How to make the space you want and need
It’s a new world today. This week has rocked many people in monumental ways that were unforeseen by most. Isolation, business and office closures, and for most…a completely new way of life. Our routines, our habits, all challenged by this pandemic that has become a catalyst for immediate change.
So what are you going to do?
Hopefully you’re actively working on, or already have, shifting your new reality to fit your wants and needs based on your unique situation. But that statement shouldn’t be trivialized, because change is hard. It takes effort. Whether you’re an individual trying to find productive ways to spend your newly discovered time, or a family juggling two working parents with no childcare, you have to create the space for that work to happen.
A few years ago, Krista and I forced our own hands in life while leaving a career to start our first venture together, welcoming Oryn (now 2+) into the world, and waving bye-bye to stability and comfort all together. We’ve spent many days and nights with our butts on the couch talking through strategies and working through exercises to figure out the latest solution in our journey. So we wanted to compile and share one of our reoccurring exercised we use to structure our most valuable resource…time.
Unfortunately, for most of us it’s quite far fetched to think that each of our waking days could be spent doing exactly what you want to be doing. Some might say it’s down right impossible. However, we believe it might be easier to accomplish than you think. It may take time, some discomfort, and big energy gives, but if you lean into that, you’ll soon be able to engineer a new reality.
Here’s the exercise…
Step One: Day-to-Day List
Find a piece of paper or fire up a new Google doc. Think about all of the time you spend each day. Pick an average day to start and document in detail all that occurs. Then, if you’re feeling inspired, you can blow out your weeks or even months (but it’s not necessary to start). Inventory that time, write it down, and attribute approximate hours to those tasks and obligations that made it on your list.
Step Two: Space List
Now on that same piece of paper (or digital document), start another list beside or below the one just created. This list will be the things that you wish you were spending more time doing. Riding your bike, spending time with family, meditating, fitness, or reading books. Whatever your intuition is telling you (and has likely been telling you), put it on the list, don’t be shy.
Step Three: Analyze
Analyze the lists. Look at all of the things you’re spending time on that are obligations or requirements. Find things that aren’t. You might uncover some things you’re not that fond of. You might also realize that you watch way too much Netflix, or you spend 3 hours a day on answering emails. This should hopefully be a smack of awareness if you’ve taken the time. Not only in how much time you’re spending on things that you like and dislike, but also where you can begin to think about how to bring in more from your “space list”. All it takes is a little engineering, curation and motivation.
Step Four: Cut & Replace
Start small. Perhaps you look at your “day-to-day” list and you notice that you’re spending your entire evening on emails playing catch up from the busy workday, because that’s the “only” time you have to do it. Don’t start engineering with a limited mindset, think bigger, and outside of the circumstances for awhile. Try to find a way to incorporate a single item from your “space list” into your day somewhere. What if, as an example, you chose to spend one hour a night on email, and then got up a bit earlier the next day to finish off the rest first thing in the morning. Or another way to solve this equation could be to explore the idea of a virtual assistant (VI), if you’re really busy! Having this person filter your most important emails to you daily, and handling all the other low hanging fruit for you, cutting your time down from three hours a night to just a single hour. Thus creating space in your evening to put something else in, like reading a book! And I’m sure there are a thousand other solutions to this example, but hopefully you get the idea.
Step Five: Rinse & Repeat
This practice isn’t a one and done deal. You’ll want and need to return to this list as things change in your life. Like a global pandemic that has forced you to work from home, with no home office, childcare, gym to exercise, all while still upholding your duties at work and on the home front. This scenario is a lot of people’s reality now. And now is the time to sit down with yourself or your partner and spend the energy crafting these new intentions.
The moral of the story is that we’re all conditioned to feel “busy”, to be handcuffed by our circumstances, and allow the external forces around us to rule our days. But believe it or not, there is always time. We just have to know how to better use it. If you’re able to dig a little at yourself a bit and decide what you believe is worth spending your time on, you’ll quickly start to feel where your time and energy should go.
If you’re feeling stuck or need some perspective/guidance on how to kickstart this practice, let us know. Reach out. We’re primed with a few years of handling our own situations, and feel compelled to share our wisdom with our community and others to help in any way we can.
Be well and stay healthy, my friends.
Talk soon.
