Making time for time

This year I’m making a deliberate effort to take back some control for myself, and in doing so hopefully make more of my year. I’m using the terminology ‘levers’ over resolutions since they’re a shifting set of priorities, and more about habits than sweeping statements I have no intention of keeping. (I’m looking at you, dry January.)

Lever #1: control over my time

Yep, I’m starting with a biggie right out of the gate. In 2017, time felt like an excuse for me so often that it was a pretty easy choice for the top of this list. It’s so easy to complain about not having enough time, when in fact this is the one thing that everyone has in equal measure. When it comes to taking back control over my time, I’ve decided that for me it’s about setting boundaries, finding my personal rhythms and flows, and investigating the difference between time wasting and down-time.

Own the workday
It sounds ridiculous, but one of the hardest things to do in a flexible workplace is to set some boundaries over how you work best. While I firstly have to acknowledge that I’m really lucky to work in an organisation that promotes flexibility and autonomy, I also do really struggle to combat traditional expectations of long hours, round-the-clock availability and the idea that anything outside of work is inherently expendable.

All of this does exactly zero for productivity, team culture and most of all — your own state of mind. Yet every day I see people wearing burnout like a badge of honour, every day caring a little less about output and a little more about face time and hours logged. It’s something I’m actively, passionately against — to me, consistently working long hours is actually the laziest, and least impressive metric of success.

To take back control over my time, I’m trialling a few things in my workday:

• Enjoy mornings. Where possible, I don’t go into the office before 10am. Not only does this let me prioritise a healthy breakfast, a good amount of sleep and some exercise, but it also lets me do my boring admin and organisational stuff for the day in peace and quiet, so by the time I get in I’m really ready to go. It’s way easier than rushing in for 8.30 only to faff about for two hours anyway.
• Have a lunch break. This is one of the easiest things to skip in a workday, and it’s 100% counter-productive. It doesn’t need to be a full hour, but taking at least the time to move away from your desk to eat lunch gives you some well needed time to recharge and decompress. If you’re lucky, you might even get to meet some new colleagues or have an interesting chat while you’re at it.
• Say no to meetings. I’ll touch on this a little more in the next post about taking back control of effort, but suffice to say you can get a whole lot more time back in your day if you don’t spend it all in meetings. I’m pretty brutal — unless I have a clear idea of the purpose and required outcome of the meeting, I’ll usually decline or ask for more information. Lots of meetings are a substitute rather than a call for action, so it really helps to be clear on whether this is a good investment of your time. Note: meetings and work sessions are two different things. It’s a good idea to understand the difference between the two.
• Leave on time. ‘On time’ doesn’t always have a specific cut off, but it’s usually no later than 7pm. If there are things that I need to do that really can’t be pushed until the next day, I find I get it knocked out much faster at home without feeling like I’m burning the midnight oil.
• Turn off notifications. At least for the times when I have to concentrate, or when I have an important deadline to meet. Nothing can derail you faster than a new email, an update reminder or a chat. Sorry Slack, but I’m sure I lose hours each week in idle chat, gifs and loosely work-related links.
• Go with the flow. After 15 years, I’ve got a pretty good idea of my personal work style. I’m great at organisation and planning early in the morning, useless at anything between 3–4 and can get a week’s worth of work done in the four hours between 10–12 and 4–6 if I’m given the space. I do as much as I can to plan my day accordingly. It’s never perfect, but even being aware of when my productivity is high helps me to take back a little bit of control over my time.

Not only is owning the workday an important personal goal, but it’s also one that I feel really needs to be better role-modelled by people in senior positions. I often get asked if my desire to protect my time is because I have a family, and it’s not — nor should that be the only requirement for valuing a day that doesn’t revolve entirely around work. I just work better with boundaries, and I find I’m happier when I can flip that mental switch in my head that signals the end of a work day. Things will usually keep ticking over in my head anyway because I genuinely love what I do, but that’s my choice. And that’s what makes all the difference.

Be organised and prepared
In December 2016 I forgot my Mum’s birthday. I was manic at work, on the other side of the world and barely aware of which day of the week it was, much less the fact that I’d just missed an important day for one of the most important people in my life. When I realised, it was with that sick thud that accompanies moments of pure shame —which was not helped by the fact that she was understanding and laughed it off. That was so much worse.

She wasn’t angry, she was just disappointed. Oof.

I never want to feel that way again, certainly not because of something as simple as a bit of forethought. It’s not just missed birthdays either, it’s becoming evermore stressful to keep track of our busy, hyper-connected lives. I constantly have the feeling of forgetting things, which I have a feeling stems from the sheer amount of information we both process and push to our devices to remember for us. Taking back control in this case involves exploring that balance of digital and analogue organisational methods, without becoming too overwhelmed by multiple inputs.

Some things I’m trying out:

• Wall calendar (analogue): This sits up in our study and tracks birthdays, anniversaries, travel and any other important dates such as gigs and theatre tickets we have. It helps to get a year-long sense of what we have coming up, and also it’s a nice way to review everything we’ve done in a year. I’ve used a Lollipop Studios wall planner for two years in a row now and love it — it’s got enough space to write in the squares, a year-at-a-glance view and it adds a pop of colour to the room.
• Calendar (digital): Yes, this is a bit of duplication, but I usually try to align these about once a fortnight or whenever I remember. Sometimes it’s retro-fitting dates back into our wall calendar for posterity, and sometimes it’s checking against work commitments before booking in that last minute weekend away. It seems to be working ok, at least until I can build my own digitally integrated lego calendar anyway.
• Diary (analogue): Yet another duplication, but a good way for me to jot stuff down as I think about it during the day. I have a tiny little one that sits in the front of my work notebook, so it’s unobtrusive and easy to carry around.
• Inbox reminders (digital): Google inbox works best for this, with a feature to set reminders and timers on emails, or add reminders manually. It also tracks birthdays. Since I live in a different country than my family, I usually set the reminders a few weeks out so that I can arrange gifts and delivery with enough time to spare.
• To-do list (digital): I’ve tried heaps and heaps of to-do apps, and have yet to find a perfect one. I’m currently pretty happy with Swipes, although I do have to invest a little more time into learning how to make the most of it.

Being organised isn’t something that comes naturally to me, and I’m far more likely to waste time than control it in this area — I love a list, and I’m a prime candidate for spending more time ‘organising’ than doing. I’m hoping that by listing this as one of my areas to focus on this year I can stay true to the goal and not the process. Most importantly, I hope I won’t forget any more birthdays.

Slow down
The easiest way I can think of to regain control over my time is to simply stop trying to do everything at once. This means being slower, more deliberate and more gentle with myself and my expectations. In the past few years I’ve noticed myself get really overwhelmed easily, and I’m sure I’m not alone — there’s an unrelenting barrage of information vying for our attention and it gets tiring quickly. I’m tired of feeling like a lazy Sunday is a waste of time, rather than a much needed recharge. I’m tired of spending more time than necessary wondering if my choice of movie is good enough, if I’m seeing the right theatre productions or reading the right books. I’m tired of feeling anxious instead of interested when I learn of a new product or website — my first thought is always ‘oh god why didn’t I know about this’ or ‘they’re building this while I’m wasting my life’ when I should be curious and excited instead.

The slow living movement is so huge precisely because of this overwhelm. People everywhere are beginning to question their obsessive love of technology, and their always-on lifestyles. While I’m not quite ready to sell up and move to the country just yet (although it is very much part of my Ultimate Life Plan™️) I’m starting to play around with more ways that I can slow down and enjoy the little moments more.

The things I’m enjoying most currently:

• Vinyl: Ok I’m about a eleventy-seven years late to this, I know. I’ve resisted it so far only because we weren’t quite sure how long we were going to stay abroad, and it seemed like a big hassle to move a record collection around with us when we have Spotify. But now we are fully on board and it’s glorious. There’s something about sitting down to listen to a full album the way it was meant to be heard that is tough to beat. As a lifelong Beatles nut, I admit I should have done this way earlier.
• Reading for fun: As a kid I was a massive reader, and would happily whittle away all of my school holidays devouring novel after novel. As an adult I’ve continued to read enthusiastically, but always with a slight twinge of guilt when it felt like I was reading without purpose. This year I’m going to make more time for reading widely and often — not just when I need to research a technique or learn about what’s going on in industry. I’m going to read real-life books (with a Kindle for proxy when travelling) and immerse myself in the story without giving another thought to what I should be doing instead.
• Bath time: Soaking in a tub doing absolutely nothing is the best antidote I can imagine to our busy, overstimulating lives. The first few times I tried it I fidgeted like nothing else, but it’s surprisingly quick to overcome. A couple of candles, some nice bath salts or a bubbly gel and music — or nothing. As someone that often struggles getting to sleep, this has already begun to work wonders, too. A nice hot shower before bed has the same effect. The Australian in me shudders a little when I think of all the water I’m using, but the benefits — and the English rainfall statistics — soon make that inner shout dial down to a whisper.
• Enjoying nature: I never feel more refreshed than when I’m out in nature. Even if the weather is terrible, there’s something about taking a long walk with no destination in mind, taking in all the sights, sounds and smells. One of the things I love most about England is the changing seasons — don’t get me wrong, Australia has some epic natural beauty — but in London I really enjoy the small things. The crisp, blue-skied winter days; the crunchy Autumn walks and child-like excitement waiting for snow (yes, I’m that new to England). The cosiness of country pubs in the winter; the incredible uplift on the first day that you leave work while it’s still light, and the palpable feeling of joy when the heat starts creeping back into the air. I love all of it. Taking the time to enjoy it is it’s own reward.
• Ritualising tea and coffee (and booze): I added booze to this after a moment of thought — I often choose to sit with a tea or coffee when I want to relax, but it’s also just as nice to be a bit mindful when sitting down to a more alcoholic drink. The ritual is the important thing here: taking the time to prepare, enjoy and savour the whole process. I’m a massive fan of experimenting with loose-leaf herbal teas (my favourite is currently lavender because I’m apparently an 80 year old grandmother).
• Guilty pleasures: I absolutely love playing Age of Empires. Yup. I don’t know what it is, I just love it. I know it’s old, it’s not that sophisticated and it’s not even meant to be played on a Mac. I don’t care. I chuck on a playlist I really love — full of favourites you can sing along with, preferably — and sit down to a mindless half hour of conquering armies by fairly basic ‘strategy’ (read: get lots of gold and soldiers then attack relentlessly until you or everyone else is dead). It’s silly, it’s basic and despite it being super fun I’m always a little bit embarrassed ‘fessing up to playing it.

The best thing I’ve noticed about adding in these little quiet times into my week is that I’m usually super energised, with about one million ideas in my head by the end of an hour spent indulging in doing ‘nothing’. It’s definitely been the best thing I’ve done so far to get back more control of my time. It seems so counter intuitive, but it has really made the world of difference. In fact, I think it’s time for another bath right now.

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My next lever that I’m going to explore is about taking back control over my effort. It’s tough to separate out time and effort, but once I started writing I found that there was a difference, and one worth exploring. Stay tuned!

I’d love to hear what techniques and ideas have helped you manage your time, particularly if you work in a creative job or an organisation that’s still finding it’s feet when it comes to work-life balance. 👇