The last 5 years, 5 months & 276 days have went by rapidly!

That’s when our first son Kaiyas was born. And it actually freaks me out that he started primary school today.

In your life, have you had those moments when time seems to being going so fast?

But seriously how many times have you heard yourself think or say, ‘I don’t have enough time?’.

Whilst on the train heading to my office yesterday morning, I was listening to a great TED talk by Laura Vanderkam.

She said something that really struck me! It was along the lines of ….

When you say ‘You don’t have enough time …. it really means that it’s just not a priority for you!’

Because we all have the same 168 hours a week available to us. But are you really using them to the full & intentionally?

When I heard those powerful words, I realised that I’ve let some of the great habits that I had working in the past slip a little & it was time for some new ones too!

So I decided to pull my socks up & take action … here’s 5 things I’ve done.  You never know it may just spark ideas for you to do something similar too.

1) Priorities ME & my family first. Especially as our whole family routine is likely to change for a while, as apparently you need to make sure your kids get to school on time for about the next 12 years of our lives! So family stuff goes into my diary first!

2) Recently I’ve been working with a great personal trainer David who’s been kicking my backside in the gym.

We’d get to the end of the week & look at booking my session for the next week.   I’d stare at my diary & try to squeeze random times in that would work for us both, in between my clients, meetings & general life ‘stuff’. That mean there was no rhythm & routine – but not anymore!

We’ve now got those sessions booked into my diary for the weeks ahead to get more consistency happening.

3) The beauty of being your own boss is that you get to be flexible. However, that can sometimes be challenging too, especially as I never think of my ‘work’ as being like ‘work’, which can mean that it easily spills into every single waking moment!

So going forward I’ve dedicate one evening a week, where I’ll focus on doing ‘work’ activities.  On that day I’ll take time out in the morning & afternoon too – to do family stuff.  This also means that on these evenings, I’ll be able to do 1-2-1 coaching client calls; Transformation Exchange Group Coaching sessions … plus what will soon be regular weekly Facebook LIVE videos those nights (watch this space)!

It’s a win-win-win for me, my family & my clients… as I’ll know when to say ‘yes’ & ‘no’ to things more easily now.

4) Overall I’ve again become very protective over my diary & have blocked it out according to similar types of activities being batched together.

For example, coaching clients & calls; creativity work; finance tasks; business development work … they’ve again got specific times in my diary, so I’m not jumping from one thing to another.  This seriously helps you become so much more productive & in flow.  Go on give it a shot!

5) Getting up earlier! I’m not a ‘morning’ person … well that’s what I’ve been telling myself over the years! When working on a new project, I come alive in the evenings & until the birds start tweeting outside in the early hours of the morning.

I’ve got many clients & friends that swear by their ‘miracle morning’ routine. So I’m going to test out my version of this over the next month, to help ensure our morning school runs with Kaiyas, don’t look like the scene in Home Alone when they family have slept in & need to get to the airport quickly.

Instead I want to develop the habit of taking time for ME to do my 10 minute Headspace mindfulness exercises; do some reading or watch a short inspiring video & then have a nice healthy breakfast together.

I’ll keep you posted on how I get on with this …. it definitely will require the use of Mel Robbin’s 5 second rule … 5, 4, 3, 2, 1 … Get up now!

It’s great when a random 10 minute TED talk or conversation can spark such a realisation & changes in your life.

So it’s over to you now, what are you going to prioritise in your life, so you make the time for it?

 Share what you’re going to do now in the comments below.

Best wishes as always.

Osmaan