If You’re Not Making Time, You’re Making Excuses

How I lived My Past Year
Co-op Internship Full-time work 8AM-5PM from Monday to Friday |
2 Executive Positions President, International Business Students’ Association (IBSA) (200+ hours) Vice President of Corporate Relations/Business Development, AIESEC Calgary (400+ hours) This meant regular executive meetings after work and on the weekends and AIESEC Conferences during the holidays (Thanksgiving, New Years, etc…) |
Social Life Hang out 4-5 times per week for sushi/movies/shopping and more to catch up with friends, family, mentors, etc… |
Alone Time & Sleep: 8+ hours of sleep per night 2+ hours dedicated to Korean Dramas or Netflix per week |
Part-Time Job I have been very lucky that my workplace has flexible shifts that I can volunteer for occasionally when I am less busy |
People always ask me how I have time to do the many million things I do without compromising my performance or sleep…
It’s pretty simple, I just make time for it. The one thing that I am most aware of is that if I don’t make time for something, it’s never going to be done because I will forget about it or I will end up doing something else. I look at everything in my life as a deliverable that needs to be done by a certain date and time. Every deliverable gets put into my calendar and reserves a time slot for as long as I think I will need to complete it (ex: 30 minutes, 1 hour, all day, etc…)
I also make sure that I give myself earlier deadlines because I know life is not perfect and spontaneous situations will pop up and hinder my deliverable timelines. If something is due on a particular day, I give myself the deadline to hand something in a week or the weekend before. This gives me buffer time for when my friends spontaneously ask me to go out for a drink and I don’t have to say no because “I have something due the next day”
When it comes to sleep, I always do a mental countdown before going to bed to see how many hours of sleep I will get in the night. If I know that I have something early the next morning, I try to go to sleep around 10PM. If I have evening plans, then I know I can spare a few late night hours for some Korean Dramas or Netflix!
As for my extracurricular activities, I thank my iPhone and awesome 4GB data plan which allow me to work on-the-go when I am on the bus to and from work and other places. I also have an iPad Mini + Keyboard that I bring with me to meetings instead of my Macbook.
I definitely think that not taking any classes in the past year has been a plus. But, I apply the same concepts above when I am in school as well (exception: I go out a little bit less since I lack that disposable income).
The Least You Need to Know
- Make time or make excuses (later on)
- Your calendar (or to-do list) is your best friend
- Do yourself a favour and set earlier deadlines (3-5 days in advance)
Master this mindset to become reliable 99% of the time.