Now you should have more energy to get a little more done in the day. This won’t happen overnight though: try to introduce changes to your routine slowly and one step at a time.

Next, you need to look at how you can manage the energy and time you have. One way to do that is to cut back on the things that you don’t want to do or that aren’t helping you get where you want to be. Another is to manage the things you’re already doing.

We’ll start with the latter…

Understanding Your Body’s Rhythms

Just as you can’t fight the fact that you need to rest sometimes, you also can’t fight the fact that your body has natural rhythms, natural ebbs and flows and natural peaks and troughs when it comes to energy.

Thus, one of the most important facets of time and energy management is to know how to time your activities.

For example, when you eat, you will naturally find your feel tired and lethargic. You won’t be able to do anything very active because you’ll be digesting. And as soon as you sit down, you’ll find that it becomes harder to get back up as your body reads this as you giving it a chance to rest.

So in other words, if you’re planning on working out after you’ve eaten, you’re going to find that you’re making life a lot more difficult for yourself.

You come home tired after work but a bit wired, then you cook which takes energy, then you eat which slows you down and then you crash on the sofa and start to feeling dopey. Now you plan to get back up and workout? Right before bed?

Instead, try working out before you come home while you’re still in ‘go mode’ and then you can completely crash after you’ve eaten. This is a much more effective way to manage your time!

In fact, if you want to be even slightly productive after dinner then you should avoid sitting on the couch. Sit at the table so you’re in an upright position and you’ll find it much easier to get up and do a bit of washing up straight after you’ve eaten.

And that in turn means you can wash up more regularly instead of doing it all in one go, in turn meaning that you’ll spend a lot less time washing!

Likewise, learn how long it takes for you to overcome your sleep inertia. If you want to do something useful in the morning, then recognize that it takes X amount of time for you to come around. And try to identify the things that wake you up so you can be more useful in this time. Many of us perform better if we take a shower in the morning for instance. Move the shower forward and you might feel awake sooner, thus allowing you to start being productive sooner!

 

Prioritizing

When someone says to me that they’re going to start a new training program that takes more than a couple of hours a week, I normally answer them by asking what they’re going to give up in order to make time for that training.

Often they then look at me like I’m crazy but in fact it makes perfect sense. It’s safe to assume that you’re currently as active as you can comfortably be. If you’re going to start exercising, then you need to cut back on something else so you have more time and energy.

The same is true if you’re planning on writing a book, starting a new side project or learning a language. If you really want to do that thing, then you need to prioritize it.

I find the easiest way to work this out is to properly budget time and to create a timetable of when I’m going to fit things in. Think about how much time it takes you to feel rested in the evening and make sure that this is still included in your timetable. Then insert all your other commitments and things that consume time: eating, cooking, commuting, playing with family, seeing friends, going to after-work classes, doing important admin.

Now try to find space to insert the things you want to do – whether that’s writing, learning or training. And to do this, you’re going to have to remove some other things.

What’s more, is that you should then treat these plans as being concrete and gospel – as though you had made a social commitment.

In other words, if someone invited you out on Saturday but you were already seeing a friend, you would apologise and say you were busy. Treat your plans to work out or learn Spanish the same. If you’ve booked yourself in to do that on that day then just apologise again and say you’re busy!

This may mean that you’re now spending a little less time with friends. Or it might mean that you have to give up something you want to do – but the point is you only have so much time and you need to prioritize.

But you know what you should really think about changing? Work!

Work is a big ugly commitment that currently takes up 8 hours a day and that you probably don’t enjoy. Now you see that it is affecting your health, your family time and your ability to pursue new goals. And that just isn’t right…

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