Get Your Time Back- 3 Things You Do Daily That Steal Your Time

Get some tea or coffee, sit back, and imagine this:

You wake up feeling refreshed and you’re looking forward to your day. You make your cup of coffee and spend some time doing your favorite morning routine. You leave for work and get there with a little time to spare as you look forward to a new project you’ll be starting today. At the end of your work day you leave promptly at closing then head to the gym to take that class you finally decided to try and have absolutely loved for the past few months. Afterwards, you get home, have dinner, and hang out with your family before doing a few chores and going through your night time routine and going to bed. You fall soundly asleep in just a few minutes knowing you’ll get your full 8 hours of shut eye. 

Sounds so nice and simple yet pretty unreal, right? Perhaps your thoughts are something like this:

"There’s NO WAY I have time to sit and do a morning routine and I can’t even remember the last time I actually left work when my shift was supposed to end."

"LOL at working out! I could never fit that into my day unless I wanted to get even LESS sleep. There’s just literally not enough time in the day!"

Not having enough time is one of the most common reasons people give me for why they don’t do things like work out, make meals at home, or get adequate sleep. All of these other things are more important and their health and well-being is just gonna have to put up with it. However, doing that long term just leads to them not doing those "more important" things so well and eventually a crash like getting sick, developing a chronic illness, or really struggling with mental health happens and they're forced to take a step back.

You have to find a way to take back control of your time before your body forces it upon you. How do you take control? While that is a multifaceted thing, one of the first things you need to do is figure out what your time suckers are.

Below are 3 of the most common I’ve come across and I bet at least one of them resonates with you…

1. Snoozing your alarm

Your alarm goes off at 6 am and it’s an instant SMACK! The alarm shuts up for a few blessed minutes before EEE EEEE EEEE (can you hear it in your head as you read it?) and once again SMACK! Silence. Repeat 3 more times.

Listen, chickadee (or dude), snoozing is literally doing nothing for you.

It’s not helping you get any more quality sleep.

You’re not going to wake up more well-rested.

You’re likely just pissing off your partner and causing yourself to wake up in a cruddier mood.

Because let’s be real…who enjoys choppy sleep and hearing an alarm repeatedly go off? You might as well just set it for a later time and not break up your sleep. The “previous night you” may have felt motivated to get up earlier, but if “previous night you” was also scrolling until 2 am ya know it’s just not gonna happen.

Here are some questions to ask yourself to figure out what your next steps are:

Do you actually need to get up earlier or do you just feel like you should?

If not, simply set your alarm for the later time you actually get up. You know, that time after hitting snooze 5 times. Don’t get up at 6 am because society says that’s what productive people have to do. Only do what actually makes sense for you.

If you DO need to get up earlier, then what is keeping you from following through?

Are you staying up too late the night before? Do you dread going to your job? Do you just say you’re not a morning person? Each of these things are going to require different steps to bring about change. It could be as simple as working your bed time back to an earlier time or as challenging as finding a new job that you don't hate. But you can’t make a change until you know what’s causing the issue, because it’s not just lack of self-discipline or willpower that’s keeping you from getting up. Truly. It's not.

Now on to the next super common time thief...

2. Thinking and talking about all of the things you need to do

This one probably sounds weird, but just think about it for a sec. How many times have you thought about all the things you need to do, written down all the things you need to do, talked about what you need to do, hyper analyzed your calendar trying to schedule all the things you need to do…but you didn’t actually do any of the things. 

Nothing a glass of wine can't fix...right?

I'll be the first to raise my hand. This is me! I will think and talk about what I need to do or focus on how I have so many things to do. I'll go over my calendar multiple times trying to figure out when I'll fit things in. I'll finally try to work on something, but I'll end up should-ing myself the whole time about another thing on my list. I’ll journal about it. I’ll question what the right thing to do is. And then I just overwhelm the shiz out of myself and end up procrastinating or doom scrolling. 

Feel me on this? Yeah, I know ya do.

The time we’re spending overthinking and talking about how we don’t have time is time we could be using to get things done.

I'm going to repeat that because you need to let it really sink in:

Here are some questions and tips to bring clarity and help you DO THE THINGS:

Do you actually NEED to do all the things you say you do?

Or do you feel like you should because of societal standards or your MIL making comments or because you keep comparing yourself to others? Do what is relevant to you and what you want for your life. Heck everyone else!

Where do you need to start setting boundaries and telling people (and yourself) no?

Maybe it’s not working when you’re off the clock. Maybe it’s saying yes to less after school activities and functions. Maybe it’s telling yourself no to one more episode. 

Once you’ve narrowed down what is truly essential...

Which items are the most important and actually need done now?

Look at your  list of things and take 5 minutes (max! Don’t let this turn into overthinking and overanalyzing!) to group things by importance. Keep in mind that putting something in a “not right now” grouping doesn’t mean it isn’t important on some level, it simply means it’s not the highest priority right now. And since you have it written down you can let it go and put your focus on what you actually need to focus on. 

This part is the most absolutely important part…GO DO THE THING!

If you notice that you start should-ing yourself (aka debating whether you should be focusing your time on something else) cut off the thought and continue what you're doing. Notice the thought and kick it to the curb. If it helps, you can write the thing down and then keep doing what you're doing that way you for sure won't forget.

And on to the last super common time stealer...

3. Scrolling on your phone

I’m going to hazard a guess that you’ve been guilty of scrolling waaayyy too much on your phone. Have you ever looked at that "week in review" thing on your phone that tells you how many hours you've spent on it? It shows the top apps you've used and how long you were on them. If you're like me you might just cringe a little after looking at it some weeks.

HARD TRUTH: It’s not a good reason for why we can’t do things.

I’ve listened to a client go on and on about how they didn’t have time for things because there were just too many of them. I’d also see them post things on Facebook throughout the day-enough that I knew it wasn't just an every now and then hop on social media. I get this can happen with overwhelm and it could be a slip into doom scrolling or procrastination, but even so, becoming aware of this and making the effort to stop it is key to getting your time back.  

Don’t let scrolling on your phone be the reason you don’t achieve your goals. Don’t let it be why you remain overwhelmed and stuck.

A question to ask yourself:

Why are you spending so much time scrolling?

Is it because you’re bored? Are you avoiding doing a certain task? Have you essentially been overwhelmed into inaction? Finding out what the issue actually is will help you figure out what you can do about it. Maybe you need to try a new hobby. Maybe you need stop blowing up a certain task in your head way bigger than it actually is. Maybe if you're overwhelmed you need to go back to number 2.

Below are some tips to help you reduce the scroll:

-Set boundaries for social media and scrolling on your phone- Try setting a time limit or only checking socials at certain times of day. I’ve had a client that only let herself scroll on Tik Tok when she was walking on her treadmill. 

-Use an app or setting in your phone that restricts usage after a certain time. 

-Pair your time online with something productive. For example, watching YouTube while working out or cleaning your house, etc. 

We can’t get any more time than we’re given. All we can do is manage ourselves within time.

Don’t give your power away to your phone. 

And I’ll bet if you spend less time on your phone, not only will you get more time back, but your stress and anxiety levels will go down because you have more time to do other things. Just think about the sense of accomplishment you'll feel checking things off your list! Plus, you’re not constantly exposing yourself to the onslaught of crazy that is social media right now, which in itself will reduce stress and anxiety.

Did any of these resonate with you? If so, know that you’re definitely not alone! 

Helping people reduce anxiety and stress is what I do as a coach. If any of the above 3 things are challenges for you let me help you out with my SNAP Method. The goal is to SNAP before you snap! 😉

Together we’ll get to the bottom of what’s holding you back and you’ll learn the tools and techniques to unstick yourself and reduce your anxiety and stress. Sign up for a free consultation by emailing me at janna@jl-wellness.com