How to find time in your schedule to learn new things

2024 Author: Malcolm Clapton | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 03:44

Constant self-improvement, training, acquisition of new skills are the key to a successful, fulfilling life. But there are only 24 hours in a day, and it seems that there is no free time left with work and household chores. In fact, this is not the case. And in order to find time for self-education, the first step is to competently organize your daily routine.

Time is the most valuable commodity we have. One minute gives way to another, and we can never turn back time. Therefore, we have to make the most of the time that we have.

We all want to live better. This can be achieved in a variety of ways, such as expanding your horizons and learning something new. Whatever it is (striving to write better, learning a new language, playing a musical instrument), acquisition is a proven way to advance your career, develop your brain and your learning abilities.

The benefits of learning new skills are obvious, but there is a problem - how to find time in a busy schedule to learn something new? And now we will try to answer this question.

Check your schedule

The first step is to be clear about how we spend our day.

Start by checking the calendar of everything you do throughout the day. It's easier to divide all cases into two categories (mark them in different colors):

1. Working hours (blue).
2. Free time (green).

For example, according to the schedule in Google Calendar, it immediately becomes clear that I have extra time from 15:30 to 17:30, before breakfast (if I get up early), lunch and time after 19:00.

This is more than enough to set aside 30-60 minutes a day to learn something new instead of hanging out on social networks or having lunch.

When you fully check your daily schedule, you will be surprised how much free time you have to learn a new skill.

Prioritize

To prioritize the schedule, we will use the US President's method -.

The essence of this method is that all tasks can be divided into four categories:

1. Urgent and important. Do this immediately.
2. Important, but not urgent. Decide when you will do it.
3. Urgent but not important. Delegate.
4. Not urgent and not important. Leave it for later.

	Urgently	Do not rush
Important	To write an article.	Charger. Call family and friends. Check articles. Long lasting business strategy.
No matter	Schedule an interview. Order tickets. Write a comment. Reply to inbox. Share this article.	Watch TV. Sit on social networks. Sort old letters.

»

To understand all the possibilities of this method, try to simply relate each of your tasks to one of the proposed categories.

Anything that is important is rarely urgent, and anything that is urgent is rarely important. Dwight Eisenhower

The first step is to focus on which of the current tasks you can delegate or postpone. If you have a task list or schedule, ask yourself:

• What is my main goal that I am trying to achieve? (Learn Spanish, increase your profits, etc.)
• Which of these tasks will bring me closer to my goal?
• Which of the ineffective tasks can I transfer, which can I completely refuse?

Too often, we tackle useless tasks and spend most of our day on them, instead of just delegating them or leaving them for later.

According to the statement, only 20% of our efforts bring 80% of the desired result, so make sure that you choose the tasks in the "do" and "solve" section of the Eisenhower matrix thoughtfully and strategically.

After filling out the Eisenhower Matrix, double-check your schedule and remove any tasks that you considered unimportant.

Being constantly busy is a form of laziness, laziness to think and understand your actions. Timothy Ferriss

Optimize

The next step is to optimize your schedule.

You can do this in three ways:

1. Reduce the time spent on working tasks. Even the most talented of us procrastinate. This is best explained in the well-known: work fills all the time allotted for it. This means that if you think a task will take two hours to complete, set yourself a one hour deadline. And you will be looking for a way to do everything before the appointed time.
2. Use the free time that you spend on unimportant things. Are there times during the day when you just do nothing or complete tasks to kill time? Perhaps you read entertaining articles every night, or check your mail more than five times a day. We all have this. Instead, use one of these not-so-important time slots to acquire new knowledge.
3. Collect all the pieces of free time together. This is the simplest life hack that will allow you to get the best from both methods. Multitasking doesn't work while you're doing important work, but it's an effective way to save time when you're messing around. For example, instead of diving headlong into social media or checking email, do it at the same time. By tying these tasks together, you may not be 100% focused, but you will save time. This will not affect your productivity (as long as you multitask in your spare time, not during work).

When you use one or all three of these ways to optimize your schedule, you will have a couple of hours to master a new skill.