How Do I Find Time for Things Other than my Day Job?
Here are a few tricks that worked for me on how to allocate time to something other than my job. They are really mostly psychological, as in my experience, this was my real main blocker.
It didn’t make me an expert in any of the topics, but I have a lot to tell anyone who is asking “what have you been doing?” (Now i can even say that in 6 different language - maybe on some of them with a few grammar errors)
1. Choose yourself
Many times we think making compromises for others is better than choose ourselves but we fail to see how this turns us into sad, depressed, unmotivated and potentially aggressive persons which ultimately won’t help anyone
2. Decide and act
Many times we spend an enormous amount of time in weighting the pros and cons of doing something and we end up not doing anything as we waisted all the energy on too much planning.
Decide what is the most appealing on your wish list and act on it immediately! if you don’t like it you will find out, at least know you know (no more what ifs)
3. Commit on a date and time
if you are like me, committing to a time and date that involves someone else as well would make me nit able to change my mind and give up.
otherwise another option is to give yourself a reward or link this initial commitment with something that you know will motivate you to start.
it is really all about making a new habit out of it.
4. Understand that your job is just a job and that if you don’t have the time to grow yourself at the same time, it’s a waste
I always stay at a job as long as I feel I’m learning and progressing And i feel I make a difference. since i have to spend so many hours of my life workin, i might as well just get something out if it other than the salary.
i believe this has helped me so far bring out the best for me and the companies i worked for. This doesn’t necessarily mean that i don’t want to do other, completely unrelated things.
if i don’t have the time to do those additional things, it has a significant impact on my motivation and productivity.
If colleagues/managers don’t understand that vacation, weekends and the majority of the evenings have to be work free, then change them! Time is the only thing that really matters to live a good life.
And here as well, not doing it will not help anyone at the end.
5. Set aside the fears (of trying, of failing, of missing out on other things or whatever else your brain might come up with to keep you from starting to do something else).
This is quite tricky as it’s you against yourself 😊
My personal trick here is to lay out these fears (you need to first accept that they do exist) and find arguments against them. Then remember these arguments each time my brain seems to try to find an alibi for not taking action.
6. Focus! Focus! Focus!
To be able to do many things you need to have very good focus technique.
For example when you are at work, focus on work and getting those things done so you can finish in time for your next activity.
When you are with friends and family, be present, don’t think about work, or side projects (unless i comes up in the discussion). Try to remember to not waste the energy complaining on the things you couldn’t do but rather focus on what you did manage to do (as small as that may be) -this helps keep your motivation up.
When you allocate time to your wish list, then be focused on it, leav the unfinished work tasks aside, the shitty colleague/boss, these thoughts will not help you focus and you will waste precious quality time.
7. Believe you can do it
If you have any doubts about having the time, energy, resources or anything you might need to achieve your goal, then you won’t achieve them.
Everything starts as a thought, an idea, if you believe you can do it, then you will gather the energy and find the resources to do it!
8. Be persistent about it, don’t give it up just because once you couldn’t find the time
Especially at the beginning, it is easy to find alibis on reasons why it is ok to delay/miss out on scheduled activities.
Remember whenever you want to do something new, you are kind of getting out of the comfort zone So your brain/body will ”ask” 1mil times: “are you sure you want to use energy for this? why can’t we continue staying awake 4 hours and think about doing things but never do them, it’s comfortable, we did it in the past, we know the pattern! “
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