Is Your Time Already Spoken For?

Hi and welcome to The Daily Dot, the daily edition of the Connect the Dots podcast. My name is Matt Raglan and in each episode I share a short lesson about how to be more focused and productive. I draw these lessons from personal experience, work with clients, modern psychology, and real-world application. Thank you for listening and if you enjoy The Daily Dot, please share it with a friend. Now here's today's lesson: Is your time already spoken for? So much of our time has already been spoken for. It's been scheduled away in meetings, in recurring tasks, and things that we just do over and over again, whether we need to or not. I'm not saying that this is necessarily a bad thing, but I am saying it's a reality that not too many of us recognize in our day-to-day life. Whenever I'm coaching someone through a new goal that they want to achieve, something out of the ordinary, something they want to make a part of their life in the future, One of the first things that we do is review all the commitments, tasks, and times that are already spoken for in their life and work. Because one of the new things that stops a new goal or habit right in its tracks is realizing that you don't have as much time as you thought available to dedicate to this new goal. You start out thinking that you can dedicate an hour or two each day or several hours per week to this new goal or habit that you want to achieve., but quickly realize that you just don't have that much time available. So much of your day, your week, your life is already spoken for. But remember, I'm not saying that this is all bad. Let me give you an example. If I want to develop a new course for my business, then I need to be realistic about the time that I actually have available to do this. Between meetings, coaching sessions, creating a new YouTube video, and doing a daily podcast, about 70 to 80% of my week or 30 to 35 hours of the week is already spoken for and booked. That means if I want to develop a new course, I need to either figure out how I can do it in only 5 to 8 hours per week, or I need to stop doing one of those other things that has already been spoken for, or I just need to work more. Then I just have to make the decision. Do I want to do less of something else? Do I need to work more overall? Or is it just something that I need to expect is going to take a little longer than I wanted initially? So again, if you realize that much of your day, much of your week is already spoken for and you don't have a whole lot of time to do extra things, don't be discouraged. Just realize the reality of the time that you actually have available. So what could you do in 1 to 2 hours per week if that is all you have? Is there anything that you could do less of or do none of to free up more time for this goal that you want to achieve. I hope you hear this as an encouragement to realize the amount of time that you actually do have available and what an iterative process would look like to steadily build one winning week on top of another in the pursuit of a goal that matters to you. It may take you 8 weeks instead of 4 weeks or 6 months instead of 3 months, but when you have clarity about what you want to do and the time that you have to do it, great things can happen. Thanks for listening to The Daily Dot. I really appreciate it. The best way to help the show grow is by sharing with a friend, but the other way is to rate and review on Apple Podcasts and Spotify. I'd love to hear from you on Twitter or Instagram. You can find me @MattRagland. I'll be back tomorrow with a new episode, so thanks again, and I will talk to you tomorrow.