How to stop drowning in the whirlpool of affairs

Unbelievable but true, men today work on average 12 hours less per week than they did in the 1960s. These are the results of a study that has been conducted in the United States since the mid-XNUMXs.

Women, however, now work more – simply because half a century ago, not everyone had a full-time job. At the same time, if working mothers start keeping track of their time, it turns out that they spend more hours with their children than they thought.

It doesn’t matter if you’re overworking or not, but feeling like you’re not doing anything can lead to stress and significantly reduce your productivity and ability to make informed decisions. As a result, you begin to manage your time worse, spend it on the wrong things, and as a result, it becomes harder and harder for you.

When we don’t know for sure what time is spent on, we get the feeling that there is a lot of things to do and we will never have time to redo them all. And all you need to understand and take into account is how much time we usually spend on this or that activity and what exactly our day consists of. Having a clear idea of ​​​​this and thinking about it, we can understand that we have much more time than we initially thought – not only for work, but also for leisure.

The results of a 2009 study show that if a person thinks that he has free time, this has a positive effect on his physical and mental health. Note that he is thinking, that is, in fact, it is not at all necessary that he really has this time.

How to regain control and stop racing at full speed, believing that you do not have time for anything?

1. Fix the time

Get a notepad or spreadsheet in Excel and write down everything you do during the day (for example, a page can be divided into half-hour intervals).

Be as honest with yourself as possible! If you watched stories on Instagram for half an hour, just write. And do not forget to indicate those 20 minutes that you leafed through the catalog of shoes on the website of the online store. No one but yourself will see these notes, so the more honest you are, the more useful this exercise will be.

After you know how much time is spent on work, leisure and social networks, ask yourself: how much do I want to spend on social networks? Do I want to exercise every day? How much time do I want to have for lunch? The answers to these questions will help you set the correct vector.

For example, you can find out that at least two or even three hours a day are spent watching social media feeds, and for another hour you chat in instant messengers. And despite the fact that you are awake, say, 16 hours a day … The same time could be spent with greater benefit – for example, reading or studying a foreign language. Are you sure you want to continue like this?

2. Schedule

Let’s say you no longer want to spend three hours a day on social networks and instant messengers. Your goal is to limit yourself to one and a half hours (in the future – one). Make a schedule with this goal in mind. It may be useful to prepare two options – for weekdays and weekends.

Make a list of what you want and need to do every day: clean up, exercise, walk the dog, check email and social media, work, cook, eat, chat with friends, and so on. And then distribute these activities over time.

Of course, you don’t have to strictly adhere to this schedule – it’s okay if you spend not 30 minutes at a time on social networks, but 40, and walk your dog longer than usual, especially if the weather allows. The main thing is that the schedule will set the right direction.

And to control the time you spend on your phone in general and on social networks in particular, install a special application on it. Try to stick to the schedule for at least a couple of weeks. Most likely, it will free up so much time that after this period you simply do not want to return to the way it was before.

Most likely, your rush is due to the fact that someone or something eats up your time. It’s time to take back control of it!