How I Make Time for Everything (Even with a Full-Time Job)
I used to say, "I don't have enough time." In reality, I just had my priorities wrong, and I have since significantly improved my time management skills.
So much so that I have been asked a few times how I consistently post YouTube videos and blog posts, write a newsletter every week, and exercise nearly every day while having a full-time job.
Well, in this article, I want to break down my process and hopefully offer some tips to anyone who is struggling to manage all their priorities.
What time have I got?
I always start by auditing my schedule and seeing what time I have to really play with.
As I have a full-time job as a data scientist, Monday to Friday, 9am – 5:30pm, are immediately blocked out. Sure, there could be pockets during the day, like lunch, where I could try other things, but I can't rely on that consistently.
Exercise and health are essential and non-negotiable because they are finite resources, and you can't just get "more health," so they are a priority.
I break my health into the following main categories:
- Sleep – Every night, 7–9 hours is a must (extensively backed by research). I usually go to bed at around 11 pm and wake up at 7 am, but this varies a bit on weekends.
- Hockey — I play three times a week, training on Tuesday and Thursday nights from 8 pm to 10 pm and matches on Saturday afternoons, usually taking up 12 pm to 6 pm of my day, but again can vary.
- Other Exercise – I like to have a run, gym session, and mobility session during the week to mix it up and ensure I am fit in all areas. Got to be able to touch those toes!
I keep my weekends and Friday nights completely free for any potential social events, as friendships and relationships are very important.
You can now see how I am slowly filling the calendar with things I must do, and I can now determine my free pockets of time.
As I work from home most of the week, 7:30 am to 9 am morning is free for me, as well as an hour or two on Monday and Wednesday evenings after work.
I try to do all my personal project work in these designated blocks and not rely on weekends, as my availability varies greatly and its useful to have some down time.
That's not to say I don't use weekends; there is just a lot more flexibility in my schedule then, so it isn't easy to pencil in the exact time I will have every week.
After performing this time analysis, I have managed to unlock nearly 10 hours a week for personal work, which is a lot of time when you think about it!
I recommend carrying out a similar audit of your weekly schedule. Add everything you must do to a calendar to determine your free space. Your "musts" might be different to mine and thats fine. However, by just writing them down, it will naturally help you stick to them.
I colour code my calendar to make it look nicer, but you obviously don't have to do this (although highly recommended)!
Priorities & Objective
As much as I would love to, I can't do everything.
So, I try to get clear in my head what is the priority and what's not. That way, I don't get upset when I am not making progress on things that are not a priority because I have given myself license to "suck" at them, so to speak.
The way I have designed my schedule, my day job, health and relationships should take care of themselves and run on autopilot (hopefully). I found treating myself like robot for this is really useful and not giving myself any chance to skip on these priorities.
So, I now need to decide what's the next important thing in my life. For me, it's working on my so-called "content business" with the goal to:
Provide advice and information to help people break into data science.
Very simple and straight to the point.
What is the best way to meet my objective? Well, I'd like to create YouTube videos and write blog posts because they're accessible, easy to consume, and, not to mention, I really enjoy them!
Other things like LinkedIn and X (Twitter) posts also help the "business", but these are a by-product of my YouTube videos and blog posts, and I am just re-distributing the same content in different places to reach and help more people.
Finally, I write a weekly newsletter (shameless plug here) about Data Science, which I don't overly optimise and treat somewhat like a hobby. However, I try to get a post out every week, which I have managed for the past year!
So the priorities are:
- 1️⃣ Youtube & Medium
- 2️⃣ Newsletter
- 3️⃣ LinkedIn & X (Twitter)
Using these priorities, I can now fill my calendar with what I should do in my personal work blocks. Every morning will be related to YouTube and Medium. This can be anything like writing, scripting, filming, editing, making a thumbnail, etc.
For my newsletter, as it only takes ~2–3 hours to write, I often have enough time on Fridays and weekends to do this. I don't pencil it in, but it always in my mind to do.
The remaining things are not essential, so I will just do them when I feel like it, but I will allow myself to not worry about them.
Pure Focus
Over time, I have realised there is no superpower to getting things done, but the closest thing is focus.
Last year, I read Stolen Focus by Johann Hari, and it blew my mind. It discusses the current Attention Epidemic that affects our ability to concentrate on tasks.
A shocking statistic from the book is that the average US office worker only focuses on a task for three minutes, and the average college student is 65 seconds. mental.
There are many reasons why this is happening, such as social media, exhaustion, and nutrition, which are just three of the twelve reasons described in the book.
Focus is essential to produce high-quality work and use your "personal work blocks" effectively. These are the following things I have done that have helped me to concentrate during my working sessions in all areas of life.
- Delete Social Media Apps: I never had TikTok and have deleted Instagram, X (Twitter), YouTube and Facebook from my phone. By deleting these apps, I pick up my phone much less and spend less time on it.
- Tech Out Of Reach: My phone is now nearly always on silent mode and in a different room to the one I am working in, likewise with my iPad. This creates extra friction because I physically have to standup and go to another room.
- Digital Minimalism and Clean: I have unsubscribed from nearly all emails that provide no value. Similarly, I only have notifications enabled on apps that I really need to see and have deleted any apps that I never use. This reduces the amount of distracting "pings" I receive when working.
These basic habits and tips have really helped me and I recommend you try them. It's amazing how much you can get done if all your energy and attention is 100% channeled.
You can read my full post on the book here.
