We all want to do more.
There are books we want to read, places we need to visit, and restaurants we have to try. So what do we do? We buy those books, we bookmark travel deals, and we make reservations and dinner plans with friends.
Fast forward to the end of the year. We have a shelf of books we have yet to read, a bookmark bar of expired travel offers, and we’re still pushing our dinner plans out another month due to conflicts with work.
We have goals and we take steps to meet those goals, but we constantly find ourselves with less achievement and more unfinished projects in our lives.
Life is busy and there’s a lot going on. This isn’t going to change. Beyond the demands of work and family life, we also must contend with the constant noise of marketers (online and offline) telling us about something new. We’re stuck in a world of perpetual demands and it keeps us from getting anything more than the minimum done.
But we still have moments of free time.
We’re all busy but everyone can recall those moments of free time that in retrospect would have been better spent on another activity. You filled up that free hour with mindless internet browsing rather than get through another chapter of the book you just bought. On an even larger scale, you spend your PTO in sporadic suboptimal ways instead of grouping it up for more fulfilling experiences. Some claim that the demands of work are just too great to ever take any substantial time off. It is true that sometimes work has to come first and the demands of the day keep you from getting outside. More often than not the issue isn’t that you’re busy all the time but that you’re busy by the time you’ve figured out what you want to do.
Last minute and spur-of-the-moment doesn’t work for taking meaningful time off.
The same reason we waste time online over finishing our latest book is what keeps us from using our time off from work in an ideal way.
That reason is planning.
We never have time to travel because we don’t set ourselves up to have the option. We work and organize our lives in a manner that usually gives us a few days of work with not much time for anything else and a weekend to do as we please. We operate to this rhythm. We schedule (or put off) work with an expectation of how long it will take to complete given our usual weekly timeframe. Sometimes this is managed with charts, sometimes with Outlook calendars, and sometimes we simply juggle it all in our heads. We find a system that works and we run with it. These systems help improve our productivity and get us through the workweek. The problem is that suddenly introducing a change to this cycle can be difficult.
When you live week to week or project to project everything is interconnected. You can’t simply decide to take a long weekend because you have your weekly team meeting on Mondays. Your project ran into another challenge and everyone has to be around to deal with it. You promised your boss that your report would be done in two weeks since you have another report due next week from another agreement a few weeks back. We weave in and out of commitments and by the time we sit down to clear our heads we’re pulled away to something else. It’s no wonder we never go anywhere.
And this isn’t just the workplace.
The same reason we aren’t using that rare downtime between projects to go on a trip or even plan for one is the same cause of why we don’t make the time to finish our books or catch a movie while it’s still in theatres.
But choice also plays a role.
It’s reasonable to say we couldn’t travel because we didn’t plan for it, but we also chose not to plan for it during the downtime we had. We also chose to watch TV instead of reading or seeing a movie. Planning is the problem but choice (or lack thereof) is the enabler.
The reason we forgo the books, movies, and trips for web surfing and business as usual is because it’s the path of least resistance. It’s a lot easier to skim articles online than it is to get up, grab a book, find the page you left off on, and start reading. It’s also a lot easier to work for five days and rest for two than reorganize your projects and commitments for a week off.
It’s clear that planning is needed. We need to know ahead of time what we’re going to do. We need to be able to remember that when we have a free moment we need to read chapter two in our book or that we have to move our meetings and project commitments in September for the travel deal we purchased back in July. But we also have to make the choice and commit to reading that book even if it means getting up from the computer to dig it out of our bag, or telling our boss and team that we need to use our PTO in September.
So what can we do now that we’ve recognized the issue?
We previously looked at how writing down your resolutions for the new year can help you act on them, and that same reasoning applies here. The next time you get a moment to yourself begin compiling a list of some things you’d like to do if you had the time. This could be books to read, shows to catch up on, places to visit, and anything else that comes to mind.
It doesn’t matter how much you write down (and you should be writing it down) you just need something to start with. You’ll use this list as a foundation for things to do going forward. By itself, the list can be a helpful centralized place to look when trying to find something to do in the moment with little time to plan. It can help remind you of all the great things you want to do and see so you don’t fall into the easiest (and less fulfilling) thing that comes to mind.
However, if you really want to make the most of it you’ll need to combine it with some additional planning. First, identify some common themes relating to your list. Do you have a lot of books on there? Places to visit? Any movies coming out this year you know you want to see? Consider what this list tells you about yourself and the experiences you truly value in life. These are the things you really want to do.
Now make time for them.
For some things, you know exactly when (or around when) you want to do them. If you know a movie is coming out on October 22nd then find the spot in your calendar for when you will see that movie before it leaves theatres. The earlier you do this the more likely it will be that you will organize the rest of your life with this in mind and increase the odds of doing it.
If it’s a general desire like reading a book you can be a little more strategic. Maybe start out with a plan to read one book on your list a month. This goal is important because it is something you can regularly evaluate. If you just decided to read X books by the end of the year it becomes very easy to say you’ll start next week or next month. By making the end of each month a check to see if you’re still on track, you’ll improve your odds of sticking to your plan and regain focus if you get distracted. You know what book you want to read from your list and you know how long you have to get it done. This added pressure also helps keep the goal top of mind so you don’t forget it and end up lounging around online instead.
Larger goals are where planning shines the most. Travel goals are some of the most challenging to meet. They can be expensive, require a lot of research, and impact your daily routine more than anything else. It’s no wonder so much PTO goes unused, it’s a ton of work to use it!
But not with our blueprint.
You’ve already taken care of the first step by identifying where you’d like to go. If you have multiple locations and can only afford (or find the time for) one big trip then pick the destination that fits your constraints. Knowing what you want to do, find a time on your calendar to do it. You’ll likely need to pick a date far into the future but that’s why you’re doing this now. Just like planning to see that movie, you’re setting aside this time so that you can plan around it. Knowing you’ll be out for eight days several weeks or even months ahead means that by the time you have to leave your life will be in a place where it’s alright to put things down. This is because you’ve been taking care of business with the loss of those eight days in mind. Also, knowing when and where you’re going in advance will give you the time you need to prep for your trip in a less stressful (or last minute) way.
There’s no promise something won’t come up and force you to improvise, that’s life, but you can plan for that. And if all else fails you still have a list of activities to fall back on at your disposal.
2016 will be the year you live more of your life the way you want to.
And it all begins with a simple list.
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