7 Simple Steps to Having More Free Time

Do you wish you had more time every day? Do you wake up in the mornings full of good intentions of all the things you're going to accomplish every day, only to find that you never achieve even one-tenth of what you wanted to do?

Well the good news is that it is possible to have "more" time every day to do the things you really want to do.

But first you must be wondering how on earth you can create more hours in a day? The honest answer is that you can't. But what you can do is re-arrange what you do in a day to leave more time for what you really want to do. And I have the 7 steps you need.

Step 1 - Decide. You can't have more time to do what you want to do if you don't know what you want to do. So step number one is to decide what you want. Sit down and give this question plenty of thought. You must have absolute clarity about what it is that you want to do.

It's no good saying, "Well I don't want to work here any more." You already know what you don't want, so you need to know exactly what you do want. If you're not sure what you want then answer this question. If you could do anything you wanted without fear of failure or lack of time or money, what would you be doing right now?

Once you're absolutely sure of what it is you want to do, it's time to find the time (pardon the pun) to do it.

Step 2 - Work Hard. You'll never have the time or the calmness of mind to do what you want to do if you have other things on your mind. And believe it or not, working less than you're capable of in ANYTHING you do will hold you back physically, mentally or both.

So if you have to go to work every day, concentrate your job and give it 100% of your effort. If you don't, you'll never get that feeling of "job satisfaction." Feeling satisfied that you've worked hard when you leave your job at the end of the day can give you a calmness of mind and lightness of step. You'll be able to go home and forget about work because you'll have no niggling doubts about whether you did something wrong or that someone might find out that you didn't do the work you were supposed to do.

And the same principle applies at home. Whether you're cooking a meal, sweeping the floor or cleaning the car, you'll get a satisfied feeling after you've done it right instead of cranky thoughts of, "I don't know why I bothered!" Not only that, but your home and car will look better.

Eliminating the nagging thoughts of "I didn't work hard enough/didn't do it properly" will help quiet your mind and ease your day.

Step 3 - Cut Down on TV Viewing. There's no doubt about it. Watching too much TV can drain your brain and cumulatively waste years of your life. They say that the average family has the TV on for 7 hours a day. Can you imagine how much more you could do if you had an extra 7 hours a day? Even if you don't watch TV for that long you could still cut down on your TV viewing habits.

Or how about doing other things at the same time? You could tackle that big stack of ironing you've been promising yourself that you'd do. Or what about running on the treadmill while you watch TV to keep up with the exercise you always say you're going to do but never quite find the time?

TV is a killer of time because once you turn it on, it's never as easy to turn it off.

Step 4 - Reduce Time Spent on Other Things. It's all too easy to waste time doing the less important things. For instance, just because the lawn needs mowing doesn't mean that you need to spend more time doing it than is necessary. So before you mow the lawn, plan the best way to do it so that you only go around the garden once with the mower instead of running backwards and forwards to get the bits you've missed. And buy a lawn mower that's suitable for your size of garden and has a large grass box so that you don't have to waste time emptying it too often.

And the same applies to other necessary, but not important, jobs that have to be done like cleaning and shopping. Buy quality cleaning products that cut your cleaning time in half. And only shop once a week or once a month and use a shopping list so that you don't forget anything.

Step 5 - Always Go For Quality. If you always buy the cheapest things then that's exactly what you'll always have; cheap things. Instead, buy products that are of better quality. That way they're more efficient for their purpose and you'll have to buy replacements less.

Always keep in mind the old saying that quality is remembered long after price is forgotten.

Step 6 - Eliminate Debt. Believe it or not, having excess debt can slow you down and take up a lot of your time. This is because having worries about debt can occupy your mind when you should be thinking about other things. It can also make you feel down and depressed.

The simple solution is to set up automatic repayments for all your debts and other bills and then forget about them. That way your debts will get paid and you'll be free to concentrate on things that are important to you.

At the same time, if there other worries that are constantly on your mind, take steps to eliminate these too so that your mind can be completely unburdened.

Step 7 - Never, Ever Multi-task. In this fast-paced technological age it's all too easy to feel as though you're always not doing enough and so multi-tasking seems like the logical answer.

But trying to do too many things at once can really slow you down. It's impossible to do something properly if half your mind is trying to focus on something else at the same time. Even a simple situation of multi-tasking such as reading a magazine while you eat your lunch can leave you feeling as though you missed eating your food because your mind was distracted by the magazine. At the same time your reading speed is slowed with the distraction of eating and drinking. It's far better to eat your lunch first so that you can enjoy your food before settling down to a relaxing read.

And the same principle applies to everything you do. You have to practise compartmentalizing your mind so that you can give your full attention to absolutely everything you do.

And once you master all these 7 steps, you'll be more relaxed, more productive and have 'more' time to do whatever it is you really want to do.