How I Carve Out Time for Me and My Projects
Modern day life is filled with distractions. From intrusive notifications on our phones, to infinite videos that vie for our attention on the vast array of social media platforms that beckon us to fritter away our time, to everyday tasks that must be done just to keep up. If you work a 9 to 5 job like me, then you somehow have to squeeze that in too, alongside a social life and time with family. If you have ambitions beyond that, such as starting your own business on the side, or a hobby you wat to take seriously, then you are talking about cramming all that into the few precious hours you have after work and into the weekend. Where is the space to step back and recalibrate, time to rest, time to work on things outside of work?
I have begun to ponder this question with mounting curiosity and intensity. I’ve identified two main problems that I face in this situation, and that I believe you likely do as well. Firstly, working a 9 to 5 job is tiring. Trying to focus on anything that long, for 5 days per week is a lot to ask any human being to keep up. But somehow it has become the norm, and we need to deal with it accordingly.
Secondly, I’m caught in a seemingly endless cycle of consuming information and entertainment, 90% of which will never be any use to me. If you’ve ever finished work and fell straight into the rabbit hole of watching Netflix or YouTube videos then you may have an idea of what I am talking about. By the time we finish working at our jobs we can often feel tired and uninterested in doing anything but relaxing for the rest of the evening. Which makes sense if we’ve spend the entire day working! But if you have ambitions to pursue start a business or pursue a hobby (especially if you are serious about it), then we need to become aware of the disconnect between how we are spending our time, and how we WANT to spend our time. It’s all too easy to stagnate because it’s easier to fall onto the couch and binge a series rather than actively pursue the things that matter to us. I’ve done this, and I can bet you have too.
However, noticing the disconnect and taking action are two very different things. I first started realising this disconnect a little over two years ago, and still have not fully broken free of the trap of procrastinating and putting off tasks that would help me pursue my goal of starting a side business. Part of this is because it is difficult, and frankly a little scary, but it’s also because it is all too easy to fall back into the routine of wasting time endlessly indulging in shallow entertainment for hours on end every single day.
To be clear, I am not condemning entertainment in it’s totality, but when I take the time to observe and reflect on myself and the people around me, it’s clear to see that we spend a disproportionate amount of time consuming media apparently just for the sake of passing time. I have definitely been guilty of throwing something on Netflix without a real desire to watch it, just because I didn’t know what else I should be doing in that moment. These moments are far too common compared to the fleeting moments I have spend trying to actually start a business. How can I ever expect to start a business, and achieve other goals if I only invest a fraction of the time I do into shallow entertainment, every single week?
My answer is that I can’t. If I am unwilling to give up some of that time to reinvest back into myself and my goals, then I’d be deluded to expect anything other than failure. I’ll share with you three steps I am taking to help me take back direction in my life and my goals.
Step 1: Taking Control of My Time
I’m taking back control of my schedule. No longer will I have huge chunks of my day spent mindlessly and without direction, unless I have specifically planned to allow myself such a break. Taking these sorts of breaks still have there place, but I am taking control of when and how I take those breaks.
I use Google Calendar to plan my days. By breaking up time into 30 minute blocks I can clearly see how much time I am dedicating to any given task, and creating a pseudo deadline that I am working towards. This helps me to work more efficiently and also to know when to stop doing something. I am still playing around with exactly how long to make any given blocks, for example, I’ve seen some people suggest 15 minutes, I’ve seen others suggest 45 minutes or 1 hour blocks. Test out different methods of working and see what feels right. The key to all of this is to take what works for you and leave the rest.
Step 2: Prioritizing Key Tasks
When planning my day, I take stock of the most important tasks and get them out of the way first. Ask yourself: what tasks if completed would move me the greatest distance towards my goal? Schedule this as the very first thing to do every single day. Watch as you start moving a little closer to your goals every single day.
I place strong emphasis on trying to get my most important task done in the morning, and preferably before any other distractions can even arise. As creator and entrepreneur Dan Koe says, the morning hours before the rest of the world is awake are sacred. When there is no chance of being distracted by notifications, phone calls, or pesky emails, our ability to focus solely on the task at hand is amplified, allowing us to do our best work.
For those of you out there who think of yourselves as night owls, or being unable to wake up early in the morning, I know you are probably feeling adverse to this already - and I can relate. During my years of university I often started study sessions at 8pm and didn’t finish until 2am or later, so I know where you’re coming from, and I also know you are extremely skeptical of your own ability to get up early and work. But I urge you to experiment with it. Give yourself 2-3 weeks to test out waking up at an earlier time than usual, enough to give yourself at least 45 minutes to work on your passion or goals before your job or studies begin for the day. When doing this, prioritize getting a good nights sleep (a minimum of 8 hours, but this can be adjusted to give more or less time depending on your personal needs). I also would not immediately try to get up at 5am. Start with something more achievable and gradually move the dial back until you hit a sweet spot. As someone who typically got up at around 8am before starting work at 9am, I initially pushed back my wake up time to 7:30am. I kept it there for a few weeks before moving back to 7am, then 6:30am - which I have found works well for me. It allows me to get up, do my morning routine and get an hour or so of personal project work in before starting work for the day.
Step 3: Take High Quality Breaks
Planning breaks into my day is absolutely crucial. Taking time away from work and allowing your mind to enter a more open, creative state of mind allows us to be more focused when we come back to work, and gives us space to be creative and process ideas that can actively help us do our work. Many creative and entrepreneurial greats swear by taking breaks to better the quality of their work. Steve Jobs frequently took walks in between periods of work. Charles Darwin took time to write letters and correspondence to his friends and family between bouts of work. Even Bill Gates says that he purposefully does a lot of activities like washing dishes by hand rather than using a dishwasher because it gives him time to not actively think about other tasks, but grants him time to not be actively thinking, allowing him to decompress and open his mind to wander and contemplate in an open-minded way.
Spend breaks doing high quality activities like going for walks to clear your head, re-center and get much needed fresh air and time outside. Reading books is another great way to spend breaks. Choose books that are exciting or interesting to you, self help books, novels or auto-biographies are all great options. Initially, choosing books that are exciting or interesting to you is more important than choosing ones you think will give you the most value. This is because we are trying to form new habits, and we want to reduce the friction for doing this activity as much as possible, especially if you don’t do much reading at the moment. If you don’t want to physically read books, listen to audio books on apps like Audible. I often switch between the two. I’m currently reading a physical novel (Warbreaker by Brandon Sanderson) and listening to a non-fiction book (The Pathless Path by Paul Millerd) on Audible.
Finally, socializing and spending time with friends and family is also a great way to take your rests. Friends and family are often thought of as a priority in people’s lives, but they are also one of the first things that get cut out when we start to focus on work. Remember what matters to you, and make time for those things. You will be happier for it.
Start testing these principles out in your own life and see if you can make more time for the things that you value most. Don’t be afraid to veer from the tracks that I have laid out here, or what others say you should do. Take what works for you and leave the rest. Life is a journey that we all walk as individuals, there is no single track that we all follow. As Bruce Lee famously said “Adapt what is useful, reject what is useless, and add what is specifically your own”.

Have a great day.
Jack McAllister