Enjoying life requires more time, but we often compromise on this to make money and career. Many times we have to choose between choosing a career working reasonable hours and being close to families and friends or moving to another city for more money and prestige. We often end up selecting the latter thinking that enjoyment can come later once you have enough name and money.
When people invest too much time in making money, it is because of the assumption that money will bring them more happiness. However, what they fail to realise is that people with more free time are happier, healthier and more productive than those who work all the time.
Too much work is making many people stressed out having too many things to do and enough time to do them. How do we free up time?
By prioritising, by minimising time-consuming tasks like commuting, social media, long meetings, conversations etc., We must make deliberate choices to protect our free time. There are a few steps recommended here to save time with the ultimate goal of enjoying our work and personal time.
Prioritise important work and keep aside interruptions.
On average, business professionals spend 50% of their weekly time in meetings and most of the meetings were seen as time-wasters. Employees often permit their colleagues to interrupt their work and it takes on an average 20 minutes to get back on track to get to where we were with our task.
To overcome this, block off time on your calendar to take up more challenging work especially when you are energetic and turn off all notifications during that time. learn to say NO to the unplanned last-minute imposition on your time. You may enter into a quick conversation but be strict about saying NO when you are already full with your planned schedule.
Request deadline extensions when required
Employees assume that managers will consider them incompetent if they ask for an extension, but managers may be more than willing to extend deadlines and view those who ask for it as motivated employees who will produce better results.
Throw money at the problem
You can find time to do the work you enjoy, by outsourcing unpleasant activities, or regular repetitive, routine activities. If you removed the most disliked tasks even half the time especially when you are on a tight schedule, it will pay off.
Provide for slack time
Spend your time on doing enjoyable activities but do not add so many activities that you rush around to take it up and end up exhausted. Instead, provide for slack time, maybe 15 minutes, between appointments to allow for spillovers and recouping before the next schedule.
Take vacation don't skip on them
15 minute here and there will not suffice and you need to take long holidays to fully rejuvenate. It helps you recharge your batteries, become more engaged, active, and productive at work. People benefit most when they take time off regularly and when on vacations resist the urge to check office mails, phone calls.
Savour your free time
Consciously appreciate your free time and vacations. Thinking about economic value will undermine our enjoyment of it. We have to disconnect our experience with the expenses since it can never adequately measure its value.
Protecting our time takes careful planning and thought. It takes extra vigilance to guard our time. Understand that time is finite and make the best use of it. We must protect the time we had planned so that we complete the tasks that we had planned for ourselves before we go out and help others in their work.
Want to Be Happier? Make More Free Time
by Dina Gerdeman HBSWK 2020/10
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