Productivity Life Hacks: How to Break Up With Busy For More Me Time
It’s a hard thing to admit, but we all can get busy. But what if it could be as simple as making one change? In this blog post you’ll learn how to stop being busy and enjoy life more.
The first step is admitting that you’re too busy. Then, take time for yourself by doing something just for fun! And finally, have a plan in place so that the next time life gets crazy, you know exactly where to go from there. It may seem difficult at first, but with these eight steps, it will become easier and easier over time!
“Do you find yourself feeling constantly busy? Do you feel like there is never enough time in the day to get all that needs done? You’re not alone! In this blog post, I will give tips on how to stop being so busy. So grab a cup of coffee and read on!”
1 Practice saying “no”
This is a struggle for so many people, especially women that I know. You just don’t want to upset someone by saying no. Or you can’t bear to not be there for someone even if the cost is your physical or mental well-being.
Let me tell you, it is ok to say no sometimes. If you don’t have the time or space in your life then politely and kindly turn down what is being asked of you.
2 Set boundaries for yourself and stick to them
This goes along with learning to say no. I truly believe that your life gets better when you get clear on your boundaries and set them.
I suffer from a lot of anxiety and I have had to set boundaries with people in my life that set off my anxiety. Whether they mean to or not.
I had to learn to restrict my time with people who trigger my anxiety. there are people or obligations in your life that are not serving you in some way and it’s ok to limit your time with them.
It doesn’t make you selfish or a bad person. It makes you aware of what you need and willing to take care of yourself which is so important.
3 Prioritize your activities based on how important they are, not how urgent they seem
This is so important just because something is urgent doesn’t mean it’s the most important thing for you to do. Some things are urgent just because they have a deadline but the task won’t actually improve your life.
Too often other people make us feel that tasks are urgent and must be done. W e start prioritizing things based on other people priorities and time lines. When we need to remember that it’s important to prioritize things on out time schedule and what is best for us and our family.
4 Get enough sleep – eight hours is recommended by the National Sleep Foundation
I want you to break up with being busy because being too busy is bad for your health. One way it really impacts your health is when you don’t get enough sleep. You are going, going, going and don’t take the necessary hours to recharge your brain and body with rest.
Sleep is crucial to your health and well being and cutting down on sleep to get more done will hurt you in the long run. You might have more hours to do things if you sleep less but you won’t be working at your best.
So make time to get enough sleep. Figure out what your body needs to run at its best and make sleep a priority. It will benefit you in so many ways.
5 Exercise regularly, even if it’s just 10 minutes of walking each day
Even though adding exercise may feel like just adding another task to your never ending todo list. This is one that is worth it. Exercise, even a little bit will help you sleep better, lower your stress and anxiety and make you more productive.
So you are trading a little bit of effort for being able to get more done more quickly because you will feel at your best.
I’m not a big fan of exercise but moving more has helped me feel better and let anxious which allows me to be a better wife, mom, and entrepreneur.
6 Get rid of distractions like social media, TV, or the internet when you’re trying to work
You might feel that you are so busy but how much time are you wasting to common time wasters like TV, your phone or the internet?
This can especially be a time waster if you are using them during other tasks like work or chores. Why because of something called context switching.
Most people are under the misconception that multitasking is helpful to productivity when in reality it really isn’t helpful to your productivity.
Here is some information from Rescuetime about context switching to help you understand it better.
According to psychologist Gerald Weinberg, each extra task or ‘context’ you switch between eats up 20–80% of your overall productivity:
- Focusing on one task at a time = 100% of your productive time available
- Task switching between two tasks at a time = 40% of your productive time for each and 20% lost to context switching
- Task switching between three tasks at a time = 20% of your productive time for each and 40% lost to context switching
And just how much are you switching? One study found most people average only 3 minutes on any given task (and only 2 minutes on a digital tool before moving on).
7 When deciding whether or not to do something new, ask yourself if it will make your life better in the long run
If you really want to stop feeling too busy then you need to better prioritize what you do with your time. No one has enough time to do everything that could be done. So what you chose to spend your time on matters in making your life better.
So when you have a new task come up that needs to be done. It’s important to ask yourself is doing this task really worth your time in the long run.
Will doing this task make your life better, more enjoyable and will doing this be worth your time. If it’s not or you aren’t sure then is it worth adding to your schedule or todo list?
Now we don’t only get to do things that we enjoy, I understand that, sometimes we have to do things we don’t want to do because some important things are not enjoyable but necessary.
Such as laundry, cleaning, grocery shopping, etc. These are things you may not want to do but that still need to be done. Sometimes things come up though that you are asked to do that are just not a priority to you. That’s when you are going to want to learn to say no or delegate these tasks to others.
8 Schedule more downtime into your day
The first step to feeling less overwhelmed is scheduling more down time in your day. Schedule some morning or evening activities so that you can catch up on sleep and relaxation after working hard all day, especially if it’s been a long week at work. Find time in your schedule for things you enjoy so that you can feel more relaxed and balanced. So that it’s not just go go go all the time.
The key to having a productive day is breaking away from being busy. We all have the same 24 hours in a day, but some of us are more successful at managing it than others. In order to help you get on top of your time management skills and finally stop feeling so busy, here are 8 tips for making this happen! There’s no need to feel overwhelmed or tired any longer when we offer free tools that will allow you to manage your time better. Sign up today and start building a life with less stress by taking back control over how much work gets done each day.
