The ability to direct one’s time is a key component of a productive and fulfilling life.
Many people feel like they don’t have enough time. Between work demands, family responsibilities, household duties, and all the matters of daily life, it can be challenging to find time for those priorities that we consider important, not to mention things such as fitness, personal goals, skill development, hobbies, and spiritual growth. What’s more, we’re bombarded by and tempted with all sorts of ways to distract ourselves with unimportant things, leading us to waste what precious time we do have.
One simple strategy to improve our efficient and effective use of time is to maximize the value of our “in-between” time. In-between time is made up of those frequent pockets of time when we’re waiting for something, when we’re already in the ideal environment, or when we’re completing a mundane task that can allow us to do something else along with it.
Strategically using the “in-between” time that pops up throughout each day can open up longer, higher-quality stretches of time needed to focus on our highest priorities.
While You Wait
For example, think of all the time you spend each day waiting for something or someone. If you’re a parent, you might find yourself waiting to pick up your children from school or extracurricular activities regularly. While you sit in your car, clear out your email inbox or return phone calls instead of just scrolling through social media.
If you’re at home and you pop something into the microwave, rather than letting that time fritter away, challenge yourself to tidy up as much as possible before the timer goes off.
Similarly, you can chop vegetables in preparation for dinner while you wait for the laundry cycle to finish, or you can open your mail while you wait for your coffee to brew, or you can write tomorrow’s to-do list while you wait for dinner to finish cooking.
Times when you’re standing in line at the store and waiting on hold on the phone are moments that can’t really be used for deeply focused work, but they could certainly be dedicated to improving your space or preparing for the next task. These moments are all opportunities to improve your time management. These little pockets of time add up quickly and can even encourage you to finish such tasks more quickly than you otherwise would.
When You’re Already There
You can make the most of the environment you find yourself working in throughout the day.
For example, if you’re responding to an email, you should make the most of being in that state of mind by taking a few extra minutes to clear out all of your emails and respond to any that are waiting. If you’re in your kitchen preparing the evening’s meal, you might think ahead a little bit as to whether the ingredients you’re preparing can be used again in the next few days.
If you’re chopping one onion, it’s not that much extra effort to chop two, and you can enjoy the benefits of prepared elements for a number of meals at once.
Similarly, if you’re out and about running errands, it’s much more efficient to take care of any other errands you’ve got on your to-do list while you’re out instead of making multiple trips. Take a few minutes to think through what needs to be done, where you’ll be going, and what else you can do in the time that you’re out.
Allowing your environment and state of mind to inspire similar accomplishments can increase your efficiency significantly.
While You Work
Sometimes, the things you’re working on are rote tasks that don’t require too much mental effort. Activities such as making beds, cleaning out your desk, folding laundry, or working out lend themselves nicely to listening to audiobooks or podcasts or other uplifting, educational, or entertaining programs. Saving such entertainment or content for those moments can prove to be motivating, making you actually want to complete those tasks. And the time you used to spend consuming that sort of content is thereby freed up for attacking more important responsibilities.
Pairing entertainment or inspiration with tasks that need to get done makes those pockets of time enjoyable and productive all at once.
Effectively directing our time is a challenge everyone faces throughout their lives. We’re all given the same 24 hours each day. A simple way to improve your use of time is to make the most of in-between time. If you begin to look for it, you might be surprised to find just how much you have each day.
