What can you do when you don’t have time?

Last semester, when I was struggling with how to allocate time for school and family, I found a book wrote by Yoshida Honami in 2014 who is a mother of four children, successfully obtained a master’s degree from Harvard University in two years. The book name is I can do everything just because “I don’t have time” (not sure if this translation is accurate). It tells Yoshida’s experience from the beginning of the preparation for studying abroad to graduation. It shares 33 secrets on how she made it and encourages those who claim that they have no time, and do not want to compromise with life, to bravely pursue their dreams. Some of them are very inspiring to me, I will share them here.

Do it all together, you can do everything well! Yoshida said that after she became a mother, she was so busy that she wanted to do this or that, and she wanted to try everything. The less time she has, the more things she wanted to do. Many people may have this experience that when their schedule is tight and very busy, the more energy they get, and they want to get more things done. In contrast, in the free time, working efficiency is low. Yoshida’s suggestion is when you get the motivation to do things, don’t wait for the better time to do it in order, don’t wait until you are fully prepared. Make good use of this momentum and impulse to do what you want to do together. When I was a fulltime housewife, taking a child is something that I have to do, 24 hours a day, all year round, I often feel that my children are occupying all of my time, very upset and impatient. When I decided to go back to school to learn something new, I found that it did not make my life worse, but it made me feel happier and more energetic. We can do multitask. Motivation and courage will push us to manage our time better.

Chaos is a certainty! To do multiple things at the same time to be successful, the trick is to be mentally prepared for chaos. I very much agree with this. Last year, there was a period, I was very busy and tired. Except for schoolwork, I had to take care of my children my family and deal with my parents’ health care, visa, and flight issues in Finland. I was anxious and wasn’t sure if I can handle all these things. In such an uncomfortable attempt, many things were just a mess. I had to give up perfectionism and stop struggling at a certain point to make things done. In addition to the goals that I must achieve, I have to lower the standards and let things progress little by little.

Pursue maximum time density. Yoshida changed her schedule after she decided to go further study. She moved her sleeping time earlier from 11.00-11.30 pm to 8.00-8.30 pm and get up time from 5.45 am to 3 am. In this way, she set aside at least three hours to study. Besides, she is also using commuting time to read, practice listening while doing housework, etc. I’m not sure if her schedule is suitable for me, but I do need peaceful time to concentrate better. Moreover, I have a lot of fragmented time which are not used efficiently. Urgently, I have to figure out more things that can be done with little pieces of time.

There are a lot of other useful tips from this book. When Yoshida was writing this book, she was waiting for her fifth baby. She is definitely a well-deserved master of time management. I admire her not only for her firm will but also for her execution ability. Probably because I also have children, many things I can feel the same. Her tips will be my company till some habits become mine.

Photo source: jd.com