How to create more 'being' time
by maximising your 'doing' time - 15 tools that help me
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I have a confession.
I am a late riser, spend the first two hours of my day doing ‘nothing’ and yet – more often than not – I manage to get most of my to do list done.
In today’s column I share 15 tools, prompts and mindsets that help me:
1) beat procrastination
2) maximise both the productivity and efficiency of my doing time
The goal? To create more being time.
If you struggle to get sh*t done whilst also safeguarding your downtime, this is for you.
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I don’t wish to cause alarm, but I thought you should know we are already ¼ of the way through the year. What, already? Yes, already. Time is the slipperiest of things which I have previously written about in how to slow down the passing of time.
I have a bunch of 2024 visions written out and stuck on neon orange backing paper, Blu Tacked above my desk. I frequently glance over this list which micro-influences my day-to-day actions and decisions, without me even realising. I know these sorts of lists aren’t for everyone but I like how they keep me focussed, motivated and ensure I’m always heading in the right direction.
So, how am I tracking? Considering we are already 25% of the way through the year, I most definitely have not checked off 25% of this list. But that’s OK, because life doesn’t really work like that and my year will unlikely be a linear journey.
But looking at these written out aspirations, there is much work to do. Without action, this is just a list of dreams. I once read, ‘the Universe doesn’t give you what you ask for with your thoughts — it gives you what you demand with your actions.’ It resonated.
The doing mentality
I am a doer. I am a big fan of action, of getting stuff done. If I decide something needs to happen, I will put all of my focus and energy into it until it comes to be, or I get really close. Which reflects the 5 life mantras largely responsible for my success.
But that doesn’t mean I don’t struggle with time management. Cultivating the time to do all of the stuff I want and like to do (aka my hobbies, I have many), alongside more general life requirements – like earning money, maintaining relationships, feeding yourself and others – is no easy task.
And one of the universal killers of time is procrastination. Which I am as susceptible to as the next person (my most recent lapse was falling down a YouTube rabbit hole about composting toilets until 1am instead of going to bed when I had an early start).
Over time and much trial an error, I have developed a well stocked time management toolbox. One of the sharpest tools in it is this weekly practice that I believe also inches me closer to my full potential. The rest of the tools help me do two things:
overcome procrastination
be more efficient with my doing time
These result in an increase in my productivity.
My main motivation for increasing my productivity is not to earn more money, grow my output or any other well worn association between productivity and ‘success’.
It’s to free up more time for just being
Because let me be clear, I am in no way suggesting we do stuff all the time. Quite the contrary.
Time to just be is as important to me as time to do. Two hours pass between me waking up and starting my working day (I work from home) because most of that time is spent on just being – it is core to my wellbeing.
The currency of copper penny minutes
If a task would ordinarily take me one hour, but by following the guidelines below I shave off 30 minutes, I chalk that up as having cultivated a whole half hour of free time.
I think of these 30 minutes like 30 copper pennies. In the same way as the change from a £10 note can easily vanish after buying a packet of gum here, a coffee there, these penny minutes are susceptible to disappearing into the ether.
But if you protect the pennies and spend them mindfully in one big 30 minute lump sum, that’s when you will notice and appreciate the gain. You can spend the pennies how you want. I mostly like to cash my minutes in on being time, which often involves watching the bees in the sunshine.
15 tools, prompts and mindsets
And so, here the things I have found that help me beat procrastination and maximise both the efficiency and productivity of my doing time.