If your project is on the shelf, look at time in some new ways.
Time is finite, you can’t squeeze more than 24 hours out of a day, right? True, but try not to get hung up on that. Here are some ways I use time to my advantage.
1. Harvest small moments
There are dozens of pause moments in every day that vary between one and 10 minutes long. If you’re ready for them, you can harvest these moments to use on your project.
One way I do this is having notes set up in my phone there specifically dedicated to the project I’m working on so every time I have a new thought or idea I’m able to immediately tap it out or dictate it. The new dictation tools on a smartphone are good, they don’t make many mistakes so you can use that text later.
Another way is to keep the tools or reference materials that you need to work on your project in your car. There’s a lot of waiting that goes on sitting in cars, waiting to pick up kids, waiting for appointments, waiting for an oil change.
If you take public transportation, assign yourself small tasks to further while you are on your commute, you can read, write, or do research on your phone. Many people will do small crafts while traveling, there’s no reason why you can’t do small physical tasks while traveling.
The key with harvesting small moments is to give yourself tasks that don’t require deep concentration. It’s pretty likely that you will get interrupted in the small moments so reserve the heavy thought tasks for longer stretches of time.
2. Multitasking the right way
The term “multitask” came from computers, which are able to do hundreds or thousands of tasks simultaneously. Under the right circumstances we can multitask also, two tasks though, that’s it.
Here’s the deal: paired up properly, you can do one physical task that’s automatic at the same time as doing a thought task. You can listen to an interesting podcast while you’re doing the dishes, watch the news while running on a treadmill, or you can have a deep conversation while you’re driving a car in light traffic or a known route. That is all successful multitasking.
The mistake is made when the pairing is wrong, we cannot do two thinking tasks at the same time, one of the tasks must be automatic or reflex. Put another way, we cannot be attentive to 2 things at the same time. For example, that deep conversation in the car will have to go on hold if you’re in heavy traffic or having to make decisions about an unfamiliar route. You can’t mind the traffic and the conversation at the same time, that’s splitting your attention and your brain will short one or the other. People make this mistake all the time and its dangerous.
So go ahead, queue up those thinking and concentration activities with automatic physical ones as much as you want. When you get the pairing right it is very satisfying because you are literally doing two things at the same time.
Think you’ve got it? Try my short multitasking quiz.
3. Be inefficient, on purpose
It’s counterintuitive but set aside time to be still- to ponder and meditate. Being still is different than relaxing or passive entertainment: devices are off, there is nothing in our hands, we are alone. Being still is intentional “not doing”.
Letting time pass without a task changes our perception of time. We start to migrate from “how much time do I have?” to “what is the best use my time?”.
After all, more time does not always benefit us. We’ve all had non-productive days off- we have all day but get nothing useful done. Conversely, just 20 minutes “in the zone” can be enormously productive.
The Navy Seals have a mantra, “Slow is smooth, smooth is fast.” Slow down, think clearly, then do. Their version of intentional “not doing” is in stark contrast to the passive aggressive message we get from the world, “do it all and do it now.” We can send our own message back to the world, “I’m choosing to do less, so I can do more.”
4. Digital declutter
One way to save time is by removing some apps, games, and subscriptions from your life. This can be difficult, you will have to face some of your demons. Many have subscribed to way too many entertainment services, nobody needs to be entertained all the time. If you find that most of your free time is also screen time you need to cowboy up and cancel some services. If you need help, the book “Make Time” by Jake Knapp and John Zeratsky has many practical suggestions.
5. Conserve energy
One way to find time is to still have energy when there is time. One of the reasons people default to passive activities when they have free time is because they are mentally or physically exhausted. Being physically exhausted is straight forward, seven to eight hours of sleep solves it.
Mental exhaustion is sneaky. Mental energy is a finite resource that needs to be recharged every day just like physical energy. If you find that you have zero willpower or focus to work on your project, even though you have plenty of physical energy, it may be that the other activities in your day have fully consumed your mental energy. Identify the activities that take the most mental energy and see if those can be reduced so that you have something left in the tank when you have free time. Here are some common tasks that require high mental load to look for:
A. Delivering bad news. I empathize with telephone support workers that have to deal with or tell customers bad news every day, it must be exhausting.
B. Making difficult decisions or making lots of decisions. Decision fatigue is real and comes in many forms. Think about the last time you went to the ice cream stand that had 50 flavors on the menu, how did your brain like that?
C. Working with a difficult or confusing coworker or boss.
D. Working with a manipulator or gas lighter. My advice, get away as fast as you can. Nothing good comes from hanging out with a manipulator.
E. Constant interruptions. Research has shown there is a “switching cost” when going from one mental task to another. Even if the tasks you are doing don’t require a depth of concentration, switching your attention all day long will burn up mental fuel. Have you ever been working on a task when phone calls and texts keep pouring in? Hard to keep from gritting your teeth, isn’t it?
F. Work that requires concentration like writing a report or analyzing data.
G. Attending meetings, making calls, answering emails. Thoughtful communication takes energy.
Another way to replenish mental energy is to switch to a full-on physical activity after a day of mental exertion. Just 30 minutes of any physical activity like walking, running, dancing, or playing a sport, can be enough to refuel your brain. In theory, you could multitask the right way during your physical activity but I find I don’t always get a full mental reset if I try to pair a thought task during my physical exercise. It’s something you will have to experiment with.
6. Prioritize 15 minutes
If you are having trouble finding time you can still make progress, even if all you can spare is 15 minutes a day. Don’t tell me you can’t find 15 minutes, you can. Most people can find much more but 15 minutes is the lowest bar, find it.
Lay down the law about your 15-minute period of time every single day. Set aside exactly when and exactly where you will use those 15 minutes. Have all the tools you need set in that location so that you don’t have to spend any time gathering materials and then do your 15 minutes, come hell or high water.
If you find that you’re having to work on your project in only 15-minute increments most of the time, then you’ll have to adjust your planning so that tasks are broken into 15-minute increments. For me as a writer I might target writing only one paragraph. But the same can be done for physical activities like finishing a woodworking project, painting, or complex projects like starting a business. It is certainly true that not all of your tasks can be done in 15 minutes, but there’s a lot of smaller tasks that progress your project like making phone calls or measuring the wood that can be done in 15 minutes.
A related approach that is fun to mix in periodically is to give yourself a 10-minute sprint. Pick a task that needs to be done and dedicate 10 focused minutes on that task with a goal of getting as much done as you possibly can. Whenever I’ve done this, I’ve been surprised at how much work gets done.
The reason this works is because we self-impose time pressure. We are used to operating under time pressure: meeting deadlines or getting certain things done before the workday is over. Deadlines focus our attention and push distractions out.
What we are not used to is working productively when we are completely in control. This is why we often sit down to work on something on a day off and we are surprised at how little we get done. When we have all the time we need, we get distracted and let meaningless activities balloon and fill the time.
You can experiment with the length of the sprints, 10 minutes works great for me, but you might find that 20 or 30 minutes is the perfect sprint for you.
7. Body, not mind (for the overworked)
People that work two and three jobs legitimately have no time. If this is you, don’t give up. If one of those jobs is mostly automatic like janitorial work, night shift security, or loading boxes, only your physical labor has to be dedicated to the job. Your mind can do other things.
Look at this quote by Brandon Sanderson, a renowned fantasy author.
“If you wish to become a storyteller, here is a hint: sell your labor, but not your mind. Give me ten hours a day scrubbing a deck, and oh the stories I could imagine. Give me ten hours adding sums, and all you’ll have me imagining at the end is a warm bed and a thought-free evening.”
-Brandon Sanderson From “Tress of the Emerald Sea”
This is a special case of multitasking the right way. If labor is what you do, your mind can do other things. Use some of the techniques from “harvesting the small moments” to create systems for capturing the mental work that you do while you’re doing physical work.
I worked in a metal fabrication shop one summer. All day long I loaded metal sheets into a machine, pressed 2 buttons to punch out the sheet, put the punched sheet on a stack and then loaded a new sheet. In listened to music and talk radio, sure, but some days I composed stories or developed inventions in my head. At lunchtime and in the evening I would “download” what I had been working on to a notebook.
8. Decluttering what you commit to
One source of additional time is decluttering your life. Depending on your personality, you might have said “yes” to too many things.
A rewarding life requires surprisingly little: sufficient food and shelter, self-esteem, a few strong and positive relationships, and a sense of safety. If you find that those needs are met but your life is scheduled to the max, there is probably a lot you can cut out without jeopardizing any of the essentials.
Once you’ve identified some of the things you can safely remove, start practicing different ways of saying “no”. I say practicing because it can be hard to say no. One of my favorite methods when I have too many activities in my life is to say, “no I can’t do that, but here’s what I can do..” and then I fill in the blank with something that is easy for me to do and helps the person.
Often the “no’s” you have to say are to opportunities and invitations. The social media machine that we see everyday foments FOMO. The party, the concert, or the trip pulls at us, not always because we want to go but because it might be epic and what if we missed out? Pick what matters most to you, say “no” to the rest. Time isfinite, pick your battles and kill any message that says, “you can do it all”. You know your weaknesses, delete the channels that feed your FOMO.
To sum up, you’ve got eight new ways to beat time:
1. Harvest small moments
2. Multitasking the right way
3. Be inefficient on purpose
4. Digital declutter
5. Conserve energy
6. Prioritize 15 minutes
7. Body, not mind
8. Decluttering what you commit to
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