Time management and getting the most out of your days

We get 1,440 minutes in a day.

That’s 525,600 in a year.

If you sleep, you are down to 372,300 minutes annually.

You have around 14 hours of time to work within an average day. That is 840 minutes a day or 306,600 a year.

What are you going to do with your minutes?

We should start by looking at what you do with your minutes right now.

Have you ever done a time study on yourself? For a week, write down what you are spending your time doing. How many minutes or hours do you spend reading and answering emails, texts, phone calls, social media, driving or reading?

Now, you are going to have to be your own referee on this project and be honest about it. If you spend 10 minutes around the water cooler, were you talking about the latest trending TikTok or were you strategizing with a team member? As you do this exercise, you will find time to work on the other things that you want to accomplish. Or maybe you can use that time you find to reset and recharge.

Now that we know how much time we have and where that time is being wasted, what can we do to maximize that time? We need time with our families and significant others, as that is the true driver of a quality life.

Focus. Make a list if that’s your thing, use your calendar and stick to it. Minimize your distractions, plan the big, unmovable items first and work backwards to fill in the gaps. Let’s say you have a morning meeting, then lunch with a client and your child’s ballgame in the evening. Those become your unmovable items that you plan around. If you have phone calls to make, do them while you drive in between the core items. When you are at your desk or the job site, do that work in the time allotted and focus on the tasks you have to complete when you are in that space.

Your days and weeks are going to fill up, but having a plan and sticking to it helps you control your time. You may have to say no to certain things, but you are the one in charge. I encourage you to take back some of that control and protect your most important shareable asset: your time.

Let’s work on your upgrade.

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Aaron Huizenga is East Division manager for Lakes Gas in Wisconsin. Reach him at ahuizenga@lakesgas.com.