How do you find the time to accomplish all of the things you do?
I get asked this question a lot, usually after I’ve been introduced at an event, where they mentioned I have a four degrees, four children, a world championship medal, have founded multiple companies and am on the state athletic commission, was a developer on 31 educational games and published multiple scientific articles and a book on mat work. It’s a lot. I also have nine grandchildren, two chinchillas, a large dog, turtle and a husband.
Found Time
In my spare time that I don’t have, I write a LinkedIn newsletter. You can see the latest one here, in which I wrote about “found time”. It received more comments than almost anything I have ever written online. Friends and colleagues wrote me emails or called me, people I did not know stopped me at a conference and at a judo tournament, saying, “I could not get over your point about found time.” To be clear, that was not all the newsletter was about, but that was almost all anyone wanted to mention.
In brief, I get a lot done because I find time in five- or twenty-minute increments every day. Waiting in line at Starbucks? I read and answer an email. Waiting on a plane to board? I read an article to get background information on a new game we’re developing. Driving in traffic, I will listen to a podcast in Spanish or practice my pitch to potential customers.
Because I have answered my emails, responded to voice mails and made the vet appointment during that found time, when I do sit down at my computer, I have more uninterrupted hours to write code, a game design document or a proposal.
Grabbed Time
Many people in my life – my sister, mother, children – criticize my “all work and no play” lifestyle. Most of them have learned that they should shut the hell up because I like my life. I like the work I do and I can’t think of a single person I work with that I wouldn’t be delighted to hang out with over a beer or dinner at a five-star restaurant.
Still, my family and friends do have a point. There are things I’d like to do more of in my daily life. Over a year ago, I wrote a post here about “If you wanted to you would.”where I listed several things I wanted to do. These included:
- Create a web app with AI – which I did but then decided that was not the approach I wanted to take and then began rewriting the whole thing in JavaScript.
- Finish four more games I had sketched out – I finished three of those and am working on four more
- Go to Dominica – I didn’t go to Dominica but I did go to Curaçao for three weeks.
There were other items on my list, including writing every day, which I said I was going to do and didn’t, and going to Spain for a few months.
This is where the idea of “grabbed time” comes in, as in, you are never going to get to those things that take a huge time commitment unless you grab the time. Starting today, I just decided that I was going to write for an hour each day something that was not a game design, a progress report or a conference paper, but just me, writing. Some people have a set schedule for writing, workouts, etc. but that doesn’t work with my lifestyle. So, I grabbed an hour out of each day to write. I had planned to do it from 9 to 10, but today I took a break and wrote from 7-8 instead.
I have already scheduled a trip to Spain for next July and am working on setting up another, earlier trip in January. Realistically, unless I quit working, there is never going to be a full week when I have nothing to do. For the first trip, I’ll probably work most days, like I did in Curaçao. Seriously, what’s the point of having a job where you can work anywhere if you just stay home? In July, we are walking the Camino de Santiago for a week and most of that time, I will probably be too tired to work in the evening. No one will die if I don’t get back to them within the week, so I am just doing it.
How do you manage to grab a lot of time? You quit losing it, but that’s the topic of my next post.
