How do you free up more time in your day? Do you just not seem to have enough hours in the day to get things done? Time leverage is a time management technique that can help you claim back some of your day. It will help you free up more time to focus on things that are most important to you.
Leveraging your time means seeking help outside of yourself. You can utilize time leverage with the help of other people and the help of technology. Time leverage can be free or you can spend some money. I think explaining time leverage is best done through the use of examples.
– Buy things you need online instead of driving to the store. This is a huge time saver personally. There are very few things outside of fresh food that I need to go pick up immediately and/or in-person. I can just buy what I need online and it gets delivered to my door. You are enlisting the help of other people, who ship and deliver the items you need.
– Automate as much of your finances as possible. Technology has provided a way to manage much of this. A few examples: If you haven’t already, sign up for paycheck direct deposit. Set up automatic bill payments. Schedule automatic transfers to other regular destinations, like a savings account. In other words, have an automated pipeline to send out money that you have coming in. I personally only have to manage my finances a couple times a month and not more than an hour or two when I do.
– There are innumerable household appliances that save time. Appliances are a perfect example of technology delivering time savings. Appliances are so taken for granted that I bet most people don’t even really think about them in terms of time leverage. A few well known examples: Dishwashers, programmable coffee makers, microwaves, and slow cookers.
– A work-related example is delegating tasks to people at your job that can help you with those items. A common example is a manager hiring and delegating tasks to subordinates. As one person, you have 8 working hours in a typical workday, but by hiring an assistant you now have 16 working hours available.
– This may be a bit of a silly example, but if you have kids you probably already employ time leverage by having them help with chores and other household tasks.
I hope this article with examples of time leverage has helped you and maybe even sparked some ideas that you can use in your life.