15 May Managing your White Space: how to get an extra 91 hours a year by saving 15 mins a day
“Don’t count every hour in the day, make every hour in the day count.” Anonymous
Have you ever been so busy doing ‘stuff’ but at the same time, feeling as if you’re not getting the right stuff done? Does it seem as if everyone around you is being more productive? And to make matters worse they also look like they are relaxed and enjoying their day – when you’re struggling to keep on top of things? Do you ever ask yourself what is the difference between you and them?
Part of the solution is that they recognise AND manage their white space: the in-between time we all have peppered throughout our day and evenings. It’s the time that doesn’t make it in the diary, yet it all adds up. Everyone has it, some are just conscious of it. Without awareness of the in-between white space, we defer to social technologies to while away many minutes of our day. Think: check our facebook; LinkedIn; twitter; go and interrupt someone else; play on an app; check emails and so on. Each one of those checks interrupts our ability to do what we’re meant to be doing in a focused and concentrated way. White space happens:
- in-between meetings
- after finishing off a piece of work/assignment before starting the next thing
- one we’ve left work/getting to work
- after dinner, etc.
When you include white space in your day, you have much more time that you realise.
Let’s say your meeting finishes early at 11:45 and the next one doesn’t start until 12 o’clock. You’ve just earned 15 minutes of white space where you could choose to leave the office and go for a quick walk to get some air. If you choose to use that time consciously and effectively, you can be more productive and efficient. With this newfound 15 minutes you might consider:
- Stretch: sitting all day isn’t great
- Plan: schedule your day
- Go outside
- Go for a walk
- Meditate
- Organise
- Network
- Research
- Write/Journal
- Make a call
- Learn
- Watch a Ted talk
- Tidy up
- Call your mum (she misses you)
- Read: an, article
I suggest you spend one of your next (white spaces) 15 mins making a list of all the things you’d like to do if you suddenly found you had 15 minutes. Have the list ready to go, so that when you have the time, you can fill that time constructively. The important thing to note is that you are using this white space mindfully, and with choice. The key is to cultivate a habit from which your life will improve – so you too can live a productive, happy and healthy life.
Think about how you spend your day. To be more effective you need to choose to be. You have 96 x15-minute blocks in a day. Every day! Approximately 8 hours of your day is for sleeping. In your day you also have to shower, get dressed, travel to/from work, have meal times, go to meetings, do some work etc. You also want to be fit, healthy, a good friend, a great mum/dad/son/daughter and be a great worker AND have great relationships. PHEW! But to be good at ALL these things you need to dedicate quality time to each of them. It all adds up very quickly if you let it! Attending so some of those things doesn’t always take a lot of time. And that’s when white space comes in. If you use just 15 minutes of white space a day more effectively you will have 91 hours of effective time accumulated in one year!
If you would like to read more on the concept of Cognitive Surplus, look up Clay Shirky. He defines cognitive surplus as the ‘free time of the world’s educated citizenry as an aggregate.’