How To Fit 20 Hours Into A 10 Hour Workday

How To Fit 20 Hours Into A 10 Hour Workday It started with a reader wondering if wed write a very specific post: @It was very helpful, thank you so much. Can your next post be how to fit 20 hours into a 10 hour working day? Thanks again! Jeff Guest (@JeffGuestDesign) February 18, 2014 It sounded like a great topic. Id love to be able to get more done each workday myself, and I figured that if I wrote about it, maybe Id learn something important in researching. This is not helpful, I thought as I read articles and blog posts telling me how to hack my day and squeak more work out. The articles all had some clever trick, some useful tools, the greatest app ever to increase productivity (usually only available on iOS, this Android user noticed), but nothing in particular stood out. Much of it was based on what worked for the writer (which, alas, is where I fear this post will eventually end up, too), but I wanted something more universal, or something with a bit of research behind it. And then I finally realized the obvious: Fitting 20 hours of work into a 10 hour day is impossible.  You cannot stretch, bend, or add to the time in your day. This question was not really one asking me to mess with the time-space continuum, or to find ways for people to work harder. The truth is, you dont actually want to cram 20 hours of work into a 10-hour day. What you really want is a 10-hour day (or even eight). You want more of your time back to yourself, but you still have work that has to get done. You dont want more hours in the day. You want to work less, live more.This was a question of balance of work and life with a limited amount of time. How can I make the best use of my time while working, and how can I make the best use of my time when Im not working? Lets answer the former first, because without that figured out, the latter (non-work time) will be sacrificed and not exist at all. What Youll Do During Your Workday You cant really save time; theres no bank where you save it and can later use some when youre running short. But you can use time better as you travel along with it so you reach the point when your time is finally yours to control all that much earlier. Blogger Gregory Ciotti does a fantastic job of digging into the psychology of getting things done. 1. Break your time into specific chunks. By setting aside specific time periods, you preserve the sanctity of them. In other words, if you say that you will write for 30 minutes, this means you will not let other duties happen during those 30 minutes. If youll do research or find posts to curate for 30 minutes, thats all youll do. Why is this helpful? Some scientists believe we dont have unlimited willpower (ego depletion), and that the longer we slog away at something the more likely well fail. We burn through limited willpower. If you get into the habit of breaking your time into chunks, you dont rely on willpower. You rely on the disciplined habit of time chunking, after which you can take a break (a reward, which replenishes you), and the do the next thing. Forget willpower; build habits instead. Work. Stop. Break. Work. Stop. Break. Etc. Have a place to take a break. Have something to do on that break that doesnt involve a bad habit (unhealthy snacking) or work. Be sure you get back to work after the break is completed. It might seem like youre burning through time not doing anything, but you will find that at the end of the day, youll have at least the same amount done (if not more) and not feel nearly as burned out and tired. 2. Be deliberate, and do the hard stuff first. Recognize this scenario? You have several writing projects you need done for tomorrow, your time is limited, youre stressed about it, and so you determine that this is the perfect time alphabetize all of your books. I do this constantly. Big project, its terrifying, its imminent, I decide to wax the floors. We want to feel like we accomplished something, and we also tend to avoid anything thats difficult. So, we find some kind of easy busy-work that makes us feel like we were working and alleviate a bit of guilt. All we did, of course, is ensure wed be in a panic and eventually exhausted in order to meet a deadline, leaving us feel like we dont have enough time to get our work done. Do the hard stuff first. Get it done. The little things take care of themselves. 3. Admit you are a terrible multi-tasker. If youve ever thought of yourself as a great multi-tasker, able to do lots of things at once, youre lying to yourself. Studies have shown again and again that we do not multi-task. We multi-ignore. We multi-forget. We multi-disorganize. We multi-fixate. We get multi-overwhelmed and multi-gaze off into space. The truth is, people work best on one thing at a time, otherwise we lose our focus, we make irrelevant things important, and we cant organize our thoughts well. Work on one blog post at a time. Work on one content marketing project at a time. Start it, see it through. Dont pick up another in the midst of it. Youll do everyone a disservice by the time youre done. Give yourself permission to dive into a project, full immersion. Do not fall for the trap of feeling like youve accomplished a lot just because you multi-tasked.