Cam at university

You know those people who work full-time, raise children, volunteer, keep house, paint, sing, garden, and do yoga six days a week? There seem to be a lot of these productive people around, but I’m saddened to report that I’m not one of them.

But although I’m no time management expert, I have spent a lot of time thinking about this topic and I do use some tactics that you might find useful in creating more free time in your own life. Or to put it in a different light, to accomplish more of the things you want to spend time on.

As I was growing up and becoming an adult, I struggled with the expectations that I put on myself. I wanted to be a top student (then later a valued employee), cellist, weekend curler, wonderful girlfriend, attentive granddaughter, supportive sister, good friend, healthy eater, active exerciser, and an avid blogger.

How to maximize your free time

After many stressful fits of crying and feeling overwhelmed with the stress that I put on myself, I came to some serious insights about time-management:

  • If you’re like me, you can’t do it all. (Or maybe you can do it all, but not everything is going to be done perfectly.)
  • How do you deal with the fact that can’t do it all to the level that you want? You have to prioritize. And I mean this literally. You have to sit down with a pen and paper, and write down the tasks and experiences that take up a lot of your time. Then you need to make another list of the things that you wish were taking up your time.
  • Next, you’ve got to get brave. You’ve got to merge your two lists together and bump some items up…and bump some items down to the bottom of the list. (Beware, this part’s gonna hurt.) For me, I have almost always bumped home-making and cleaning to the very bottom of my list. I’m not happy about it, but I had to prioritize. And fulfilling my own creative aspirations (such as this blog, playing music, etc.) has been more important to me than vacuuming once a week (is that how often normal people vacuum?). Everyone’s priorities are different. That’s why you’ve got to make your list, which will reflect what’s important to you.

There’s something about putting your life down on paper–and realizing how much time you spend on each task–that’s really eye-opening and encourages you to make changes and see your schedule in a different light.

I made a list about two years ago and it changed my life.

For example, looking at my list, I realized that I spent a lot of time getting ready in the morning, most of which was spent doing my hair. (Don’t laugh! This is serious business!) Making my list eventually led to me cutting my long hair short.

Laura-Jane with short hair

My hair has since grown back, but cutting my hair was just the beginning for me.

After taking a look at my list, I realized that there was just no time for exercise, even though I wanted to bump it up higher on my life-list. “There are too many other tasks already taking up my day,” I thought, “especially that long drive to work! Nope, no time for exercise…”

“Hmm, wait a minute,” I thought, “that long drive to work that sucked up all my time… What if I just rode a bike to work instead?”

I made the decision to ride my bike to work on a daily basis (45-minute bike commute each way) as a direct result of making this list.

My road bicycle

For a while I was happy with the changes that I made, and they definitely improved my work/life balance. But six months later we found ourselves making another list together, which ended up with us starting the whole journey that we’re on: moving across the country and all that jazz that we’re doing these days.

Now that our lives are totally different, I’ve revamped my list once again. Right now I have bumped “being creative” to the very top of my life-list, and I am happier than I’ve ever been.

But, like any list, when you bump something up to the top, something else gets bumped down. Right now, cleaning is (still) at the very bottom of my priority list. People often ask me how I find the time to keep this blog going, and I answer, “Have you seen my house? It’s a mess!”

Seriously, it’s true. I credit all of my achievements to overflowing laundry baskets and dusty knick-knacks.