Welcome to Life's a Game, a weekly newsletter to help ambitious people build a more meaningful and integrated life. Was this sent to you? Subscribe here so you don't miss the next one. It's about time (and finding it)↓ |
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Want more from me? I've been very busy making more content. If you are liking this newsletter and ready to apply the topics to your life - I'd love to meet with you! You can join Life's a Game Office Hours for just $33/month to get BTS weekly videos, monthly webinars and Q&A and more. Sign up here. ♟️ MY TURN:Over the past decade of being a parent and navigating a divorce while juggling taking a public company private, raising 2 rounds of VC capital, selling a startup and, most recently, leaving my 9-5 to start five solopreneur revenue streams…. I’ve had to learn a lot about the laws of trading time and money. Trading time for money: Sometimes I trade time for money. Examples:
Examples:
Today’s newsletter is all about getting + buying back time. When you spend money to buy back time, my therapist has coined this the “sanity tax”. Sanity Tax: Paying someone else to do something that drives you crazy. Not sure if you should outsource something? Ask yourself these 5 questions:
(Value of Time) X (Hours spent thinking/doing it) = Sanity Tax These questions and formula have led to me outsourcing the following things:
7 hacks that save me 20 hours a weekHACK #1: No email before 10am Being able to focus on the deep work I need to accomplish to move my goals forward is key to my success and email is the #1 time suck for anyone looking to work on a big project. If you sit down and open your inbox first thing in the day, you will automatically lose 2 hours. The brain is now wired for that dopamine hit of refreshing to see who has emailed you and what they need. Email is like sugar for the brain. Time saved: 2 hours a day I have 20+ responses already created in Gmail. Over time you see patterns of things people ask you. Saving your responses as templates will save you the cognitive load and typing time of replying to similar emails.
Time saved: 45 mins a day I have blocks of time during my weeks that are specifically allocated to meetings. Batching them together allows me to have as much free time as possible for writing and bigger creative thinking. Every meeting has a blast radius. A meeting in the middle of the afternoon is likely to defer a task that needs hours of unbroken concentration. I use Calendly to schedule all my meetings (which are already created in a gmail template) Time saved: 4 hours a week in scheduling and context wasted time between scattered meetings HACK #4: Be a robot Think of your brain like a gas tank. The more decisions you make, the more gas you use.
Not having to think is the best way to save time….. and brain power. Time saved: 30 mins a day I used to spend 20-30 minutes a day just switching around finding tabs that I had opened. Then I found the power of naming tabs. Step 1: Simply open a Chrome window and right click in the upper right hand corner. Step 2: Name your tab I always have the following 4 windows named and open:
Time saved: 20 mins a day HACK #6: 20 minute meetings Every task expands to the time you allocate to it. That’s Parkinson’s Law. If you have 4 meetings a day that are normally 30 mins and you cut them down to 20? You’ve saved 40 mins a day….almost 3 hours a week! That’s 3 workouts you could get in….3 long walks……3 hours to binge watch Ted Lasso. Time saved: 40 mins a day
Does this sound like your brain? So I created a concept called “Power Hour”. I keep a Power Hour list in my phone notes app. Every time a mosquito task flies in, I write it down and go right back to what I was doing. Every week I have a block of time on Friday afternoon when my brain is headed into weekend mode. I knock out as many tasks as possible (it feels almost like a game at this point). Batching these tasks together reduces the cognitive load we feel when we just keep pushing them off “hoping” we remember to do them later. Time saved: 30 mins a day ♟️ YOUR TURN:The below is a 4 step exercise I use in coaching when someone says “I don’t have enough time.” This 20 minutes a day activity will save you 20 hours a week. I promise. What you need:
Step 1: Record Activities Set a timer on your phone for 10am, 2pm, 5pm, 8pm. Document all your activities for the past few hours. Include meetings, email time, deep work, social media scrolling, leisure time, and any unexpected events or calls. Use a simple calendar or a notebook to jot down each activity and its duration. Should take 5 mins each. Step 2: Categorize Your Tasks Organize your recorded activities into categories such as email, meetings, deep work, personal, social, and self-care. Example:
This step helps you identify the areas where you invest the most time and those that may need adjustment. Look at the colors. Look at how many times you switch from deep work to scrolling and identify the following:
Step 4: Create Time Blocks As you head into the next week, based on your audit, create dedicated time blocks and try to stick to them as much as possible. Sample schedule: 7-8am Me time A reminder: Control your calendar or someone else will. Hope this was helpful!! ♟️ Let's Win Together.PS If you are ready to take your game to the next level, here are 4 ways I can support you:
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2x Founder | Brand Builder | Creator | Investor Featured in Forbes, Ad Week, Poosh, The Skinny Confidential Over 110,000 people follow Amanda to learn how to get the most out of life. Single mom x3 Teaching Productivity to emerging Leaders via Morning Brew
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