5 guaranteed ways to generate more time – so you can do the things you love.

Love it or hate it, the build-up to Christmas has one thing in common for all those who celebrate it. This is a crazy busy time of year!

Alongside living a vampire existence going to work in the dark and not coming out again until the daylight has gone, there’s the additional rush to get Christmas presents, festive foods and plans to see friends and family crammed into a 2-week window.

If you are a job seeker or career changer, there is the additional pressure of trying to find time to search, apply and attend interviews in the hope of securing a great new job for the New Year.

Instead of racing around crowded shops or sitting in traffic queues in the darkness of a winter’s evening, all you really want to do is be sitting in pj’s by the fire with a good book and a bottle of wine! But when are you ever going to get the time?

How to generate the precious gift of time this Christmas.

Here, with a sprinkle of magic, Mapleleaf Vision has 5 ways to generate more time – what you choose to do with that gift of time is up to you.

• Focus on priorities one at a time.

It is easy to take on too much at any time of the year but now it is essential to prioritise what must be done in 2022 (and what can wait – or be ditched altogether). Once you have a steam-lined list, focus on completing one priority at a time. When we switch between tasks, valuable time is lost “getting into the headspace” to concentrate on the new task requirements. Less switching, less time lost.

• Remove distractions.

This works equally in terms of creating a physical space that is a distraction-free zone, as well as blocking out dedicated time to focus without interruptions. If you are prone to checking your mobile phone for messages, dipping into emails or scanning social media accounts, these are the distractions that interrupt your own time and focus. By silencing alerts and blocking out “black-out” time, you will get more accomplished quicker.

• Keep track of time.

Like anything else in life, if you cannot identify where there is wastage, you will not be able to make adjustments to cut-back on the losses. In other words, if you don’t monitor how you are spending your time, you will not know whether your time is being spent effectively. A prime example is being aware when you are labouring over a task that it taking much longer than it should. Sometimes a brief break and coming back to it is more time-efficient overall.

• Learn to say no.

This can be a difficult lesson to learn but it is an essential skill in life and work if you want to be effective in what you do. No one can do everything and do it well. If you do not have time to meet a colleague or family member’s request, you are not doing them any favours by taking on more than you can manage to do efficiently by saying yes. Quite the opposite. It is better for everyone to politely decline, “I’d love to be able to help but I have no capacity to give your request the attention it deserves right now.” You will be respected by others, as well as being respectful of your own time.

• Hire someone else to do things for you.

It’s the perfect match. The time of year that people are happy to earn extra money and the time of year where people are willing to get help to free up their time. There is always work you can delegate to make the most of the time for things you cannot. For example, hiring a virtual assistant to take care of admin tasks or a CV writer to free up your valuable time to focus on the job search. Or you may just want to spend some quality time in your pjs in front of the fire with a good book and a bottle of wine!

Professional CV writing services do the job so you don’t have to.

For a full list of professional CV services, click on the link below to go straight to the price list and booking page in no time at all.

Tick tock – time is running out.

#LiveDaringDreams