Episode 38 | Creating Space in Your Workday

With our goals and targets in place for the year, now we just need to get them done. Niamh, how can we create space and time for these priorities in the year ahead? Hello, hello, and welcome back to The Better Workday Podcast. How are you doing?

 

In last week's episode, we looked at setting goals for the year ahead. The next question that inevitably comes up is, "Where will I find the time to do the work required to achieve them?"

 

I don't know about you, but time seems to be permanently in short supply. And so in this episode, I want to talk about how you can create more space in your workday. First, let me tell you what I'm not going to talk about. I'm not going to talk about deleting tasks from your to-do list, or completely redesigning your schedule to create the optimal workday.

 

And that's because, from speaking to hundreds of people across so many different types of jobs, in different organizations, doing different things, I know that a lot of the time, that's outside of your control.

 

There might be tasks that you'd love to delete, or to delegate, or to defer, you have to do them because your leader or senior leadership have asked that to be done and but for this week and next week, you can't change that.

 

Or maybe there are meetings that are happening on Monday morning, for example, where you'd love to have time for deep work, but that's the only time everybody else involved in the project is available.

 

And so this is the reality for most people working in medium to large organizations, and I want us to focus on stuff that's in your control, rather than on the wish list of items.

 

And that's not to say those things can't be changed; they absolutely can. But I'm looking at what you can do this week and next week. So I want you to focus on your boat; what you can control.

 

To do that, I want us to take a look at how you manage your time. There are two ways that we can look at time. There's the ticking of the clock. Everybody experiences the same

 

24 hours, seven days a week. And then there's that other experience; how fast or slow the time seems to pass. I'm sure you've all experienced those days where time seemed to extend out far longer than it usually does.

 

That usually on holidays or really relaxing days. And I don't know about you, but I've had plenty of days where the day flew by, and I was looking for extra hours in the end.

 

And if you want to create capacity or space in your workday, we need to look at both of these things in this episode. We'll start by looking at the ticking of the clock, the usual way that we look at time.

 

And I'll start by saying that planning what you're going to do and how you're going to spend your time is half the battle. We've spoken about this before. You can't plan every minute of the day, and you shouldn't, because that leaves no space for the unexpected, for I don't know what yet.

 

But you can definitely plan for the most important things. And if you want a recap on that, go to episode 23,

 

Creating Flow in Your Workday, where I talk you through that step by step. Even if you don't go back to that episode, if you just want to focus on what you can do now, it's really about deciding in advance what you will work on. And that could be as simple as sitting down at your desk saying, "I have just finished one task.

 

What task will I do next?" Or, "I'm going into a meeting now and the meeting's due to finish at half 12, which leaves me about a half an hour till lunchtime.

 

What will I do for those 30 minutes?" And just taking that decision and giving yourself a few moments to proactively plan or to plan with more intention really makes a difference. Otherwise, you're just going to take a look at your desk and whatever tab is open, that's where you're going to start.

 

The second thing you can do to manage your time is to embrace monotasking. I am a huge fan of doing one thing at a time, putting one foot in front of the other. When you fragment your work, when you jump from task to task, in and out of things, you're constantly switching inside in your brain, which is not only tiring, but it's also wasting time, because you have to recalibrate every time you come back to the task.

 

Doing one thing at a time means that we get more things finished, and you feel less overwhelmed, and you're less tired at the end of the day, so it's a win-win-win. But the thing is, a lot of us, me included, are in the habit of switching.

 

And it's because in work, if there's a lot of stuff going on, it's likely you're getting notifications and questions and pings and stuff, which draw your attention away. But even outside of work, we're getting very used to short-form content, fast-moving content.

 

You know, think about it, TV shows are shorter, the scenes within TV shows are shorter, or in movies, they're shorter. The content we read online is quicker, it's shorter, it's, it's more brief. The emails are getting shorter. Everything is getting shorter and quicker.

 

So we're almost in the habit then of moving on to things more quickly. And the only way we can regain control over that and be able to focus on something for long enough to finish it is to practice.

 

If you're working on a task and you feel the urge to go do something else and you're not finished the task yet, just give yourself two more minutes on that piece of work and start to strengthen your muscle and start to practice doing one thing at a time. And you'll be amazed how much will get finished and how much more space you feel like you have for the next task.

 

Now you won't always be able to finish the work that you've started. There's a few reasons. You might be interrupted, and it might be a valid interruption that you should deal with. There might be a meeting or something that's come up in our calendar that you must deal with.

 

Or maybe you're just tired and you need a break. So it's not like you're going to finish everything you start right at that time. But we want to set ourselves up to do our best, and one of the things you can do is to leave a breadcrumb trail when you pause a task.

 

The way you can do that is, let's say, for example, you are writing a document. It's the easiest example I can give you. You're writing a document and you've got three paragraphs down.

 

Before you close that document, write in it, "The next thing I'm going to talk about is," and just-... jot down one or two notes about where your mind is at, where your thoughts are on this piece of work before you leave.

 

And what that does is when you come back to the task, it helps you get back on track, right? It helps you get back up to speed faster, so you don't have to recalibrate or reorient yourself for so long.

 

If it's not going to work in a document, you might just jot down in a notepad, you know, "task seven" and your notes about what you're going to do next. Leaving that breadcrumb trail allows you to pick things up more easily and move forward without having to go back around in circles, and it makes a big difference in the day.

 

And remember, you are always starting, progressing, or finishing a task. If you feel like you're going in circles or you're just faffing about, well, then you probably are going in circles and faffing about, and that's usually a cue to step back, take a break, and maybe get an outside opinion in terms of what's the next step or what needs to be done.

 

Now, one of the big things that get in the way of having the space or capacity in our day is multitasking, yes, but also procrastination, not doing the things we should be doing when we should be doing them.

 

And that's not to say you're not doing a lot of stuff. I'm sure you are. But there's always things that you should be doing. I've mentioned this in a previous episode.

 

Uh, there's a great trick called min and max times that will help you manage procrastination. The way it works is if you don't like doing something but it needs to be done and it's going to hang over you, then you should set a minimum amount of time that you're going to work on that type of work every day or every week.

 

So, for example, you would say, "I will spend 15 minutes every Monday and Wednesday doing this type of work." And when you do that, well, you get the work done, which is great, but also you're freeing up your head space to be able to deal with everything else, and it's not hanging over you.

 

Now, there's other things that we could spend all day doing. So for me, it's reading and research. I could get lost down all the rabbit holes. And for that, we have to set maximum times, upper limits for how much time we're going to spend on that work during the week, because otherwise, that can become a huge time suck. A very enjoyable one, but a big one, and that's taking away time that you could be spending or should be spending on other things.

 

So saying, "I'll spend no more than three hours a week on a certain activity," or, "I'll set a timer to go off after 45 minutes so I don't spend the whole day working on this task," is a big help in this area.

 

Now, when it comes to the ticking of the clock and managing our time, you'd have to ask yourself, are you spending enough time on your work, or are you spending too much time on your task? And this is a tricky one to manage, but I think knowing what good enough is or what success looks like is very important to when we're managing our time to create more space.

 

You don't have to bring your level 10 to every task, because not every task is of the same importance. It doesn't need the same level of effort, okay? And it doesn't need your full range of skills.

 

Considering what level of effort you must put into a task can really help you determine how much time you're going to spend on it. And then related to that, knowing what success looks like, is always asking yourself the question, "What if it could be easy?"

 

Easy is good. Simple is good. Things don't have to be complex in order for them to be good, and I'm just going to say, not everything needs 10 ChatGPT prompts or a big

 

AI process in order for it to be good enough. I love technology and how it's going to support our workday, but you don't have to bring it all into every task, right? So please don't make things more complicated than they need to be.

 

And so these are just a few ways that you can look at how you manage your time and see if you can create some space for the new goals that you're working towards. And now the second thing that we have to look at is how we experience time, and honestly, I think this is way more important, because you could have all the time in the world, but if you feel like you don't have time, you will act like you don't have time.

 

And last week, in my 2025 episode, I mentioned that I'm leaving behind the word "busy" this word triggers busy mind for me.

 

because If I say, "I'm busy," time seems to speed up. Things seem to move more frantically. It all seems a bit rushed, and the day goes by before I know it.

 

Whereas if I approach the day as, yes, I have a lot to do, but it will get done, I just feel like time moves lot, a lot differently.

 

And then going back to monotasking again, because if you focus on one thing at a time, put one foot in front of the other, you'll systematically make progress, and you'll build confidence that you are moving in the right direction.

 

Whereas if you are multitasking, if you're having a very fragmented day, it feels like you're picking up lots of things, but you're not getting anything finished, and that just creates that sense of busyness and overwhelm and rush that we don't need. It doesn't serve you.

 

You are the controller of your desk at work. Yes, there might be lots of things that get put onto your desk, but you decide how you're going to deal with it.

 

You decide how you're going to approach it, and there's a great tool that I use quite a lot, um, which is that I close my eyes, and I imagine that I'm stepping into a corridor. I call it the corridor of my mind. It's a bit of a weird phrase, but I close my eyes, take a few moments, and I step into the corridor, and it's got loads of doors, and behind every door is something that's competing for my attention, something that wants me now.

 

It could be lots of different work things. It could be work and personal stuff. It's whatever's going on, and I just take a minute to stand in that corridor and take a breath first of all.

 

I know that behind every door there's stuff that wants me, but I ask myself, "What needs my attention at this time?

 

What door should I step through now?" And then I step through that door. It's a very simple, effective way to center yourself during a day where there's a lot to be done and to decide where you're going to focus your energy and attention, and again, that one step at a time will get you there.And that links nicely into some other things that you can do to better experience time. So first of all, taking breaks, like I've just mentioned, but also longer breaks during the day to reset is good.

 

It gives yous a chance to take stock of the day and to start again. And I read something quite a while back now, I can't remember the book. When I find the book again, I'll reread it and I'll give you more tips. But one of the best ideas from this book that I can't remember is to split the day in half.

 

And the argument was, let's say, back in the '70s and '80s, the amount of work that they would do in a day, we now get done in a morning or less because of technology and tools and all of that kind of stuff.

 

Keeping that in mind, what you could do is have your day from morning until lunchtime, and then stop there and say, "Look at all I've done already.

 

That's nearly a full day, and now I can have another day in the afternoon." And if the morning hasn't been the best, it allows you to reset and have a different afternoon than you could have had.

 

And when it comes to your workload, look, you might not be able to delete any current tasks on your list, but you can always manage expectations about new ones coming in, so what's coming into your desk from now on.

 

And that might be taking a look at timeline expectations, might be taking a look at the scope, at looking at whether you're the right person to do it. And if you want a refresher on some questions to help with that, go to Episode 14: How Do I Manage Busy Periods at Work? Because I talk about that.

 

And last but not least, the most important thing you can do if you feel you need more space or more capacity or more time in your day: ask for help.

 

Help might be somebody who can do some stuff for you, but help could also just be another perspective, somebody who will listen to you, who will listen to your worries and your concerns and your ideas, and who'll give you the space, funnily enough, in the conversation to get a different point of view, a different perspective, and different ideas. And quite often, that's the best thing you can do.

 

I hope you found this helpful and it has made you think of some ways you can create space in your day and week to work on your goals.

 

If you'd like more support, you can check out my self-paced course, The Better Workday Blueprint, or we could have a chat about how I can help you and your team. I'm very excited about next week's episode 'cause I have my very first special guest.

 

So until then, and have a better workday. stay well Thank you for tuning in. We hope you enjoyed this episode. The Better Workday Podcast is about helping you have a better workday, so we'd love to hear your thoughts and questions.

 

You can find our social media details as well as any references from this episode in the show notes.