How to do more in less time

Have you experienced either, or both, of these scenarios?

• Working on a deadline. Time is running out. You’re not nearly as far along on the project as you’d like to be. You feel a tightness in your chest and in your temples. But you must barrel through.
• You have a high priority meeting at 10:30 and you’ve got a monstrous problem with the European vendor requiring an immediate response before their business office closes at 11:00 your time. It is now 10:00. You feel a tightness in your chest and in your temples. But you must forge ahead.

Yep, been there done that. I’ve had my share of barreling through and forging head, only feeling that sigh of relief after the task was done.

I’ve also had experiences of taking a break in the midst of the sh*tstorm even when I thought I didn’t have the time to take that break. I’ve trained myself to know that whenever I feel that sense of not-enough-time-to-step-away-and-take-care-of-myself is exactly when I need to step away.

I’m not saying anything new here. And you probably/most likely already know this. Stepping away from the problem or source of stress creates space and breathing room for your creative brain to think up new solutions you didn’t have access to before.

And giving yourself that break allows you to have a more relaxing experience during the difficult deadlines and troublesome email replies, thereby allowing you to enjoy the journey of life rather than enjoy the destination of just “getting it done.”

Think about how you want to live your life as a dream, vision, or goal. Many of us leave dreaming to stuff like, “I dream to have a successful business.” or “My dream is to travel the world.” But what about a dream like, “I dream to deal with all or most challenging situations with grace and minimal stress.”

Hmmm. I like that.

Something I used to do when I worked in a sometimes high-stress-everything-is-a-damn-emergency environment was take 15–20 minutes and walk around the neighborhood. I skipped, listened to good music, caught up with friends and family on the phone, did EFT.

And by the time I returned to my desk, often enough, I breezed through the problem I was having or a new solution appeared. When 15–20 minutes felt like too much time to take, I hauled booty to an empty conference room or office, shut the door, closed my eyes, and just breathed for 3–5 minutes.

So, unless someone is dying, I seriously doubt you can’t afford just 3 minutes to step away and create the space for a solution. This strategy has often allowed me to do more in less time.

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For more support around this whole time thing, check out a 30-min tele-class I ran where I outlined 3 Steps to Create More Time Than You Think You Have.

Access the 30-minute recording for free right here.