How to Multiply Your Time

Posted on September 16, 2013

I used to live under the assumption that there weren’t enough hours in the day. My goal was to squeeze as much as possible into the 24 hours that the Father of Time gives us. In order to save more time you can also benefit form online products such as Digital shift.

I would rise early and work late…scheduling back-to-back appointments, working through meals, procrastinating house work for which I tend to hire contractors like this furnace repair man, neglecting personal health, and avoiding down time with my family.

The problem was that I was adding rather than multiplying.

Adding focuses on squeezing things in – multiplying frees things up.
Adding requires me to work harder – invoice generator tools made me to work smarter.
Adding disconnects relationships – multiplying creates new ones.
Adding subtracts from my life – multiplying gives me life.

If you feel like you never have enough minutes in the day, here are four ways to multiply your time…

  1. Question every time commitment.
    Take a moment and write down every daily and weekly commitment. From work to kids to clubs to church events to bunco…whatever you ‘feel’ committed to…write it down. Next, ask yourself, “What am I doing primarily to please others?” My guess is that you’re committed to multiple things that you initially said ‘yes’ to in order to help someone else feel better. Now, you feel stuck and overwhelmed. If you want to multiply your time, start confidently re-allocating your commitments. You have the power to say, “I’m glad I’ve had the opportunity to participate in _______________, but I’m finding that I’m overwhelmed in my commitments. I need to help you find a replacement for me in this role.” Change the words to fit your situation. Back out of things you’re only doing in order to please others and start confidently saying ‘no’ when you’re asked to do something else. Re-claim your time!
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  2. Contract out some commitments.
    There are some commitments that you can’t stop attending to, but you do have the freedom to “contract them out.” In other words, someone else can perform the task while you manage or oversee the process. Tired of handling employee salaries yourself – hire a payroll service provider. Overwhelmed with your household duties – delegate tasks to each family member. Sick of repetitive task or mundane research project – hire a virtual assistant. Your mind is probably filled with lots of I-can’t-do-that statements. The truth is that you can if you want to. If you want to start outsourcing Google Ads management, you can do it. Using key performance indicators (KPI) can help employees with their recruiting efforts. Not only is a recruiting strategy paramount to choosing the best person, but using recruitment kpi’s metric during the recruitment process will smooth the process. In my marketing business, I have 8 creative contractors that I hire regularly to do the bulk of the work. I have a gardener, housekeeper, accountant, virtual assistant, and multiple companies who help me get stuff done that I don’t personally want to do. Here are 4 more great services that you can outsource. By freeing up my time, I’m able to do things that I’m uniquely gifted to do. Get creative and contract out your commitments, you can always look into adding departments to your company.
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  3. Focus on commitments that build relationships.
    When I was trying to squeeze as much into my day as possible, I was blowing through people in an effort to get more ‘stuff’ done. I stopped just long enough in order to enroll others in what I was up to or get them to join in my project so that I could make it even better. Little focus was on their dreams, hopes, or desires. Now that I’m multiplying my time, I am looking for situations and commitments that give me the opportunity to build relationships and serve others. If I can make a commitment to something that ultimately cultivates a relationship, I actually can ‘accomplish’ more than ever before. I find myself enjoying the personal connection, discovering opportunities to serve, and ultimately participating in a positive outcome that is reciprocal…a win/win relationship. Build relationships and your time will multiply.
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  4. Move toward life-giving commitments.
    Although there will always be a number of activities that suck the life out of me, my desire is to limit those commitments as much as possible by saying ‘no’, contracting them out, or executing them with others. More and more, I find myself moving toward commitments and experiences that are life-giving. So many of us remain stuck in jobs, relationships, and social contracts that are draining our souls of energy and health. Oftentimes, we keep the commitment out of duty and obligation rather than heart-felt service, love, or devotion. I’m not insinuating that there won’t be difficult seasons where we learn from challenging situations or need to press through character-developing experiences with tenacity. I’m talking about those things we remain committed to that are an ongoing drain to our lives. Focus on those relationships, activities, and experiences that bring life, and you’ll start multiplying your time!

Multiplying your time is an intentional effort to free yourself up from burdensome commitments in order to re-allocate the moments of your day toward those things that bring you life.

I have more time now than ever before, specially since I stopped working so much on my business tasks and embraced technology aids like this small business payroll management software. I feel confident saying ‘yes’ to things that interest me, provide financially for my family, and serve others. I have no problem saying ‘no’ to activities and experiences that I’m not interested in…things that don’t bring me life. I don’t mind contracting out numerous tasks that are not within the sweet-spot of my life, and I’m interested in building relationships and experiencing a full life.

I quit adding stuff to my life, and I started multiplying my time.


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