Have you have ever had this happen: you make an appointment with yourself to get something done, you put it in your calendar with extra “just-in-case time” and when the time comes to do it, you get down to business and then discover that even the “just-in-case time” wasn’t enough?

What is that??

It’s your thinking. The thinking that things won’t take as long as they do and time just goes by faster than you expected.

I call it the Time Travel Syndrome. It’s when you plan for a set amount of time and poof it just is gone. And now you are ahead in time and with nothing accomplished.

How do we get it so that our time doesn’t just go poof leaving us standing there holding the bag of things to do that didn’t get done?

Well, one way is to know how much time you truly need especially for tasks you do more than once. In order to find out, you need to do a time travel experiment.

• Review the task you are going to do
• Estimate how much time you think it will take
• Before you begin, set a timer (or stop watch) to determine how much time it actually takes
• Keep a log of your recurring tasks and the actual time they take so you can accurately schedule your time and tasks

Bonus tip: add more time because even when you are accurate something is bound to happen: you’ll lose power, the phone will ring, your child will need something, the dog will want to go out, etc.

We’ll call this buffer time or a bit of a gap so that you can actually get the things done that you want to get done. It will also allow you to eliminate the stress, anxiety and frustration of having your time evaporate and finding that you time traveled without accomplishing much.

Just imagine how wonderful it is going to feel when you have more time than you thought you did. This is the perfect time for you to do your experiment so you can be productive in the New Year!

Speaking of the New Year, it is still not too late to sign up for the Prosperous Business Mastery Group Coaching and Mastermind Program. In this program, among many other things, you’ll become a master at making your time work for you! Click here to sign up.