Before setting out to check items off your career bucket list, understanding time and energy can help develop plans.

The first step is to understand where your time is currently going. Spend a few days tracking what you do in 1/2 hour increments. After a couple days, review where your time is going and see what you might stop doing to find room on the calendar for your bucket list item.

At first, look for 1/2 hour to free up. Over time, you may work to find more. Start small.

After locating a bit of time, you could go back and read the post from earlier this year on maximizing daily energy.

Does the time of day you have found for the bucket list item have the right personal energy for you to make progress?

Or, do you need to shift to another time of day?

My Perspective – There is Another Layer – Finding “Space”

Finding the time and energy is VERY important in achieving goals.

However, I think that may only be ½ the challenge. There is one more consideration:

Do we have the space to move forward?

In physics, space provides the room for matter to exist.

If we think of our new goal as “matter”, do we have the room for that project to exist in our life right now?

Understanding how important the goal is to you and making a commitment to keep going even when things are difficult will make all the difference. 

Without the space and priority, the time will be filled with something else. 

Often that something else is an activity that you would later classify as wasted time – however that shows up for you.

Your Turn

When will you set aside time for your project?

How long and what time of day?

Now that you’ve found the time, does your life have the space for this right now?

How will you keep the priority when the “urgent” things in life creep in?