24 Usable Hours: How to Make the Most of Each Day

We each have the same amount of time per day – 24 usable hours are ours to do with what we wish. How is it then that some people seem able to get so much more done? And, even more annoyingly, they often do so without having to ingest all the coffee that South America can produce and without going bald from tearing their hair out.

Tom Evans, author of The Art and Science of Light Bulb Moments and Flavours of Thought, suggests that, alongside prioritising your time and banishing interruptions, it is possible to actually change the speed and nature of your thoughts in order to become more productive and creative.He has come up with a course on Udemy called Bending Time, and explains his theory like so:

Have you ever been stuck in an airport lounge with the flight delay at the end of a holiday when you’ve read all your books? Those hours seem to stretch interminably. Alternatively, if you have a fun-packed weekend with family or friends, Monday morning seems to come around all too soon.

The reason for this paradox is that the perceived passage of time is affected by our consciousness, attention, and awareness. We can make use of this phenomenon when approaching creative tasks by changing our relationship with time intentionally.”Put simply, if we focus on anything other than what it is we are doing, time slips away. There are three things that steal time from us:

• Fretting about the past
• Worrying about the future
• Thinking about anything other than the task at hand

What this all boils down to is that if we could just focus on a single thing at a time, we could get things done.Evans’ advice is to allow at least 10 minutes of “me time” each day. To many this is known as meditation, but it could be as simple as taking a walk, putting your feet in a bowl of warm water, or curling up in a blanket on the sofa. This is a set time for the mind to be as it wishes – let it wander if you choose, or use mindfulness to simply “be”.Amy Rees Anderson for Forbes also has some tips on making the most of every day, which essentially boil down to:Start as you mean to go on – have a good breakfast, focus your mind on the positive. Writing motivational quotes on the bathroom mirror can work wonders and help you start the day with a smile. Check your to-do list early, and know that you can accomplish the tasks during the day. Positive mental attitude is everything!