Optimising your time as an adult
January is already over. I don’t know about you, but that was the fastest January I have witnessed in a long while. I’m shocked how fast it went. It’s a regular occurrence that as an adult, it feels like time moves faster than when I was a kid. It felt like the ages 10 to 18 took 20 years, but from 19 to nearly 26, it feels like only 2 or 3 years have gone by. With 40+ hour work weeks, it can feel like we are losing time to capitalism and general life admin, and not having the chance to feel like we are living and making the most of our adulting lives.
So, it’s time to look at optimising your time as an adult. And I am using myself experimentation, to document my experience.
Summary of me
I hate chores. Cooking, cleaning and general maintenance around the house bothers me. It feels like I am losing time. I purposefully buy clothes with materials that don’t need ironing after washing, because I feel like ironing is literally a waste of my time. I have also grown up in a household where I was praised for doing things before I was asked, and where it was normal/expected of me to do things around the house. Now I live in my own house, I still have to do those things, because I’m not willing to part with the cash to pay someone else to do it.
My way of optimising is to make my future life as easy as possible, because I know what my energy levels are in the present, but not the future. Now you know a bit more about me, the following optimisation techniques might make more sense.
Me thinking of ways to optimise my time better, because I don’t want to feel like I am losing my time to general adulting and my job
But not spending too much time thinking, because that’s not optimal (haha)
Concrastination
I did not create this term, I described my general mindset to getting things done, and the Google AI said it was this. Concrastination is the opposite to procrastination (the act of putting things off).
This is where I literally tell myself, ‘If I do this now, then I don’t have to do this later’. When I feel my energy slowly depleting, and know I’ve still got somethings to achieve with the temptation to just sit and do nothing, I tell myself this. That’s because I can put things off but then I will have to exert myself down the line to get things done, and I don’t know what my energy will be like. It’s way worse to have to do things, when I am really not feeling it, compared to doing it when I have the energy for it, but no drive.
When I was younger, this behaviour was amplified by getting things done before I was asked, and so I was rewarded with getting more time to spend to do what I wanted (which was normally reading books).
When I use this
I find that this method to optimise my time, works when I already have the energy to do things, but would prefer to put it off because I can’t be bothered. It’s very handy for the general chores. If I have had a very busy week, and my body physically won’t let me get on with things, no amount of “If I do this now” will work. How I deal with this is later down in the post btw.
How it optimises my time
Doing things earlier, knowing that I can do them, saves the time later in the day/future when they would have to get done by. This means I save on time, so I can do whatever I want, and reduce that feeling of ‘losing’ my free time to adulting life.
2 – 5 minutes rule
This is where I start a task for up to 5 minutes to get me started on it. The aim is that just starting normally gets the brain and body motivated to continue and finish the work. Sometimes I just lack the motivation to start a task, and the majority of my energy will be needed to start the task, because once I start I can normally get into it. So, I take a breath, and tell myself to give it 5 minutes, and if after 5 minutes I still don’t want to do it, then I stop.
When I use this
I use this at the gym and at work. When I use this method, it’s because the temptation to procrastinate is too strong, that trying to concrastinate is not even a fathomable idea. As much as I enjoy working out and enjoy the endorphins, sometimes when I have to hold myself accountable (i.e. not an exercise class and without a workout buddy), I just don’t feel up to it. So, I go to the gym and get on one exercise, normally one that I do enjoy and do 3 sets of 8-10 reps on it. If after completing that I still feel incredibly deterred from continuing, I pick up my stuff and go home.
I could stay and do a half workout, but this is about time optimisation. It wouldn’t be optimal to force myself to stay in the gym and do a workout at half energy. I am very active throughout the day with walks, so I don’t have to go to the gym. So, I might as well go home, and do something more productive with that time. When it comes to work, I have multiple projects going on at a time, so if I don’t want to do one, I can move to another after the 5 mins, or go for a short walk, to clear my brain before trying again.
How it optimises my time
Using 5 minutes to see if I can get myself into a task, is better than using an hour and not progressing. Especially, since most tasks can be finished quickly when I get into them, so losing 5 minutes on a task I am struggling to continue, is better than taking more time than it would have taken to complete, when I had the energy.
Staring at my screen hoping for the motivation to complete the work to hit me in the face (lol)
Bare minimum expectation
Ok, so the first 2 methods for time optimisation, make me seem like an absolute boss at managing my time. But there are times when I can’t do either and it’s on tasks that I cannot avoid, what do I do then? I set a bare minimum expectation for myself.
This is where I make sure something, no matter how small, is done to make it a little easier to finish off in the future. Whatever I do is not completed, but it’s started and paused so when I have more drive to do it, then it’s already started. My future self is still incredibly grateful for that because then I already avoid having to do the 2-5 mins rule, because it’s not difficult to start it, I just need to finish it. (which seems like better logic in my head).
When I use this
I tend to use this on my meal preps that I don’t fully carry out. On busy weekends, where I don’t have the full time available to cook during the day (and I rarely have the energy to do the full prep at night), I will do some light prepping of some ingredients instead. I’ll boil some rice, because that’s an easy low maintenance thing to cook, and where possible, I boil it with some veggies, so there is already the veg aspect covered. I also throw an easy protein into the oven, like salmon or pork belly, and I season them lightly if I am not feeling the drive to fully go out on seasoning, but at least it still tastes nice. It’s 10 minutes to do the rice, and up to 30 mins for the protein. In 30 minutes, I can ensure there is food prepped for 2 – 3 days’ worth of lunch or dinners. And knowing that, makes me sleep happy that day. I can come back in the future, to prepare some more meals when I have more energy and time, but as a bare minimum there is food in my fridge that is ok in nutrition and taste, to get me through the workday.
How it optimises my time
A small amount of progress in the present, is a huge benefit for my future self. This method works really well with procrastination, because putting something off to the last minute is not great, but it feels a whole lot better when a part of it was already done ahead of the time. You can even finish faster, and save yourself the grief of having to find the motivation to start it as well as complete it.
Acceptance and move on
I’m not going to lie to you, I’m not superhuman and I think I am still running on the new year happy vibes. Because sometimes you just can’t even do the bare minimum, and the thing is that’s ok. Adulting is hard, tolling and just downright annoying sometimes. You just want to sit in a wormhole, where time stops just so you can catch your breath, but that’s not an option. So, you have to make a sacrifice sometimes, and take the time to take that breather, knowing that the planet and time isn’t stopping for you. It sucks, especially since we can often think we have to ‘keep going’ every single second of the day. But your body and brain will both tell you to stop and you can’t fight them. So, you give them what they need, a break, a moment or a distraction.
We are only human, and we can only do so much. Don’t you think that if humans could be switched on and fully optimised 24/7, capitalism would have figured that out by now and be exploiting it? So, yeah sometimes you just have to accept it’s not going to happen and move on to something else. You can always come back later and try again, but trying to do something that the universe is fighting you on, will feel like you are running into a brick wall. And there is no need to do that to yourself.
When I use this
Work (lol), but also every once in a while, I just feel like nothing is working in my favour and I don’t have the drive, motivation or consistency to try. So, I take a step back and do anything else other than the thing that was fighting against me. It feels like if I don’t get it done, that it’s the end of the world, but since I am not a world leader or a leader of anything other than my own life, I have to remind myself that it’s not that serious.
How it optimises my time
Which is more optimal: Sitting and staring at my computer screen for hours trying to get something done, or using that time to progress on something else and maybe coming back later to try again?
TL;DR
- Sometimes it feels like time is flying by, and you barely have the chance to experience your life in the little free time we have available – so optimising your time as an adult is a way to combat that feeling
- Concrastination – The opposite of procrastination, telling yourself that “If I do it now, then I don’t have to do it later” – This leaves you with time later in the day, to do whatever you wanted with it.
- 2 – 5 mins rule – Set yourself to start the task for a short period of time to get you into it. If after that time has passed and you still can’t get into it, then take a pause from it and do something else. This saves you from wasting time trying to do something, that you could achieve much quicker if you took a break from it.
- Set the bare minimum – Do the bare minimum, so then future you doesn’t have to worry about starting from the beginning. Future you will be happy that you at least started it, even though it’s not fully complete.
- Acceptance and move on – Sometimes it’s just not meant to be, and it will be a waste of your time trying to do something that doesn’t get completed.
