Life is busy. But should it be? I often stand back and think, this all feels like one big distraction, a deliberate culture set upon us to keep us busy.

I should know, I've travelled and I spent 5 months touring South East Asia. Guess what? I wasn't busy, even though I did that whilst running my business. In the western world, we tend to scurry around like working ants, gathering leaves and acting in military fashion. We plan our weekends months in advance, and then apologise to our friends when we can't fix a date for a coffee in the diary because "we're just too busy".

But it's an illusion, sort of. You see, if we're stuck in the loop of having to work to survive we often have no choice but to be busy, only the wealthy are afforded the privilege of enjoying free time at their own will, but some of it is our own undoing too. So let's take a look at my top tips to maximise your time.

1. Food Prep

I know, it's an eye roller right? But hear me out. I'm not talking about batch cooking for the week ahead on a Sunday when all you want to do is put your feet up after a long day doing housework. I'm talking about utilising the time when you're already in the kitchen making a mess cooking your family dinner. I plan our meals a week ahead, that includes my breakfast, lunch and our dinner because I want to make healthy food choices. Every day, once all the meals for that day have been eaten, I change it for the week ahead. So for example, once Monday's meals are finished, I put into my notes next Monday's meals, and this helps me create a shopping list as I go. That way, I'm maximising my time further, by not having to spend chunks of time meal planning and creating shopping lists. I do it weekly day by day and keep a running list of what I have frozen.

When I'm cooking dinner, I look ahead to the next day, and make my lunch at the same time. That saves me a lot of time the following day. And at the end of the week, because I've created my shopping list daily, I just do a delivery order for my shopping, which again, saves me loads of time. I work from an office and tend to use my slow cooker most days to have the dinner going at home, which often creates me extra portions to batch up and freeze. So, when I plan my daily meals, I make life as easy as possible by choosing food that's already been cooked and can simply be thawed.

Why this is important: You might not have considered food prep an important part of maximising time, but it is. We often get so busy and so tired we fail to take care of ourselves properly. It's easier to reach for the takeaway menu when the thought of standing over a cooker makes you want to cry. Using this method you will eat healthier and save time.

2. Time Blocking

I've talked about time blocking a lot in previous posts, but it really does work, infact, I couldn't live without it. I own L.T. VA Services, a virtual assistant agency and I work with clients. One of the common questions VAs ask is, "how do I work out my availability"? Well, first you have to work out a schedule for your clients. For me, this is scheduling in their time in a calendar and then using a Pomodoro Chrome extension to make sure I don't get carried away spending more time on a task than I've allocated. I also really love the Eisenhower Matrix. You can use these methods for everything including personal life. I use the Motion app to schedule my time because if for whatever reason I fail to complete a task or need to change my routine, it auto-schedules tasks for me. Remember, this is all about maximising time, the last thing I want to do is spend time re-jigging my diary.

Why this is important: If you simply work to a to-do list, you run the risk of spending more time on one task than another and will find yourself in a loop of "running out of time" which can lead to stress. By setting time blocks and being strict about it, you can feel less guilty at the end of the day when not everything is finished, knowing that you gave enough time to everything you needed to do that day and can pick it up tomorrow.

3. Paying Someone To Do The Jobs At Home

Now, not all of us can afford cleaners and nannies but there are some inexpensive chores you can pass on to someone else. It's all about balance, not about money. Reclaiming your time is sometimes worth a small fee. I pay someone to do my ironing on a weekly basis, which is ironic considering my first business was a laundry and ironing business. I really don't have time to stand over the ironing board during the week and I don't want to spend what precious time I have on the weekends ironing. I have two teenage boys who need their school uniforms ironing and I am so glad that I don't have to go through the morning panic of not having an ironed shirt and having to grab the ironing board out when I'm already late.

Why this is important: If you're spending your week working and weekend doing chores, what balance do you really have? You're simply in the system without realising it. Remember the distraction I told you about at the beginning of this post? Now, I don't iron anything unless it needs it, that's another way I save time and money, but if I do, releasing some of my weekend time in this way enables me to feel less resentful about being constantly busy and feeling as though my weekend went nowhere.

4. Utilise Technology

With so many apps, the power of AI and automation out there, there's no reason not to take advantage and utilise this technology to maximise your time. Let me give you an example, I think it's important to go for walks, but it can often feel like a luxury you don't have time for. So, what if you could combine getting things done whilst out for your daily stroll?

For me, walking helps clear my mind and gives me back the time to focus on things I need to do that I haven't managed yet. Nearly always, these are emails I haven't written. So, I pull out my ChatGPT app, and use the microphone option to dictate an email or newsletter and ask Chat to re-format it. Then, when I'm back in the office, the emails and newsletters can simply be copied, pasted and sent. It's the same as using my Motion App. If I desperately need to go for a walk but have tasks scheduled in, I know Motion will re-schedule them for me. You can see some of my ChatGPT hacks right here. https://www.instagram.com/ltvaservices/

Why this is important: We are all becoming more and more sedentary and it's no coincidence, our mental health problems are increasing. Walking can help combat both of these issues. By utilising your time whilst out walking, to still complete work you feel is outstanding, even if it's dictating a to-do list or your shopping list, it can help you feel as though you have achieved something without the burden of feeling like you "wasted time doing that when you could have been doing this".

5. Stop Planning Your Weekends Away

I used to be so guilty of this, planning my entire weekends away. I had a touring caravan for a while and thought that I was planning almost every weekend away in it because I was enjoying life, but what I was really doing was running away from it. Away from the chores and the responsibility of cooking dinner. In reality, I needed to find peace in my own home and often, we don't. We just see mess, chaos and more work to do.

I decided enough was enough, I couldn't continue constantly having something in my diary every weekend, it felt exhausting. I think it's worse when your children are smaller, probably because the thought of being stuck at home with them all day would drive you insane. I speak to my friends now to try to make arrangements and all I hear is "we're just so busy". I think we are doing ourselves a disservice not to have availability for our friends and family until weeks or months down the line.

So, I sold the caravan and I stopped making plans. I live in a beautiful part of the country with nature and walks all around me and I wanted to be able to benefit from that. I also love my little market town, and meandering around the charity shops and coffee shops. It isn't easy at first if, like me, you need to be busy. But that's what's wrong with all of us as humans right now. We're become addicted to stimulation. We're so used to having everything now, having phones in our pockets to distract us 24/7, that we rarely just sit in the silence.

After a while, not having plans became easier and now, I love being able to look ahead to the weekend and know I have absolutely nothing lined up. It's a freeing feeling and I urge you to try it.

Why it's important: The busier we are, the more distracted we become and therefore, life will pass you by without you realising it. If all you do is work and then have appointments on the weekend that you "have to do", when do you have time to really live? Twice a year on annual leave isn't the right answer and nor should it be.

These 5 tips are just for starters. I hope you can take the time (no pun intended) to give them a try and please, get in touch and let me know your thoughts: [email protected]