Time Management: 5 Ways to Make Time to Pursue Your Dreams

I don’t have time to pursue my dreams.

I don’t have enough money to pursue my dreams.

I don’t know what my dreams are, but I know I want more than this.

Have you ever had thoughts like these, and felt overwhelmed by guilt, confusion or hopelessness?

If you answered yes, you aren’t alone. Many people struggle to figure out what they want to do with their lives and how to manage their time while balancing a full life.

But, here’s the thing — bringing your dreams and goals into fruition is possible, and one of the easiest ways to set yourself up for personal success is by budgeting your time wisely, just as your would your money.

You see, we all have the same 24 hours in each day, the biggest difference is how we choose to spend our time. And regardless of where you are in life or how busy you are, you can make time to pursue your dreams.

Are you ready to get started?! Let’s begin!

Here are 5 simple time management strategies that will help you organize your life and pursue your dreams:

1.) Delete Time-Consuming Social Media Apps

According to a 2019 study, the average internet users spends 2 hours and 22 minutes every day on social media.

Let’s pause for a moment to take that in.

Two hours and 22 minutes.

Every SINGLE day.

And if you own a smartphone and have social media apps downloaded to your phone, chances are you fall into that category.

Now you may be thinking, “There’s no way! I don’t sit at my phone for more than two hours every day on social media!”

And you’re right — you probably don’t…not all at once anyway. Instead, it’s likely your social media use is broken up into smaller spurts throughout the day like during your bathroom breaks, meals, after work, before bed, etc. and all of that time compounds into hours.

To figure out exactly how much time you’re spending on social media (or other apps that may suck up your time like YouTube or Netflix), go to the settings section of your phone, and click on “screen time”. This will give you a daily and weekly breakdown of where you’re spending your time, and how much time you’re spending on each app.

Once you realize where you’re wasting the majority of your time, ask yourself how you could use that time to productively work on your dreams and goals. For example, if you spend three hours a day on Instagram you could ask yourself a question such as, “How could I spend this three hours productively, to bring my goals and dreams into fruition?”

Write down your answer.

Then, delete the apps and allocate this newfound time to working toward your goals.

This time management strategy is like living paycheck-to-paycheck and then suddenly realizing you don’t have to because you’ve just discovered a chunk of your money is going somewhere it doesn’t need to. If you apply it to your life today, in a few weeks you’ll notice a huge difference in your perspective, achievements, and overall happiness. It’s time to get conscious and give yourself back some time!

2.) Manage Your Time Consciously

As humans, it’s our nature to love routines. Routines make us feel safe, secure, and help us control our life experience. Routines are predictable, and they’re comfortable. And routines can help us accomplish amazing things like reaching our goals, getting fit and staying fit, and balancing family-life-work-dreams.

But, not all of our routines are conscious. And the unconscious routines are the ones where we end up mismanaging our time and doing a whole lot of nothing.

Take a moment to think about your average day. How do you spend your time? What do you do as soon as you get out of bed? When you return from work? Before you go to bed?

Write down your answers.

Many of us are stuck in the “work-life-grind-repeat” where we wake up, get ready, go to work, come home, and sleep. But, in-between that grind, we engage in unconscious activities like watching TV for hours, sitting around on our phones doing nothing, binge eating food that doesn’t make us feel good, and so forth.

These unconscious routines keep us stuck and in turn we end up feeling unaccomplished and generally lethargic.

In order to take back control of your life and make time for your dreams start by creating a conscious routine for yourself. Ask yourself, “How can I use the time I was spending unconsciously to work toward my dreams and goals?”

Write down your answers and keep them handy because we’ll be revisiting this topic later in the article.

3.) Start Each Day with Intention

How many times do you wake up in the morning and immediately hit snooze? Or dread the start of your day? Or wish you didn’t have to go to work, school, or elsewhere?

For many of us, the answer to those questions is a lot. But, what we don’t realize is that when we don’t start our day with purpose and intention, we automatically lose control because we either make a conscious decision to run our day or an unconscious decision to let it run us.

"You either run the day or it runs you." Jim Rohn Share on X

As energetic beings living in an energetic world, the vibrational signals we send out via our thoughts, actions, and words come back like a boomerang. When we greet the day with gratitude and joy, we’re met with wonderful experiences and an abundance of things to be grateful for. In contrast, when we dread or begrudge the day, we receive many dread-worthy experiences.

From the moment you wake up you have to decide, “Am I going to run this day or is it going to run me?”

If you want to run your day, then start by waking up with purpose and intention. As soon as your alarm clock goes off, get out of bed. Begin your day with gratitude, and say thank you for the things that are going well in your life.

As you move through your morning routine, do so consciously. Savor each sip of your coffee. Enjoy each bite of food you put in your mouth. Experience the water as it hits your skin in the shower.

Being conscious and intentional will change the trajectory of your entire life, and it will help you manage your time better too!

4.) Make a 24 Hour Commitment

Setting goals is easy. Achieving them takes work. And sometimes, it’s the prospect of the work itself (and how much time it will take) that veers people off the path of realizing their dreams.

That’s why it’s much easier to begin small, with bite-sized pieces like a 24-hour commitment, as opposed to a 12-month commitment.

In your 24 hour commitment, you’ll want to start by writing down your goal. Then, for the next 24 hours, you’ll consider that goal before you take any action.

As Lao Tzu wisely said, “The journey of 1,000 miles begins with a single step.”

Your journey starts the moment you set your goal. Each action you take, and decision you make either helps you along or sets you back. The choice is always yours.

Let’s take an example so you can understand how this works in real-time and how easy it is to apply to your life! Let’s say your “big goal” is to lose 50 pounds over the next six months. Rather than focusing on the “50 pounds” or the “6-month” marker, instead, focus on every decision you make today.

For the next 24 hours, your goal is to only take actions that will help you reach your goal. You aren’t concerned with tomorrow, next week, or next month — just today. As such, you’ll become hyperfocused on today and present. Before each meal, you’ll ask yourself questions such as, “Will this food nourish my body and help me reach my goal?” and “Is this action helping me take a step toward my goal or away from it?”

Then you’ll take actions and make decisions that align with your goal throughout the day. The next morning you’ll wake up feeling refreshed and accomplished, and know it’s possible for you to take small steps to reach your goal. You can then make another 24-hour commitment to yourself, taking each day as it comes, and inching toward your goal. In a few weeks, you’ll notice dramatic shifts in your lifestyle and perspective, and it all starts by starting with 24 hours.

5.) Reduce Your Commitments

Your boss needs someone to take on a new project — you raise your hand and volunteer your time without giving it a second thought.

Your church needs someone to choose Sunday dinner — you volunteer.

Your kid’s school needs parent chaperons for a field trip — you agree to drive.

Many of us are addicted to being busy — so much so that we stretch ourselves thin and end up maxed out. Once we finish doing everything we’ve signed ourselves up for, we feel depleted and overwhelmed. And by the end of the day or the week, it may feel like there’s no time left to work on YOUR dreams and goals.

Take inventory of your commitments, and get your priorities straight. Once you know what you stand for, and what matters to you, reduce time-consuming commitments that aren’t truly serving your life or your purpose.

By reducing your commitments, you’ll end up with more time and energy to focus on creating the life you want to live and feel lighter, happier, and freer because of it!

Don’t delay — make time for your dreams and goals starting right now by applying these 5 time management strategies to your life.

Xx,

Antasha