Time, you can’t buy it, you can lose it easily and we all want more. I’m pretty sure you’d like to fit more into your day..
I had such a limiting belief around time. I had no time. I had too much to fit into my day. I felt I couldn’t achieve what I wanted to because I didn’t have enough time. It made me so stuck. It stopped me from hitting my goals and quite frankly it was really annoying me!
This is what I did to redefine my feelings around time – it changed everything in my life and business:
1. Believe you can fit it all in – you can expand time to suit you
We can make time speed up and slow down at our will. I’m sure you have experienced things feeling faster and slower, like the journey home feels quicker even if it takes the same amount of time because we are familiar with the route.
Believe time is on your side.
There was a time I didn’t believe that I could post content (the same content) on both Facebook and Instagram. I just didn’t believe I could fit this into the day. Then I did it, I made it happen. Next I didn’t think I could use stories on Instagram as well as post each day. I did. Moral is that when you decide you can do something is when you do it. Believe that you can fit it all in and you will make a plan, have focus and intention and get it done.
2. Slow down to speed up
When you are busy you often feel overwhelmed, frantic and stressed. None of these feelings lead to clear thinking or productivity. So you get less done. Which ironically makes you feel that you have even less time and so the cycle continues.
Instead choose to reflect for a few moments, journal or make that cup of tea and just let your brain feel less buzzy. This will give you an energy boost. When you couple this with the belief that you can fit it all in you can redirect your energy into efficiency.
3. Have a clear intention
The biggest issue I see for practitioners isn’t simply a lack of time, it’s not knowing what to do first with the time. You can spend 10 minutes deciding what to do, get distracted on Facebook and then 30 minutes have gone and you haven’t done any ‘real work’. This was me trying to work in short blocks of time. I didn’t have a plan, and I didn’t make the progress I wanted.
Set your intention before you start. Not a massive to-do list with 100 items. Just one or two things. Then do them.
4. No new time
You have a spare 15 minutes here and there in your day right now, you just aren’t maximising them. Two 15 minute blocks add up to 2.5 hours in a working week. One 15 minute block a day gives you 7.5 hours over a month. That’s like an extra day. You have these time blocks right now, but you probably don’t have a plan to utilise them. Think what is one action that would move my business forward today? Check in with 3 clients, post on social media, call a vet and commit to action taking each day. It’s only 15 minutes after all.
5. Set some boundaries
Does your admin time get interrupted all the time? Do clients take more of your time? Do your clients keep you talking or do you find you can’t leave promptly?
Be clear about when you do and don’t work, and enforce your boundaries. It will leave you more refreshed and ready to go, and will stop you feeling like you are working ALL the time but not really getting anywhere.
6. Put a price on your downtime
What is your time worth an hour? (Feel free to hit reply and let me know). Apply this price to your downtime. It is amazing how much of our time gets swallowed up. Next time you find yourself somewhere you don’t want to be, or watching something not that interesting on NetFlix ask yourself is this worth £75 an hour (or whatever your hourly rate is)?
In short you can easily create your time, with belief, intention and focus. It worked miracles for me.
If you enjoyed this article feel free to share this with a fellow therapist who could use more time
