In this article, I am giving you practical examples of organizing your time. You can read here more about time management.

It’s not a complicated philosophy: You will create more time for yourself and everything you want if you plan it ahead.

Without a to-do list, you will do only the necessary things. Correct me if I am wrong but
you will probably do something that will amuse you and create short-term fun.
Without a plan, you would scroll on social media or spend many hours watching Netflix the rest of the time.

By creating a list of to-dos, not just with the things you must do for the day but the things that can build your better life, you are setting the foundations of bigger fulfillment and joy.

Try making these lists for a month, and let me know if this doesn’t work for you in becoming more organized and creating more time for yourself.

Let me share a story.

A few months ago, I read a book, and it was amazing. It was a thriller action, a huge adventure with many unpredictable twists and excitement. I appreciate a good story, and I was amazed by the author’s capability to deliver it this way.

I got curious about the woman who wrote this, and I found out she lives in New York and is a high school teacher.

I found an interview where she was asked about her writing process as she successfully published several books.

Her answer was this: I get up at 3 am and make myself a lot of coffee. Then I sit down and write till 6 am. I prepare my kids for school and drive myself to work. After the classes, I pick up my children, and we go for lunch with my husband or have lunch at home. In the afternoon we take our children to activities, sports or birthday parties. Every day something is happening. And that’s about it. She said, I need 4-5 months to finish a book, and when I do, I leave it to rest for one year. After one year, I return to it, do the corrections and send it for publishing.

I was amazed as I read that. What a determination I can’t even imagine.
This woman obviously has incredible control not just of her time but her habits as well.

How many of you would pursue your dreams like this?
How many of you are willing to get up at 3 am to do something you love? Many would say: I really want to write a book, but I don’t have the time.

This is what amazed me the most: this woman didn’t have the knowing and the certainty that someone would even publish her work. Even if she did get a publisher and a pre-contract for the book, she had absolutely no guarantee that the book would be such a success, become a bestseller, and be translated to many languages.

All she had was a passion and a desire to write and create something more in her life.

It’s obvious that with the young children and her full-time job, there are some adjustments she needs to make.

So, she decided to get up at 3 am every day till her work with the book was finished. And then repeated this process with every new book she wanted to write.

I had great respect for her as I was reading the interview. And I use her story as inspiration whenever I feel things are going a little bit hard for me and I want to quit on a project.

If quitting was no option for her and many others who are pursuing their dreams and achieving results, it won’t be an option for me either.

I want to give you another example. When I want to create a little bit more time for exercising, taking a new hobby, or spending time with friends, I keep track of a time log.

A time log is a 14-day activity for me where I write down literally how I am spending every hour of every day.

This way, I can have a clear picture after 14 days of exactly how many hours a day I am writing articles, working individual sessions with clients, having group coaching sessions, having Coffee with Maya, fun activities, social media time, chilling, etc.

When I have all of this in front of me, I can easily see what to prioritize, what to postpone, and what things I should completely stop doing.
I heard once in a ted talk:

24 hours a day, seven days a week, make 168 hours.
Let’s count 8 hours of sleep; that’s 56 h a week. 168h minus 56h, and we are left with 112 hours in one week.

Minus the working hours – assuming we work 8h a day and spend 2 hours and more in traffic, or work 9-10h and travel less to the workplace, that’s 63 hours a week. 112 h minus 63h is 49.

So, we still have left available 49h a week. Let’s say we shop for groceries for one hour every day, minus 7 hours and we come to 42h free hours in one week.

Minus the cooking 7 hours for lunch daily – that’s 35 available hours left.

Let’s assume that we spend 2h a day watching TV or spend time on social media, which is 14 hours a week. Thirty-five minus fourteen is 21h.

After we take off all the busy hours in one week, we still have left 21h. We can plan and spend this time on fun activities with family and friends, courses, learning languages or a new skill, or whatever we want to create.

Make a list of all the things you say you don’t have the time for – and you will see that you might find some.

Share in the comments what your routine is and are you managing to find time for yourself and the things you wish to do.

Join the waiting list for my program Kickstart to be in control of your life – the 4th generation is starting in September. You will learn great hacks and techniques for creating more time every day, among others. Three generations of women have successfully taken control of their time and life, and you can join them. Excuses will always be here, and your job is to ignore them and change your life. If you really want better results, contact me: mayastoychevski@gmail.com.