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Home » Blog » How to Multiply Your Time
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Best of Our Blogs By Margarita Tartakovsky, M.S.
Best of the Web Associate Editor
Books ~ 4 min read
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History of Psychology
Holiday Coping Lately whenever you ask someone how they’re doing,
Industrial and Workplace they likely mention how busy they are. That’s what I say. I’m guessing that’s what
Inspiration & Hope you say, too.
Interview
LifeHelper “I’m busy” just rolls off our tongues. And you probably are busy. All of us have long
Marriage and Divorce todo lists, which only seem to swell and swell.
Medications
Memory and Perception In his book Procrastinate on Purpose: 5 Permissions to Multiply Your Time, Rory
Men's Issues Vaden, bestselling author and cofounder of Southwestern Consulting, encourages us
Mental Health and to stop talking about how busy we are. He used to do it all the time.
Wellness
Military As he writes, “Your problem is not that you are too busy; your problem is that you
Mindfulness don’t own your situation.”
Minding the Media
Money and Financial He says that our lives are our responsibility. The commitments we have were either
Motivation and created or allowed by us.
Inspiration
Movie Review As he further explains, “You are powerful enough to decide what you will and won’t
New Year's do with your time.”
On the Couch In , Vaden dedicates a separate chapter to a different strategy and permission for
Parenting
making better use of our time:
PC Weekly News
Personal Eliminate — the permission to ignore
Personality Automate — the permission to invest
Podcast Delegate — the permission of imperfect
Policy and Advocacy Procrastinate — the permission of incomplete
Professional Concentrate — the permission to protect
Proof Positive
Psychiatry At the end of each chapter he lists valuable questions we can ask ourselves to help us
Psychology make intentional decisions about our days. This way we aren’t blurting out or
Psychology Around the swimming in a sea of “I’m busy” statements.
Net
Psychotherapy Instead, we’re in charge. We’re making choices about how to spend our time in this
Psychotherapy Stories world.
Publishers
Random Brain Bits Below you’ll find these valuable questions, along with Vaden’s other insights, to help
Relationships you multiply your time.
Research
Roundup “What are you currently saying yes to that is causing you to say no to your goals
SelfEsteem or your family?”
SelfHelp
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2/14/2017 How to Multiply Your Time | World of Psychology
Sexuality Vaden encourages us to think about all the things we’re doing that we don’t need to
Sleep be doing. For instance, we can start by stopping anything that doesn’t require any
Slow Eating Challenge warning, apology or explanation.
Special Report
Spirituality According to Vaden, this might include watching TV, reading long emails, doing
Sports others’ work and gossiping.
Stress
Student Therapist (Long emails usually warrant a phone call. For gossiping, Vaden likes Dave
Students Ramsey’s definition: “complaining or talking badly about anything to anyone who
Success & Achievement can’t directly do something about it.”)
Technology
The Psych Central Show The above question also highlights an important point: When we say yes to
Trauma something we don’t want to do, we take time away from what we do. We take time
Treatment away from what makes us happy and fulfilled.
Video
The key is in learning to say no, which is really tough for most of us. But it’s not
Violence and Aggression
impossible. It involves learning a few strategies and practicing a lot. (You can learn
Webinar
Women's Issues more about saying no in this piece and this one.)
World Mental Health Day “What things are you doing over and over again that you could invest time or
Hot Topics Today money into automating?”
According to Vaden, “there are things all around your life and your business that
should be automated.” That is, there are things that you can improve or streamline.
e-Cigarette Use in
College Linked to For instance, whether you have a small or big business, you can invest time in
creating a list of answers to frequently asked questions (FAQs). This saves you time
Depression in the long run of handling the same questions over and over.
You also can automate your bills, so they’re taken out automatically from your
Low Birth Weight checking account. (Of course, the trick is to keep enough money in there.)
A big reason why we don’t delegate is because we worry that someone else will
make a mistake. (And we think it’s easier if we just do it ourselves.)
Close, Non-Kin
However, in the long run, this can save you lots of time. You can delegate tasks to
Friendships May people at work or at home. At work, you might hire anyone from a virtual assistant to
be Key to Human a business coach to a bookkeeper to a graphic designer.
Advancement At home, you might hire a house cleaner, gardener, mechanic or handyman. (As
Vaden writes, “anyone who runs a household runs a business.”)
Hospice And, if you have kids, Vaden says, you can always put them to work.
For instance, according to Vaden, if you’re not at least 75 percent sure of what the
right decision is, don’t make one. Wait.
He notes that time lets ideas incubate and relationships grow. It gives people the
space to mature. And it lets our dreams adjust so they align with the true purpose of
our lives.
Anything in our lives can wait. If you’re having a hearttoheart with a loved one, the
phone call can wait.
“What do you need to give yourself permission to concentrate on? How would
concentrating on that create more opportunity for those around you?”
The last permission is about protecting ourselves, and concentrating on your next
most significant priority, Vaden writes. He notes that this may be a task that’s moving
you toward your greatest contribution or making the impact you’d like to make.
It may be the thing that’s helping you become your highest self in the moment.
This is really hard to do because we want to serve others, and we want their approval.
So we let others’ priorities take over.
But, as Vaden writes, “Your highest obligation to other people is to be your highest
self.” And if you aren’t your highest self, then you inhibit others from being their
highest selves, too.
Multiplying our time isn’t about doing things as quickly as possible. Rather, it’s
about giving ourselves the permission to eliminate, automate, delegate and
procrastinate — and then to concentrate on what truly matters.
146 40
About Margarita Tartakovsky, M.S.
Margarita Tartakovsky, M.S., is an Associate Editor at Psych Central.
She also explores selfimage issues on her own blog Weightless and
creativity on her blog Make a Mess: Everyday Creativity.
View all posts by Margarita Tartakovsky, M.S. →
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APA Reference
Tartakovsky, M. (2015). How to Multiply Your Time. Psych Central. Retrieved on
February 14, 2017, from https://psychcentral.com/blog/archives/2015/02/22/howto
multiplyyourtime/
Last reviewed: By John M. Grohol, Psy.D. on 21 Feb 2015
Originally published on PsychCentral.com on 22 Feb 2015. All
rights reserved.
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