How to make quality time for yourself even with a busy schedule

A busy life can too easily mean that you have no time for yourself. Overwhelm can get uncomfortably close. Yet we are not machines; we need some quality time to focus on our own needs.

If you tell yourself that when you’ve done everything on your ‘to do’ list then you’ll have more time, the chances are that either:

i) you never get to the end of the list because new things keep getting added, or

ii) you are too exhausted to enjoy the little bit of time you’ve salvaged

Time is the one commodity you cannot increase, no matter how rich, smart, famous or lucky you are. There are 168 hours in a week which means 8736 hours in a year. It’s the same for everyone. If you want to live for one million hours, aim for an age of 114.

Conventional time management will tell you to prioritise and delegate. This is good advice but it only goes so far because it’s all about what you are doing without considering who you are being.

What do you want to experience in your quality time? Typical answers are things like enjoyment, relaxation, personal growth, social interaction, fun.

Let’s be creative here – rather than trying in vain to make more time to shoehorn these qualities into a crowded schedule, it’s possible to integrate them with activities you are already doing.

Suppose you approach something that you need to do in any case but do it differently than normal.

Take the example of your journey to work. How could you make the journey differently to increase your enjoyment, relaxation or personal growth?

As another example, think of all those dry meetings – how could you ‘do meetings’ differently so you increase your learning or sense of reward? Could you even make them more fun?

In whatever situation, the key question to ask yourself is:

“What can I do differently so that even this activity takes me closer to something that is important to me?”

This is a sure-fire way of enriching your time but don’t just take my word for it. In the next day or two make a personal experiment:

1. Select an activity that you are going to do anyway

2. Ask yourself the key question

3. Take action on the answer

You can build on the experiment by applying the same approach to other activities. This is the route to true success.

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Trevor Hill helps people harness the power of inspiration to boost their motivation and satisfaction in their work. As a result work becomes more energised and enjoyable. A qualified coach, Trevor draws on 30 years experience working across a wide range of organisations and sectors. Get your FREE copy of Trevor’s e-book ‘Passport To Inspiration’  at

http://www.inspiration-at-work.co.uk