How to Reclaim 50% of Your Free Time

Posted on October 2, 2008 by LJ

Thursdays are tip days at SimpleProductivity blog.

“Commitments are like bushes – they need regular pruning.”

How would you like to have 50% more free time? That would be 50% more time to spend with your family, enrich your relationships, or spend on your own projects. It’s easy. Here’s how to do it.

Reclaim 50% of Your Free Time

Make a list of all your commitments. Only list the things you can really give up. Work and family do not count. List all volunteer activities, hobbies, sports leagues, exercise time, seasonal activities…anything that is outside work and family time.
List the time for each one. For each activity, list how much time it takes per week, month and year. For some activities, you may participate seasonally. Or it may be an ongoing activity that requires attention every week.
Draw a line through enough activities to free up 50%. This will mean a trade off. You may find that some activities go very quickly; others may be a hard sell. Keep going until you have freed up 50%.
Resign. For those activities that involve other people or organizations, resign as soon as possible. Like immediately.

I recently went through this exercise myself. Here is my list:

Church webmaster 4 hrs weekly/16 hrs monthly/208 yearly
Church computer support 2/8/104
Church software librarian 1/4/52
Policy and procedures committee 0/4/36
Newsletter assembly 0/0/36
Chamber singers 0/4/36
Laura Earnest Blog 3/12/144
Simple Productivity Blog 6/24/280
Personal blog 1/4/52
NaNoWriMo 0/0/120
Women’s group 3/12/144

What was left when I was done pruning? SimpleProductivityBlog, my personal blog (cut back), NaNoWriMo, the Women’s group, and Chamber Singers.

I’m taking some time to figure out what I’m going to do with the free time, but in the short term, it is nice not to have those commitments hanging over me.

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