It is possible to save more money, watch less television or go to the cinema more often, but stretching out time is impossible. The day has 24 hours and that is something that cannot be changed. However, it is possible to better manage our time.

How do you spend your time?

You may have the feeling that when bedtime comes around, you still have a lot of things left to do, which have been accumulating throughout the day. You can’t find the time to do what builds up and the feeling of not having enough time is more and more anguishing.

A good way to start to manage and spend your time doing what you most like to do, is to make a list of how much time you devote to each task throughout the day. All you need is to make a few notes every day to know what you did when you got up, in the morning, at work, and especially, when you came home, which is your personal time.  

Even though it may seem tedious to take those notes a couple of days a week and during the weekend, you may be surprised to find how much time has been wasted on unnecessary tasks.

Establish priorities

You cannot do it all.  This is a fact you must accept, precisely due to the limited nature of time. That’s why the best you can do is choose exactly what you want to do. Write a list of your priorities, both daily and long-term.  

Spending time with your children each day may be important for you, but you cannot do it because of the combination of your work hours and housework. Or you may really want to dedicate more time to writing a book or learning to play poker.

Compare this list with the notes you took previously concerning how you spent your time. You may again be surprised due to the little time you are devoting to the things that are important to you in life.  

Make your decisions

In order to make room in your daily schedule for the things you want to do, you will have to give up others. Again, paper and pen can help you make your decisions logically and, most important, not regret having made them.

For example, how long do you spend reading the newspaper? Ironing your clothes? Answering e-mails? There are things you can probably do without, or modify. Perhaps reading the newspaper is not as important to you as you thought and you may be able to substitute it for a quick look at the news on the Internet when you get to the office.

But perhaps cooking for your family is very important, even though it may not be one of your passions. Consider how you could do this more efficiently: you could cook larger servings and then freeze them so you don’t have to cook every single day. You could order take-out some nights, share the task with other family members and so forth.  Although we cannot stretch out time, there is always a way to accommodate our tasks.

There is a saying: “where there is a will, there is a way”. If the lack of time is preventing you from reaching a personal goal, there is surely a way to accommodate your daily schedules to make room for what is really important.