Making time for things that matter to us is important for our mental and physical wellbeing.

If you’d like to find out how to make time for things that matter, so you have a more balanced life, and so you can start to achieve the things that are important to you, then here are some helpful suggestions.

MAKE A LIST OF THE THINGS THAT MATTER TO YOU

The best place to start when making time for things that matter is to ask yourself what these things are, then you can write them down and start to spend time on them.

There’s no right or wrong answer to this question, just take some time to think about what really matters to you, and write it down. Some of these things could include:

• Hobbies
• Starting a business
• Writing a book
• Family
• Work
• Health and fitness levels
• Clean eating
• Slow living

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HOW TO MAKE TIME FOR THINGS THAT MATTER

Once you know what matters to you, it’s time to start making time for them.

Here are some ways to make time for the things that matter to you.

REDUCE THE AMOUNT OF TIME YOU SPEND ON THINGS THAT DON’T MATTER

Without realising it, you could be spending a lot of time working on things that don’t matter.

A great way to see where your time is going is to track it over a few days.

Record the tasks that you do and how long you spend on them, then at the end of the day you can easily see where you’ve spent too much time versus where you haven’t spent enough.

You can then use this information to change the structure of your days going forward, so you spend the most time on the things that matter to you.

SET SOME BOUNDARIES

If there’s something in your life that’s not a priority for you, but you still need to do it, such as your job, tasks around the home, or family commitments, set boundaries around how much time you dedicate to them.

For example, don’t check work emails outside of work hours or on weekends, don’t spend every spare second cleaning your home, and don’t go to every family commitment.

This leads to the next way on how you can make time for things that matter, which is to say no.

SAY NO

Saying no to things that we don’t want to do is hard, but saying no to something means saying yes to something else that’s important to you.

Before saying yes to anything, think about whether it’s something you actually want to do, and if it’s not politely decline.

There may be situations that you can’t say no to, such as work commitments. That’s okay, say yes but don’t overextend yourself and take on more than you should, or make sure you have strong boundaries around what it is you have to do so you don’t go above and beyond the time that’s required to get it done.

PRIORITISE YOUR TIME

When deciding what to do with your day, make sure that you prioritise anything that works towards something that matters to you.

If spending time with family is important, make that the first thing you do.

If getting a work project done is important, then allocate enough time to get it done in the time of day where your energy levels are at their highest.

Before writing any to do list, or working out what you need to get done during the day, think about what your priorities are and make sure that you do them before getting onto the smaller tasks that you have, or the things that don’t move you towards achieving your priorities.

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DON’T COMPARE YOURSELF TO OTHERS

Comparing ourselves to others can change what we think matters to us, as well as make what matters to us seem unimportant.

Trying to keep up with others, or thinking that we don’t have a life as good as others is the number one way to feel demotivated, unhappy, and work on things that matter to them, but not us.

Staying focused on our own lives, and working towards things that matter to us, and not what matters to others, is the best way to achieve what you want in life.

How will you start to make time for the things that matter to you?
I’d love to hear about it in the comments section below.