How to "Make Time" for your dream project ?

We carry a dream in our hearts.

We cuddle that dream occasionally in the hustle-bustle of life. 

This dream may be an item on the bucket list, a trip to take, an article to publish, a book to write, or a venture to launch. 

But we don't find time for it. It gets lost on the back burner. 

And it never reaches the front seat. 

How do we "Make Time" for our pet projects, bucket-list, articles, books, or ventures? 

Often answer boils down to better "productivity" or "time management." 

Long back, I attended a myriad of time management sessions. 

And now, as a teacher and trainer, I teach/talk about time management right from MBA students to professionals and executives. 

"Productivity" and "Time management" are the sine qua non of every development workshop and intervention. And as a book-lover, I have read sizeable literature on it.

 

At one end, some experts may tell you to split the day into 15 min or 30 min intervals- a perfect epitome of micro or nano management. At another end of the spectrum, experts claims, time is unmanageable. Time is uncontrollable - instead, manage your energy. And in between two extreme ends, there are a lot of self-help books like 

• First things first by Stephen Covey.
• Eat That Frog by Brian Tracy
• 18 minutes: Find your focus, master your distraction, and get the right things done. by Peter Bregman
• The Power of full engagement

But most of these books are written in the non-internet/non-mobile era. This era has made us "always connected" and hence "always distracted." The issues are well discussed in few books like

• Focus - Daniel Goleman
• Indistractable - Nir Eyal
• Digital Minimalism - Cal Newport (Detail Summary available on this blog itself). 

Either you read all of these books and make sense of your problem in their prescription. 

Or Easiest is read "Make Time"- by Jake Knapp & John Zeratsky. 

(Image: Amazon)

"Make Time" - has a straightforward argument. However, it has not cited all these books (Few are). It certainly is mindful of ideas and tips from all of them. 

Book is perfect blend of ideas from various sources, served in perfect homogenous mix - undetectable and perfectly digestible. 

It boils down to them in a simple system that can easily apply to whatever your project is. The system has just four steps. 

1. Decide dream project. Split it into steps, make a step for each day's highlight. 
2. Block time for day's highlight. And ensure Laser-like focus during it. 
3. Ensure your energy is high and maintained during that blocked time. 
4. Reflect each day on what worked and what didn't. 

That's it. The book is full of tips and techniques (actually a total of 87 tips). 

That covers interesting tips like. 

• Only two cup coffee is required in a day, with no coffee after 01:30 to 02:00 pm. 
• Lunch plate - shall be half-filled with salads.
• Walking is the best exercise, and anytime doable! 
• And the myriad of tips for managing net distractions, smartphone addiction, and email disturbance. 

This system roughly looks like the one in below one-page summarized sketch. [One more such one page summary is here] 

I have started including the content in my sessions and workshops. Being repeatedly useful, I gave it Five Start (5 * ) on Goodreads.  

Book is easy to read, accessible, and worth your desk/library/collection.  

Paperback or hard-cover copy is highly suggested - it has an excellent design with simple sketches to explain the points. 

So go and grab a copy before you embark on your dream. 

(Schematic - One Page Summary of "Make Time")

How to keep yourself energize the whole day!

 

(Make Time: Brief Summary)

This image is the brief graphical summary of "Make Time".

It's prepared by a friend and book lover, "Norm". 

It's a very pragmatic and helpful book, particularly in the cacophony of "Time management". 

Book has a simple message. 

1. Find your highlight (Priority project). 
2. Block time for it in your daily schedule. 
3. Then focus like a laser with your full attention on this block. 
4. Ensure you are energized during this block period. 

That's it. 

The book outlines 82 different tactics for laser-like focus (attention) and energizing yourself. 

All of them are useful. Some may be more relevant to your context. 

Two tips that I loved and thought of following on energizing are this...

1. #Tip 61, 62. Exercise every day, but don't be a hero and Pound the pavement. 

2. # Tip 71 Caffeinate before you crash. 

1. Often, I used to feel guilty, when I couldn't exercise regularly or couldn't go for a walk. And I always used to be mesmerized with sculpted figures. And used to feel inferior too :-).  My relation with exercise is always love-n-hate. And being an introvert, plus book-lover, and on top of having desk based job made it doubly hard to imbibe any rigorous exercise routine. 

Then like a breeze came this tip. Exercise - but no need to be a hero. 

Around the same time, I have gone through the course "Sit Less, Get Active" on Coursera. It has a similar suggestion. Move for about 150 minutes over a week. No need to be stressed at one point. So I simply spread out my exercise or movement throughout the day. Morning little yoga, then a little 15-minute walk after breakfast, one after lunch, and then one long walk in the evening. It's spread throughout the day. Currently at about 7000 steps, and moving towards 10,000 steps in a day. 

I no more feel stressed or guilty. And I do feel more active throughout the day! 

2. the Second tip is about Coffee.

I love Coffee! 

For me, Coffee used to be an anytime drink. 

But after reading the book, I got the strategic time for having a cup.

Now I take it after my lunch. And then no coffee after it. 

This keeps me active and energetic in post-lunch sessions (approx. from 0200 to 0600), and it no more interferes with my sleep routine.  

I embraced these two tips. 

But you can scroll through 82 tips and choose the ones that are more useful to you. 

Keep yourself energized throughout the day and laser-sharp focus on your Highlighted task!