a useletter to find you time

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I pay my respects and acknowledge all Traditional Custodians of Country and on whose land I live and work. I recognise their continuing connection to land, waters and culture. I pay my respects to their Elders past and present.

Hi reader

have you been exhausted by the lockdown marathon? I can entirely relate 😓. My daughter had a Wellbeing Day at school last week, so for some extra fun we made chalk stencils on nearby footpaths. A little love note to everyone that walked by. There's one for you too (pic's below), you got this.

Did the last useletter resonate? What did you notice you were paying attention to over the last fortnight? I noticed I how excited something new I was trying out made me. Felt like a good sign, more details on talking crap... below.

I've similarly been spending some time talking to architects over the year and the thing I hear most often is that they don't have enough time. For those with kids learning from home, or other disruptions due to the pandemic, time can be precious. I started putting together a little timesaving toolbox, there's an excerpt below to help find you some time.

I got you

Michael

Basic Timesaving Strategies

Try some or all of these strategies, then experiment with what works best for you:

Learn to say “no”. Our time is often taken up by tasks around work we should have said no to.
"Saying no saves you time in the future. Saying yes costs you time in the future.
No is like a time credit. You can spend that block of time in the future.
Yes is like a time debt. You have to repay that commitment at some point.
No is a decision. Yes is a responsibility.” - James Clear
Don't multi-task. Multi-tasking is a myth.
Take breaks - lunch especially. You’ll work more efficiently and effectively when you take breaks. Walk away from the desk.
Carve out blocks of time to do a single task (it's called time blocking). Avoid interruptions and distractions, turn off notifications, email, phones, etc. Let people around you know not to interrupt. Try the Pomodoro Technique.
Use small windows of time that appear to do small tasks.
Use the "two-minute rule". If it's going to take less than 2 minutes do it right now, when you think of it. When combined with the previous strategy, you’ll waste far less time.
Get better clients. Clients can be time vampires. Good clients trust you, they respect your time, your opinion and they don’t generate unnecessary work for you. They understand that by not interrupting you with calls, emails, or unnecessary meetings you can work more efficiently and effectively. Easier said than done, but if you want to maximise the time in your week, I can’t emphasise it enough, get better clients. (Comes with other benefits too.)

There are many more ways to extract more time in your day. This is a start. My challenge to you this week, is to try one of these things you don't already do.

You got this.

PS: I've started Talking crap... it's a free one hour, monthly session for architects to come together to talk (crap) about the problems and opportunities in architectural practice. With a goal to foster constructive change in the practice and culture of architecture. Details here and my latest blog post with more information.