How to find time in a busy schedule?

Great admirer of Marie Forleo , a trainer that I find very prolific, I recently discovered Laura Vanderkam through her. She is the author of 168 hours: You Have More Time Than You Think or how to use each hour of the week well. I quickly had an important realization. I have the same 168 hours per week as Michelle Obama, Sheryl Sandberg (Facebook), Marie-Huguette Cormier (Desjardins) or Sophie Brochu (Énergir) to organize my social contribution. Am I using my time effectively to achieve this? Hmm… the answer is no!

What suggests Laura Vanderkam to take control of her schedule?

Increase your productivity:

• The author suggests identifying what keeps me busy but is not billable work such as accounting, training, my phone or email communications, so as not to waste time on them unnecessarily.

• She also suggests delegating what I do that is outside my area of expertise, such as graphic design, which I already entrusted to another freelancer.

• She insists on investing time in self-improvement: continually improving what makes me different. Hop, I'll add it to the agenda!

• Then, do the list of bold goals that I want to accomplish in the next year and define the steps required to achieve my goal. For now, I want to join a board of directors, increase my social involvement with my daughter and launch a new training.

• She also suggests validating the budget required to deliver my goals and ensuring that I will have the financial resources and time to achieve them, in order to stay motivated.

• Following his advice, I also identified a mentor to help me move forward more quickly.

What to do to invest in your family life?

• Plan rest periods to unwind. Continue checking boxes on the list of cities to visit! Next trip: Machu Picchu!

• Ask my daughter to create a list of things she would like us to do together. Laura Vanderkam suggests formulating 100 dreams, but 10 will be more easily achievable at her age: visiting Paris and driving a Tesla are already on her list!

• Focus on the household chores that I enjoy the most and delegate the others. We are already good at this, but I am thinking of getting outside help with the laundry!

Finally, at his suggestion, I set aside thirty minutes on Friday to optimize the week ahead and move meetings or appointments that will distract me from my goals.

And you, how do you use your 168 hours? Share with us your tips for achieving more in less time!

* Did you know that more than 13% of Quebec workers and 36% of American workers are self-employed? Sources: Statistics Canada And Forbes