How to Make Time for All the Things You Don’t Think You Have Time to Do

If you’ve ever wished there were more than 24 hours in a day, you’re not alone.

I personally would love to extend my Sundays by a few hours so I could spend more time wallowing in my many anxieties about Mondays.

Think of all the things you could do with just one extra hour a day. You could finally get your full 8 hours of sleep. Actually have time to make a real dinner. Go on a longer walk/sniff with your dog.

But we have yet to invent the closest thing to a time-turner that can be created without magic. We can’t invent more time.

All we can do is put the time we have to better use.

That’s obvious. Spend less time watching Twitch streams and more time reading or studying or practicing your juggling. Simple.

Unless the list of things you want to do only seems to get longer, rather than shorter, with each task you complete.

How does that happen? I don’t know. But if you’re anything like me, you’re always hoping for a new slot of free time to somehow open up so you can do the thing you suddenly feel inspired to do.

There are plenty of terrible ways to stretch out your time. Multitasking is one. Making reckless sacrifices for the sake of an extra hour or even an additional five minutes is definitely another.

I used to “make more time” by sleeping less. Every Saturday I was on campus during my senior year of college, I did my laundry at 4 a.m. Not only did I get it done faster (no sensible college student does their laundry at 4 a.m. on a Saturday, so I had the machines all to myself) — I also spent that time reading books for my literature classes instead of snoozing.

This is not a good strategy, though. I don’t remember most of the books I read for a grade that year. And I lost a lot of socks.

The self-proclaimed experts will scream that you have to sacrifice literally everything to Make Things Happen. But your health and sanity should not be one of them.

That whole belief that to do All The Things, you can only pick two of the three most important elements that make a person thrive? Forget it.

You can read all the books. Write all the blog posts. Eat, sleep, have a family, adopt a dog, hang out with friends, learn a second (third, fourth) language, get involved in your community, play an instrument …

You can fill your life with many things and still have time left to be in the present, and take care of yourself, and be happy.

Here’s what I discovered when overextending myself almost ruined my career before it even started.

You don’t have to do everything every day. If you thrive on routine, you might think that because you get up to work out on Monday, you have to do it on Tuesday, too.

For some, the key to doing “everything” is to do something different every day. On Monday, you might start your day with a jog. Maybe on Tuesday you can wake up at the same time, but read instead. On Wednesday, you can spend the first 30 minutes of your productivity time studying French.

When you try to squeeze everything into one day, it only makes sense you feel like quitting after a week. People aren’t built to function at full capacity 24/7. We’re not robots.

At least, I’m not. I can’t speak for you.

Don’t start something new unless you’ll have the energy to make it count. Every project I’ve ever regretted starting — and eventually abandoned — I gave up because I couldn’t put in the effort to make it good.

That’s what happens when you try to spend your free time writing a book when your free time existed because it required zero energy to fulfill. If you overwork yourself, you’re not going to be happy with anything you do. That free time is there for a reason.

It’s not always just about blocks of time. It’s also about whether or not you can do good work during the open spaces left in your life. After 8 p.m., I’m useless. I could use that time to do more of the things I don’t have time to do during the day. But I probably wouldn’t even enjoy it.

If it’s not the right fit, quit. I know quitting probably equates to failure in your mind, but that’s something we all have to learn to let go of if we want to fill our time with things that make us happy.

You shouldn’t keep doing something you don’t enjoy or don’t have the time or energy for because you somehow think it will get easier. More fun. Or that you’ll miraculously have more energy at some point. If it doesn’t work out, it’s for the better, not for the worse.

This might mean you try things you were excited about only to discover they’re just not for you — nor or ever. That’s OK. The only way to figure out the best ways to spend your time is to spend your time doing things until you figure out what fits and what doesn’t belong.

Some things can wait. This one has been the hardest for me to accept (and I’m still working on it). I’ve lived in my current city for almost a year, and I still haven’t found a voice coach like I meant to before I finished packing up my life. But I’m not putting it off on purpose. I just don’t have the time to put in quality practice hours at the moment.

But that doesn’t mean it’s too late, or that I’ll never make it a priority. I’m a little busy raising a husky and training for a 10K. It’s something I want to do, and I won’t feel satisfied until I do it. Now is just not the time.

Once I accepted some things weren’t meant to be right now, I was able to see that the time I was spending doing other things was still valuable. Don’t try to commit to something you know you can’t put your whole heart into right now. Maybe in the future, but not in the present.

Throughout your life, you’ll do many things you’ll love. And plenty of things you won’t. You’ll start projects that succeed and watch others fall apart. You’ll have days you feel invincible, and those you feel as though you’ll never accomplish even a single personal or professional goal.

Just remember that you’ll always have as much time as you need to do what needs to be done — even when it doesn’t feel like it. And there will always be time left over to do some of the things that bring you nothing but joy.

It won’t all get done in a day. There’s not enough time for that. But when you think about it — hopefully — the individual days will add up. There might not be time now. That doesn’t mean there won’t be later.

You don’t have to do it all, all at once. No one can. Except the robots.