutes. Then, take a look at your plan again.
4. Re-prioritize. You are three hours behind. There is no way you can complete your original list; don’t even try. Instead, repeat the same prioritizing activity you did earlier. Use the Eisenhower matrix to re-classify the remaining list. What has to be done today? What can wait until tomorrow? Until next week?

Conclusion

Even though we all have the same 24 hours a day, and nobody can change that, It is possible to change how we spend time and accomplish more within the same time period. To do this, let’s recap:

• Identify your priorities
• Set realistic estimations
• Use time-management tips to do more within the same amount of time
• Be ready to correct your course

Are you ready to give it a try? Start creating your Time Budget. Be sure to start with your favorite activities and follow the steps described above. And please let me know how it goes!