Getting Organised - How to Find Free Time in a Busy Schedule

One thing that just gets harder and harder to find is free time. Our commitments, work, social life and relationships are all incredibly important to us, yet for many, it becomes harder to manage. In order to make the most out of your time, it’s incredibly important to get yourself organised and develop habits and systems that not only make you more efficient but allow you to squeeze the most out of every minute.

Getting Organised
It all comes down to proper organisation and preparedness
A common misconception with timetabling, calendaring and time management in general, is to try and organise your day so that even 1 second isn’t free. I know that I used to do this and still sometimes find myself doing this. As important as work and productivity is, sometimes a little bit of space and freedom can actually help you become more productive. 

For example, Google is one such company that takes this philosophy and runs with it. Whilst their employees are given work and deadlines to meet, google has given them a little bit of freedom and space to do their own thing, whatever that comes to mind. Called the ‘20% Time Policy’ google allows their employees to work on other projects that 'they think will benefit google' apart from their current projects. What this has culminated has been incredibly important products for google including Adsense, Gmail and Google News. On top of these creative contributions, workers were more efficient and productive due to this creative freedom that was allowed.

The best way to incorporate this flexible scheduling and still maintain the productivity in your life in order to find free time is proper organisation.  Here are my top 4 organisational tips to help you find more free time in the day: 

Prioritise and Routine your life. 

Routine
Organisation is as much about prioritisation as it is about setting out a regular routine

As much as I wish I could disagree this is the truth. We are all creatures of habit. We all hate change and we like to keep to our routines and habits. Whilst this might seem like an obstacle in finding free time, it can actually be your biggest advantage. Taking advantage of our need for routine can help you become more efficient.

Change your process of task completion so that you are completing tasks one by one, particularly tasks you can easily finish right now. It can not only help reduce your workload and stress but also will help you finish other tasks faster, giving you that extra time in the day. As a general rule of thumb, multi-tasking is impossible. If you want to get something done, more importantly done well, multi-tasking won’t help you in this regard. Focussing in on one task at a time will help you free up some time and makes sure that you are using your time well. 

Take a minute to breathe. 

thinking clearly
It's important to take a breath every now and then to clarify your thinking
It might look like a wasted minute in a schedule but it can really help you with your efficiency. In our modern day, breaks, rests and space are all seen as attributes of laziness and a lack of productivity. However, than can be core drivers of what makes people more productive in the long run. 

If you are unable to take a break, you’ll wear yourself out and over time, you’ll become less efficient at your work. Sooner or later you'll find yourself either in tunnel vision or having work eating up every second of your day. Stopping, taking a step back and breathing will not only provide you with focus and clarity but will also give you the time to regain the energy and motivation to finish the task at hand. 

Use the tools at your disposal. 

tools at your disposal
Technology can help you become a more productive and efficient person 
I work in groups a lot and what I have found is that digital calendars that sync with one another such as google calendar have really helped me. Beyond just organising meetings, using a collaborative calendar tool has forced me to become more aware of my use of time, particularly as other people are able to see the use of it. Social influence is a great way to motivate yourself to become more efficient.

There are other collaborative applications out there that can help improve your efficiency and productivity if you're working in teams as well. My two favourite are Asana and Slack. Asana helps me delegate roles and set deadlines (which in itself forces me to use my time more wisely) and slack, as a separate messaging application requires me to be more aware of my communication channels. Both of these have the same effect as something like google calendar - if other people can see what you’re doing, you’re more likely to be more efficient and productive due to this social and internal reflection. 

Ask for Help 

Finding free time by asking for help
Asking for help and then helping out others will help you and those around you free up time
Sometimes we really just need some assistance. There's no shame in that. What we need to give up is control and for many people, that in itself is the difficult part. However the benefit is double fold. Not are you able to complete a task quicker with the help of someone, who may be more knowledgeable than you but if you help them out in return, you’ll both end up with more free time. 

In addition to this, this attitude of understanding what you’re strengths lay at where you need to improve can provide you with a more stable and considered mindset. 



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