How to Gain Control Of Your Free Time

Is anyone else such a nerd when it comes to time management and how successful people manage their calendars? I recently listened to an eye-opening podcast by @bewellbykelly where she speaks with Laura Vanderkam. Laura is an expert in time management and reframes how to think about your time. in weeks, not days — which was mind-blowing for me. It’s simple math. There are 168 hours in the week. Say you work 40 hours a week and sleep 8 hours a night; that gives you 72 waking hours to do other things. So, the question becomes, how do you spend that 72 hours WELL?

Laura’s 9 favorite time management rules

1. Give yourself a bedtime.
2. Plan Your Week on Friday
3. Move by 3 pm
4. Three times a week is a habit.
5. Create a backup slot (build more open space into your life)
6. Have one big and one little adventure a week
7. Take one night for you.
8. Batch the little things – assign small windows to all the mindless things that don’t take a lot of brain power but need to get done.
9. Effortful before effortless (read: social/screens) Do something that your future self will thank you for before doing something your current self feels like doing.

Planning Your Week

Laura’s key to gaining control of your free time is thinking through your weeks before you are in them.

Schedule time with yourself — take a little time to think about your upcoming week and have a plan.

Questions to Ask Yourself —

• What do I need to do?
• Want do I want to do?
• What am I looking forward to?
• What do I not want to do? How can I get rid of that?
• Do I see any crises coming up that I can deal with?
• What would make this a good week?
• And plotting that out with a little flexibility because life happens.
• Make a three-category list — career, relationships, and self. Include 2 to 3 items in each — and see where you can plan them in. When we first put ourselves and the people we love most on our calendar, we shape our lives versus letting the world shape us.

Commit to taking some time every single week, looking forward to the week, setting priorities, and keeping this habit.

We don’t build the lives we want by saving time. We build the lives we want, and then time saves itself. 

Another key takeaway from all her time management studies is that time is highly elastic. We can’t make more time, but time will stretch to accommodate what we choose to put into it. The key to time management is treating our priorities like a broken water heater (If your water heater breaks and floods your basement, you will find the time it takes to get it fixed, call the plumber, clean up company, etc.) Her point is — you can find time for what matters to you. 

I love these best practices AND this reminder from James Clear of Atomic Habits — of the power of tiny changes. So, while these 9 habits are all fantastic, you don’t have to do all or none of them. Start small and focus on being consistent.

“It’s not that hard on any given day, but the trick is you can’t skip days. Your workouts can be reasonable and still deliver results—if you don’t skip days. Your writing sessions can be short and the work will still accumulate—if you don’t skip days. As long as you’re working, you’ll get there.”

— James Clear, Atomic Habits

It’s creating the habit and sticking with it. And the goal of getting 1% better every day. It’s way more my speed than trying to overhaul my entire life.  It’s the little things that add up over time. We just have to be consistent in doing them. 🙂 Here’s to consistent, tiny changes, friends! 

With back to school under control and fall sports and activities starting soon, it dawned on me that I might need to stock up on a few things besides cute dresses and fun school clothes — ha. Below are some cute athletic + active outfits for littles!

I hope you discover something you love!