“I don’t have enough time!” Sound familiar? That is something I find myself saying frequently. I often feel like I get up then the whole day is go, go, go. Even during this pandemic at the end of the day, I find myself wondering what in the world I did all day. This feeling of not having enough time is even worse when working full time out of the house. I am not only a photographer but a school-based Occupational Therapist as well. Before I could MAKE more time I had to identify where my time was going. Specifically, what things were the largest time wasters.
I did a time study this past fall. A time study is where you write down EVERYTHING you do in a day in either 15-minute or 30-minute increments. Doing this for a whole week gives you a lot of data. I did this for my whole day and it was very telling. One of the things I noticed is that I am in my e-mail A LOT. Why? I mean really do I have to respond to everything so quickly? The simple answer is no. It’s ok if that teacher needs to wait for me to give her or him ideas for a certain student. It’s ok if my co-workers have to wait to get my availability for a meeting. I RARELY have anything that HAS to be answered ASAP. In all reality, the people that need to get a hold of me quickly also have my cell phone number.
That brings me to my next time suck, which is actually the number one thing that drains my time and energy. The cell phone! You knew I was going there, didn’t you? Have you ever looked at the Screen Time data? I’ve always chosen to ignore it. I’ve been home during this pandemic for a month now. My Screen Time data is downright scary to look at! As I write this here are my statistics. Please don’t judge 🙂
My daily total screen time averaged 2 hours 37 mins A DAY! My weekly total was 18 hours and 25 minutes! Wow, what could I accomplish with an extra 2 hours a day? Let’s be real, I’ll still go on my phone sometimes, but I want to keep it under an hour a day. I tried setting limits on my Facebook time, but it’s really easy to just ignore that warning when it comes up. Next up, how many times I pick up my phone in a week and what that averages to per day!
I picked up my phone a total of 347 times in the last week! You would think I have a critical job where I have to be on my phone. Nope, just home and quarantined with the family and apparently spending a LOT of time on Facebook. My time is VALUABLE. Do I really need to spend so much time on social media?
The other thing I realized during my time study is that I STRUGGLE to stick to ONE THING at a time. Multitasking is a joke and doesn’t really work. I told my husband, Ryan, that whenever I go on the computer to do a task it’s like “squirrel, squirrel, squirrel” the WHOLE TIME! This is what it looks like, “I have to check my e-mail,” squirrel “Look at that sale,” squirrel “I don’t see anything I like here. Maybe I should check another website.” Squirrel, “When is my Amazon Subscribe and Save coming? I better check that and add a few things.” Squirrel, kid comes in, “Mom ____.” Squirrel “I need more water.” I honestly don’t have Attention Deficit Disorder, but it completely looks like I do. Of course throughout this there are numerous phone checks and some replies especially if I get a text message.
So basically that’s my life and my giant time wasters. Here’s how I address each one:
1. Email
When I’m working I check my e-mail AT MOST 3 times a day. Sometimes I don’t check it at all if I have a lot to do. I typically check my e-mail in the morning and at the end of the day. I then check it one other time, usually around lunchtime. That’s it. Setting this limit and being consistent has helped me significantly in my job.
2. Phone
I am doing the following over the next week to see how it goes especially since Spring Break is almost over and I’ll soon be doing two jobs AND helping my kids with their school work.
- Put phone on Do Not Disturb when working AND put my phone in an annoying and hard to reach place so I really have to question if I truly need to look at it
- Designate certain times of day to check my phone (3 times a day such as once in the morning, once after lunch and once after dinner)
- Delete social media apps and LOG OUT of these sites on my web browser
- Put any other distracting apps (including my e-mail and text messenger) in a folder and on my last page
- Put any useful apps such as the timer and calculator on my first page in one folder so they are quick and easy to find
- When I go on my phone, set a timer for say 10 minutes to use it then be done
3. Time Blocking
I’ve been trying this off and on for a couple months. I struggle to time block every minute of my day. However, I can consistently plan “me” time (meditate, read, self-care, TV etc). I can also block off “work” time. Within each work block I can decide exactly what I will work on during that time. Another way to do this is to plan each morning key tasks that need to be done. That way when I work I know what has to be done that day.
I hope this has resonated with you and have given you some ideas about how you can be more productive. Oh and you perfectionists out there, to quote Kara Loewentheil, “you can’t do as much as you think you can, but you can do more than you currently are.” I’m a recovering perfectionist and I have taken this to heart. You can too!