The Secret of Creating More Time in Your Week

Today’s post is a short one because you don’t have time to read anything longer. Or do you?

As you may know, I’m a big believer in personal development. In fact, for the past four years I have been committed to reading 2-3 books at a time that will either improve me personally and/or professionally, or will be a benefit to my clients in some way.

I want to share with you a book that I just finished reading called 168 Hours. In her book, Laura Vanderkam suggests that we have more time than we think. Even if we work 50 hours a week, sleep 8 hours a night (remember, we NEED 7.5-8.5 hours of sleep per night!), exercise for one hour a day, five days a week, that still gives us 57 hours for “other” things.

The question I’m posing to YOU today is, assuming you spend 111 hours doing what I said above, how are you spending those “other” 57 hours?

I decided to read this book because I get the “time problem” a lot: “Kim, there are just not enough hours in the day for me to take care of myself.”

In her book, Vanderkam describes what she calls “core competencies,” which I’ll paraphrase as abilities that can be leveraged across multiple spheres, things that are important and meaningful to us, and the things that we do best and that others can’t do nearly as well.

She suggests asking yourself these two questions:

1. What do I do best where others can’t do nearly as well?
2. What things do I spend time on where other people could do or do better?

She goes on to say that there are three core competencies that we should be spending most of our time on, because again, these are the areas that only WE can do best in our lives:

• Nurturing our SELF
• Nurturing our FAMILY
• Nurturing our CAREER

As far as all the non-core competencies that you spend time doing, Vanderkam suggests to either ignore them, minimize them, or outsource them by asking for help. She says, “The happiest people focus more on their core competencies, hone their focus to get somewhere, and check everything else.”

Will you make a commitment today to spending time on your core competencies? Vanderkam suggests to “See them through. Whatever it takes, do it!”

I say you’re worth it. You DO have time. Not everything can be a priority ALL the time. But there’s one thing that I believe should stay a priority, and that’s your health. Build in time to take care of yourself each week, better yet, each day. Your happiness depends on it.

Wishing you joyful health in your 50’s,
Kim