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Abstract

ed with this, you’ll want to reflect on your time spent during the day, week, or longer. You pick a cadence that makes sense for you. While I’ll generally recommend daily, you might not have the time or headspace for this right now and that cadence may cause overwhelm.</p><p id="bd30">We’re looking for discomfort, not danger. Where there’s discomfort, there’s growth. When this tips into overwhelm or danger, we’re likely to go to our coping strategies and that’s not helpful. Be aware of this, and again, use non-judgemental noticing to gather more insight about yourself and your capacity for change at this moment.</p><ul><li>What do you notice?</li><li>What’s working well?</li><li>What could you stop doing right now?</li></ul><h2 id="aa78">2. Creating more time for what’s important</h2><p id="82c6">This step is all about getting every project, idea, task or activity out of your head and into a place where you can look at things objectively, organise, and streamline. This process allows you to be ruthless with your time…and feel good about it. Here’s how:</p><ol><li>List every current or future project (or goal, activity, and large task) that is taking up space in your head. Make sure each item starts with a verb.</li><li>Next to each item, come up with a compelling reason for doing this thing. Compelling reasons remind us of why the thing is important — this can be especially useful when motivation is low. And if you absolutely cannot come up with a compelling reason, you should not do the thing!</li><li>Decide for each item in the list whether you are going to Do, Delay, Delegate or Dump it.</li></ol><p id="25a1">This step will allow you to clear a path for better thinking in all

Options

that you do. By Delaying items, you mentally free up rent in your head to focus on what you want to Do. By Delegating or Dumping items, you increase capacity to do the things you want right now or in the future.</p><p id="28ec">Doing this step is an absolute game-changer and time-saver. Plus, it’s very fun and rewarding to see exactly how many things were up in there, just pointlessly taking up space. Ahhhh.</p><h2 id="2749">3. Figure out what to do with your time</h2><p id="8267">What good is all this extra time if you don’t know what to do with it?</p><p id="c689">Here’s what.</p><p id="f236">Have a plan for what you do with your day and your week.</p><p id="953c">This is a five-step timeblocking process that starts by answering these five questions:</p><ol><li>What outcomes do I want by the end of this week?</li><li>What tasks will I need to do to create those outcomes?</li><li>How long will each task realistically take me to complete?</li><li>Exactly when should I do each task? (Put it on your calendar!)</li><li>How can I ensure that I show up and follow through on each task?</li></ol><p id="50c4">You’ll get better at this with practice, I promise. In fact, you’ll learn so much about yourself that you’ll be amazed how you ever got even half as much stuff done before.</p><p id="340d"><i>Kim is a life-long overthinker who has overcome many challenges to turn her mental energy into a super skill for getting things done and feeling great about it. She’s on a mission to help others do the same. Join the expert thinkers who are gaining clarity and focus with weekly insights in the <a href="https://witten.kim/holdthatthought">Hold That Thought newsletter</a>.</i></p></article></body>

A 3-step Process for Making the Most of Your Time

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Many people have asked me how I find the time to watch so many films. The secret to my massive productivity is my weekly planning system plus self-coaching. If you want to increase your productivity too —as well as create more time for doing stuff you love — here are three things you need to do:

Honestly evaluate where your time and energy goes
Create more time for what’s important
Figure out the best ways to use all the time you create

Here’s how to think about these in a more effective ways.

1. Evaluate where your time and energy goes

We have ideas in our heads about where our time and energy goes, but until we actually sit down and assess the current reality, this is just a story we’re telling ourselves about our lives. It may or may not be true.

That is, when we know how our time is spent, we can take effective action.

We do this through non-judgemental noticing. The non-judgemental part is important here. We are gathering information, not grading our work.

To get started with this, you’ll want to reflect on your time spent during the day, week, or longer. You pick a cadence that makes sense for you. While I’ll generally recommend daily, you might not have the time or headspace for this right now and that cadence may cause overwhelm.

We’re looking for discomfort, not danger. Where there’s discomfort, there’s growth. When this tips into overwhelm or danger, we’re likely to go to our coping strategies and that’s not helpful. Be aware of this, and again, use non-judgemental noticing to gather more insight about yourself and your capacity for change at this moment.

What do you notice?
What’s working well?
What could you stop doing right now?

2. Creating more time for what’s important

This step is all about getting every project, idea, task or activity out of your head and into a place where you can look at things objectively, organise, and streamline. This process allows you to be ruthless with your time…and feel good about it. Here’s how:

List every current or future project (or goal, activity, and large task) that is taking up space in your head. Make sure each item starts with a verb.
Next to each item, come up with a compelling reason for doing this thing. Compelling reasons remind us of why the thing is important — this can be especially useful when motivation is low. And if you absolutely cannot come up with a compelling reason, you should not do the thing!
Decide for each item in the list whether you are going to Do, Delay, Delegate or Dump it.

This step will allow you to clear a path for better thinking in all that you do. By Delaying items, you mentally free up rent in your head to focus on what you want to Do. By Delegating or Dumping items, you increase capacity to do the things you want right now or in the future.

Doing this step is an absolute game-changer and time-saver. Plus, it’s very fun and rewarding to see exactly how many things were up in there, just pointlessly taking up space. Ahhhh.

3. Figure out what to do with your time

What good is all this extra time if you don’t know what to do with it?

Here’s what.

Have a plan for what you do with your day and your week.

This is a five-step timeblocking process that starts by answering these five questions:

What outcomes do I want by the end of this week?
What tasks will I need to do to create those outcomes?
How long will each task realistically take me to complete?
Exactly when should I do each task? (Put it on your calendar!)
How can I ensure that I show up and follow through on each task?

You’ll get better at this with practice, I promise. In fact, you’ll learn so much about yourself that you’ll be amazed how you ever got even half as much stuff done before.

Kim is a life-long overthinker who has overcome many challenges to turn her mental energy into a super skill for getting things done and feeling great about it. She’s on a mission to help others do the same. Join the expert thinkers who are gaining clarity and focus with weekly insights in the Hold That Thought newsletter.