4 Ways I Protect My Time

Loud neighbors. Screwing up a recipe. Extreme heat. A bad workout instructor. Wasting time.

What do they all have in common?

If you asked my husband what really gets under my skin, he would easily answer with any of those items listed above. I would even venture a guess that “wasting time” would be in the first sentence.

Even though our neighbors have been especially inconsiderate as of late, there is not much that irritates me more than wasting time.

In my business, I “control the controllables” and protecting my time in many ways is one of my controllables. Here’s how.

#1 - Turn off notifications for almost all apps on my phone.

I played around with screen time and app limits to control this, but it wasn’t cutting it. No apps leave a red notification on my screen except for my phone and iMessage app. It’s peaceful here. I like it. Try it!

I have a feeling that in order for this to serve you well you would probably need to be the kind of person that has 0 unread emails in their inbox or in their texts *usually.

That’s me. Sorry, not sorry.

#2 - Do not disturb from 8 pm - 8 am.

It doesn’t matter if it’s a workday or a weekend. Working in social media and with several clients means my phone *could go off at all hours of the day and night (if I let it ;)), but I don’t. At night I rarely pick up my phone because it’s silent. When a client does text me “after hours” I can respectfully ignore it until the morning.

At 8 am my phone changes from do not disturb to work mode.

PS. When on DND, my husband, mother, and little brother are the only ones that can bypass my do not disturb. Who’s on your VIP list? 😎

#3 - Use my stopwatch to time block and focus on specific tasks.

I love using my phone stopwatch app to track the time for each client. Two of my clients prefer my time broken down by task or project, so this is helpful for me to press pause, and record what I accomplished in that time block before shifting into the next task.

Is it tedious? For small projects or tasks, yes. But it’s a system I have used for 7+ years now so I personally love it. Only rarely do I discover my stopwatch still running well into the evening or during a workout 😆

#4 - Start my day early.

Were you waiting for this one? Don’t worry, I’m not one of those people that say you have to wake up at 4-5 am to be successful. While that might be true… I don’t wake up until 6:30 (shock) and I would identify myself as successful.

In running my own business, I’ve learned that I cannot get much creative work done after 3:30 pm and if I’m honest, after 3 pm most days, especially if I start early. There is only so much time my body can handle standing at my desk, staring at a screen.

Being an entrepreneur, I don’t get “paid” breaks so I have to be strategic with my breaks. I try to take calls walking or laying down (helllllo back injury!) when I can mix it up. Mainly, I’ve learned that if I start by 7:30 am I can have a solid workday done with time to walk and workout before I start making dinner. This is my IDEAL day.

Does it always happen? That is another question, and the subject of part 2 of how I protect my time because that will take some explaining of how I handle interruptions, long meetings, and days when I cannot for the life of me focus.

Thanks for reading.

-A