You haven’t heard from me here in months. I won’t apologize, for I’m not sorry for that matter. Okay, that sounds a bit arrogant, at least I’m sorry for that. Truth is, I spent my days on offline places and with other things, real life, took some time-out. Which leads me to today’s topic: Time – the one thing we simply cannot ever get back. There’s always too little of it. At least that’s what I’ve been thinking until last Tuesday, when Pedram Parsaian asked in his Instagram Stories: “What would you do if you had two additional hours a day?”
Loyal fans and followers of my own Insta Stories probably already noticed it: I entered Pedrams challenge #TEAM168. Which means I’m starting the next 21 weekdays two hours earlier than usual. The idea is to make the most of your time. A whole week counts 168 hours. Even if you have a day-job and get enough sleep, there is still enough time for things you could do.
Why don’t you just start?
I got ideas, I got visions, but I also got myself a comfy sofa with cozy pillows and a fluffy blanket on it. Basically, I’m living on this sofa only. I work there with my laptop on my knees, I eat there, I read there, I take naps way too often. It keeps me from getting shit done. Yeah, it’s easy to blame my sofa for being so comfy while I’m just weakly giving in to such seductions. So I’ll admit now what many of you probably already noticed: I’m a lazy ass sometimes.
And that’s a thing I wanted to change. I read a lot of books on how to be productive, but reading only turned out to be another procrastination. I got a bullet journal and divided my days into bite-sized bits, even figured out a colour scheme for a healthy work-life-balance. And nothing worked out for me. Until I realized it’s not the time management but the goal I’m lacking.
Make the most of your time
So I asked myself the question, what is it that I would do with two additional hours every day? Some creative projects to start? Some skills to learn? A lot of different things came to my mind. But I knew, that if I want to fully face this challenge and get up early every day for four weeks, it has to be something that
- actually takes 84 hours to be accomplished and
- I’ve been longing for badly for a long time.
These two aspects eliminated most of my ideas and left me with the one to save the day: I will be renovating my apartment. Well, my living room at least, the rest doesn’t need renovating, just a little make-over.
By at the end of last week, after I came home from a styling job, my whole flat looked like a compulsive hoarder had lived in it for the last 30 years. I’m quite embarrassed, that I lived like this, so I’ll spare you pictures or more details.
I decided to leave my hoarding past behind and get up every day at 6am to perform some serious clearing, cleaning, painting and building in the long run. It may get a little louder as I’m unpacking my drilling machine – my neighbours probably will hate me after these 4 weeks. But I need to do this and what’s more, I feel like I’m giving them something back. For their kids room (they have triplets) is above my bedroom and I have been suffering enough from this, especially on weekends for the last five years. In this respect, four weeks are nothing.
You live and you learn – how I get started
First of all, I start every day with the laundry (yes, I got a lot of laundry, because I change my outfits quite a lot). It was on day one of the challenge, when I staggered into the bathroom half-blind and drowsy and was not able to find any detergent, I learned that preparation is everything.
Next, I – as a huge fan of Game of Thrones – realized that I could be the Mother of Dragons 😉 [Spoiler alert] Remember when Daenerys prepares for her wedding taking a bath and everyone almost scalds themselves with the bathing water except for her? Well that’s exactly the water temperature I need in my shower at 6am.
I also had to keep in mind that I still have to show up at work at 9am. So I installed a second alarm clock at 8.15 that reminds me of doing so. Plus: this very alarm also facilitates detecting my smartphone – almost couldn’t find it in my newly-discovered tidiness.
These are the insights after the first 3 days in #TEAM168. You can still join us and post about your goals, projects and progress every day with the hashtag. You also have the chance to keep a check on me in my stories on Instagram, where I’m whining about how hard it is to get up every day. Nobody said chasing your dreams would be easy. Nevertheless, I am extremely motivated and I never thought I would possibly say that about getting up at 6am.
But it actually is quite easy to start, if you find the right project for you. So tell me, what would you do, if you had two additional hours a day?
