Today’s show is about time management and more specifically one question and one excuse I hear most often.  “How do you have time to do it all” and “I don’t have enough time”.  Both of these have the same root cause and that is aligning your actions with your Goals and Vision for your personal, professional and spiritual life.

“How do you have the time to do it all”. 

I frequently hear this from friends, family and peers right after then tell me how awesome their weekend watching football was or asked me if I caught the most recent episode of Game of Thrones, Empire, Walking Dead, etc.  My answer is that I cut out all the noise and optimize my time.  I’m actually pretty excessive about it and something I need to work on because when my schedule gets messed with I get a bit cranky.  Sorry honey!  The very first thing I do is make sure whatever I’m doing lines up with the vision of what I want my personal, professional and spiritual life to be.

Here are a number of things I do, or have done, to free up more of my time for work, family and exercise.

1. Schedule Everything. If it isn’t on the schedule it doesn’t get done.  Workouts, time NOT working, etc.
2. Be very selective of the meetings you take. I use a tool called ScheduleOnce that only allows 30-minute time blocks for people to schedule time with me and that’s only after I’ve validated it’s a good use of my time. Aligns with my goals/vision.
3. Cut out nearly all TV. This is a big one for most people.  If I watch/listen to sports it's while running or riding my bike.  How much time do you spend watching TV.  Be honest with yourself, I bet it will shock you when you add up those hours.  I do have a guilty pleasure of watching the Walking Dead.  I so bad want to have a samurai sword.  But I watch it on DVR to cut out the commercials.  I don’t watch the news, I think it actually makes us less intelligent.
4. Eliminate or Reduce Commute time. This has been a game-changer.  If you can control how much you commute and/or the hours that you do, you can save so much time in the car.   Traveling off hours (really early) makes a big difference.  When I am in the car, podcasts and audio books.  I have a mobile university as Bill Roth, a business coach I work with, says.  Being on top of sports radio vs. listening to a book to help me be a better father, husband, business person and friend is an easy choice.
5. I have a great team that helps me. I struggled with this for a long time but over the past few years, I’ve really focused on delegating tasks that I don’t need to work on (bookkeeping, all design, all programming, social media, writing/editing (I suck at writing), general admin tasks, etc.).
6. I do a lot of little things.
   1. I batch all work. Same type of work together
   2. Turn off phone, close email
7. And I do a lot of ridiculous things…but they add up.
   1. Only take right-hand turns (get gas, make a stop, etc.)
   2. I usually wear slip on shoes
   3. I’m follically challenged but keep my hair really short and low maintenance.
   4. I refuse to go to Walmart for many reasons but time is a big one
   5. I pick my clothes out left to right in the closet
   6. I try to eat nearly the same thing every day
   7. You get the point…

There’s one thing that makes me more productive but it takes time out of the day which is counterintuitive.  But that’s working out.  I trained for an Ironman last year and I had my best year ever.  I was more focused, more intentional with what I spent my time on and had more energy.  It's funny really.  Up to 20 hours of exercise per week (not including prep and cool down) and it was my best year ever.  I know now, I made a lot of excuses on why I couldn’t do something and especially when that excuse was time-based.

I could go on forever on time-saving tips (surfing facebook, what do you do during your lunch hour, etc.) but the takeaways are schedule everything, cutting out the TV and get exercise.  You’ll be amazed at the results.

The second thing I hear frequently is “I don’t have enough time”.

99% of the time I can call BS on this.  It all comes down to priorities.  It’s totally fine if your priorities are different than mine but you have to be honest with yourself and really look at what you spend your time on.

The bottom line is that you prioritize watching TV over getting a workout in.  You prioritize listening to talk radio over listening to a Podcast or audio book.  You prioritize dicking around on Facebook over closing the laptop and helping your kids with homework.  We all do this.  I’ve been massively guilty of this in the past.  Ironman training has a funny way of making you grow and time management is one way.

How can you fix it?  I think it can be really easy.  Start with your goals and vision for your personal, professional and spiritual life.    Then ask yourself when you go to do something, does this align with my goals and vision?

For example, is my goal to be able to regurgitate the stats from last weeks Bronco game or regurgitate which celebrity is in trouble for doing something stupid?  Or is my goal to be a better dad and I listened to a great book on fatherhood.

We all have the same amount 24 hours in a day to get things done.  Some choose to use them to their advantage.  Others don’t.  The good news is the choice is yours.

One note before I go, there are some things you can’t “time save” and that’s quality time with your family and your diet.  Hitting the “drive through” on either one of those will end badly.