Life is all about trade offs.
You are free to spend your time doing whatever your heart desires. Only you can determine what goals you will make and whether you will succeed or fail at meeting them.
If you feel like you don’t have enough time to do what you love then it’s time for you to start making trade offs. You don’t have time to do everything. But you do have time to do what you love. Remember, there are only twenty four hours in a day. If you want to live a more productive, fulfilled life you need to cut the fluff.
Here are four things you can do right now to cut out the unimportant and make more time to do what you love.
Delete Your Facebook Account
Yep, I went there.
Facebook is the most unproductive time suck there is. It’s easy to get caught up in other people’s business and before you know it an hour has passed. Facebook is the one thing you can get rid of that will immediately free up some time – time you didn’t even know you were wasting.
I deleted my Facebook account a while back and it felt so liberating! Everyone keeps telling me to reactivate my account because “I don’t know what I’m missing.” But in fact I do know what I am missing – an unproductive waste of time.
Get Rid of Cable TV
Yep, I went there again.
TV in moderation is not a bad thing. It can help you unwind after a long hard day. However, what starts out as innocent moderation tends to lead to addiction. I haven’t had cable for a year and I absolutely love it.
Not only do I have more free time to do what I love, but my kids are more active. Instead of being glued to cartoons they are now using their imaginations to play and are learning.
Once you adjust to life without TV you will begin to realize the amazing power it has on your productivity.
Make a Schedule
Want to know a sure fire way to make time for what you love? Pencil it in.
Create a loose schedule according to your goals. You’d be completely surprised to find out that there really is enough time to do all of the important stuff. You just have to be willing to cut out the unproductive time sucks, even if they are somewhat entertaining.
For me, making a schedule helps me stick to my goals. It takes me less than five minutes to write down what I want to do for the day and that list keeps me on track.
Do Must Do Tasks First
There are some things in life that you just have to do. Going to work, cooking meals, and taking care of the house are just a few. If you have something important and urgent that has to be done for the day, do it as soon as you possibly can.
Eat your frog first thing in the morning. After you get the important, urgent stuff completed you have the rest of the day to do what you love.
It’s All Up To You
We all have the same twenty four hours in a day. We just use those hours differently. If you have been complaining that you don’t have enough time to do what you love, the truth is that you really do. You just have to be willing to give up the unproductive time sucks to get where you want to be.
You only have one life, make it count!
How do you make time to do what you love?
Wow extreme ideas… but I like them!!!
Some people find it very difficult to limit themselves to the above – especially Facebook and TV
Thank you.Yeah sometimes you’ve gotta be different to make time for what you love and accomplish your goals.
I have a facebook account but barely ever use it. We’re also getting rid of DirectTV. I barely ever use it. On your last point, I would argue that as much as possible you should do the important stuff first, not the urgent stuff. The urgent stuff will get done eventually, but if you’re always chasing what’s urgent you’ll have a tough time making time for the things that are important.
I agree with you on the last point. That may not have come across how I meant it to. I guess what I am trying to say is do the important that has to be done right now. Like if you have a deadline for a project due tomorrow, then you need to finish it. Or if you haven’t done laundry in a week and you don’t have any clean clothes to wear, get the laundry done. Put simply do the things that absolutely can’t be avoided and get them over with. And focus the rest of your time on the things that will bring the most value to your life.
Hey, nothing says , ” I love you”, like clean underwear.
Right? lol
I wish I could delete my facebook account, but it’s really the only connection I have to some of my contacts :/ I also use it for my website so deleting it really is not an option. I think tackling some of the “must do” tasks is incredibly important for managing time properly!
Just as long as you aren’t addicted to Facebook there’s probably not a problem. I know people who get on Facebook every five minutes on their phone. Drives me nuts!
Love this, Alexa! This lines up real well with a Yahoo Finance article I talk about today outlining the daily habits of wealthy people. You’re on your way, my friend! 🙂
Thanks, Laurie!
Great article and so true! I completely agree with you about FaceBook and Cable. I cancelled Facebook about 2 years ago and amazingly, I’m still able to commuicate with friends and family! Although I do have a page for my blog, Monica On Money, but I only use that part of Facebook
Without Facebook I communicate more with the people I actually want to talk to instead of a bunch of random people. Real friends and family will keep in touch even if you don’t have Facebook.
Great post! I am guilty of more than one…or 2 of these. While I won’t delete my facebook, I do plan on limiting my time on there to a more reasonable amount. I’ve fought the cable TV fight with the Mr. and lost, but I don’t want that much of it. I am more glued to Lost on Netflix right now, haha!
When I was married I always lost the TV battle, too. So, I know where you are coming from.
It amazes me how much time people spend on Facebook. My mom loves to play games on there constantly (she’s addicted). I rarely look at it, I just don’t find it interesting. I also limit the amount of TV I watch. I find that my excuse is just being too tired when I come home from work to be productive. I hate it! I somehow need to mentally slap myself to get motivated to do things, but it’s hard when I just want to relax. I think your tip on getting things done early on is a good one for me! I just need to wake up earlier.
I am often amazed by some of the people I know who are addicted to Facebook, too. There are a lot of them! I am tired a lot when I come home from work too. I have been eating healthier the past month or so and I feel more energetic already.
Nooo! Not my facebook account! =) You know I rarely check my account when I didn’t have a smartphone (which was last year), but now that I have one it is so easy to go to the app and look at updates. I should delete that app! I never had cable, and it being the summer time, there is nothing good on TV so I’ve been more productive. As for doing Must do tasks first, I have trouble with that when the must do tasks are the most time consuming/complicated…I start doing other tasks that aren’t as high on my priority list.
Even when I had cable there was never anything good one. Yep, that Facebook App will get ya for sure!
This was a great article for me to read today! I want to be working on my side hustles (no deadline) but I need to be working on other things that have a deadline of the 31st. I guess I better get to work 🙂
You can do it, Ney!
I deactivated my Facebook account once but got sucked back into the trap. I don’t use it all that much to be honest but it does still hinder productivity. Don’t let them get you 🙂
That’s a great point. I tend to wait until the last minute to get to the tasks that I dread. I need to work on that.
I said goodbye to my facebook a while ago, too! Coming up on a year! Don’t miss it. At all. There’s some people I miss, but I can find out their email etc from a friend who has facebook if I really need/want it. Cable’s been gone almost 2 years. Only miss it for some sports. My to do list is like my Bible…prioritized and all. But the scheduling thing….man, I try. But it’s hard with little kids. We usually end up having to throw it out the window half way through the day.
I have been thinking about deleting Facebook for awhile, but then I worry that I’m going to miss something important! Thinking back on all the important things Facebook has led me to results in… nothing. Maybe I’ll actually let go. 🙂 I realized that my wake-up routine involves lying in bed scrolling through cat pictures or stupid videos to reach the “important” things I MUST know before I get out of bed. Suddenly I realize: Oops, it’s been 20 minutes? I guess I should get ready for work…
This post had me at “delete facebook”. I am also with you on the cable, although, I am still working on my end solution for cable. It is definitely imperative to make the best use of your time.
I am glad you like that lol. Trust me giving up the cable sounds hard at first but after you do it you don’t even notice. I though I would die without cable tv, but my hearts still beatin 😉
I love how real you get in this post. Your ‘hardcore’ strategies help highlight the fact that we really do all own our time by owning our choices. Great post.
Thanks, Julie.
Great list, Alexa! I make to-do lists every day, one for at work, one for at home (split out between blog work and other to-do’s), and prioritize what needs to get done. I do have cable but I’m surprisingly productive when I have something on in the background, whether it’s a game or some TV show, though I do see why it would be beneficial to get rid of. Finally I have Facebook, but the main reason is for my blog! I hardly ever post things on my personal page and I totally agree it’s a huge time suck.
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