Continuous learning and the acquisition of new skills is the key to a happy and fulfilling life, as well as a reasonable way to move up the career ladder. However, with a frenzied rhythm, in which we often do not even have time to eat, a gift of learning is not available to everyone. Only 24 hours a day, and it seems that every minute is planned in advance, so there is almost no free time. And if there is, it is much more pleasant to spend it on rest.

The lack of time is just an illiterate distribution of time. All you need is to organize your schedule correctly.

Look for loopholes

“What are the loopholes if I have a 9 to 5 work schedule?” You can say that, and you’ll be wrong. You need to be clear about how you spend your day and what periods you can turn from nothing to self-education.

To do this, schedule your day, but not by hours, but by minutes. The fact is that when we look at our working day in hours, we lose sight of a lot of free time, which appears in the minute intervals.

For example, you want to start learning Spanish. Maybe you like it or need it to get promoted at work – it doesn’t matter. What matters is that learning it can take you, say, an hour a day. But nobody says you have to find this hour in your schedule.

We explain: when you make a minute schedule, you can see that you have half an hour before work, which stays after breakfast, 40 minutes when you come home while you’re in traffic, and the time of lunch break, of course.

Spend 20 minutes for Spanish 3 times a day – and you can improve your knowledge without compromising your work or rest. Working with vocabulary and memorizing new words in the morning, their repetition at lunch and listening to audio lessons in the evening – here’s a complex lesson of one hour in length. And when you return home, you can lie on the sofa with a calm conscience.

Get your deadline

British journalist and historian Cyril Norton Parkinson in the 20th century brought an interesting law, which remains relevant today. It sounds like this: “The work fills in the time allotted to it.”

The explanation for this law is simple: if you have given 3 hours to do a job, you are likely to do it at that time. But if you challenge yourself and decide to set up a deadline in 1 hour, you will activate yourself and do your best to complete the task faster. And you may well succeed.

A good example from your life: you can stretch the writing of the report for a few days, but if the deadlines change and you are asked to submit it the next day, you will most likely write a report in one evening.

In general, Parkinson’s law is very effective at saving you from procrastination. Drive yourself into strict limits more often – and you will find time to learn something new.

Get to know the time management

This concept is quite well known now. Time management organizes both working and personal time, thus helping a person to use it with maximum efficiency.

Here are a few principles of time management that can help you:

Be involved in planning – planning not only the day but also the week. A clear plan of action will save you time and allow you to cope with the work more effectively. Try to fix your goals, write down the main tasks that will lead you to them, make an action plan for tomorrow.

Formulate your goals specifically – they should be measurable, achievable, relevant, and time-limited. If you decide to learn to play the guitar, allocate two months for yourself and prescribe a sequence of your future actions. For example, watch an introduction video lesson, learn chords, learn a song, etc. Follow your plan by items, and it will be easier for you.

Plan your holiday. Strange as it may sound, this habit can make your life easier. Rest, as in the case of work, can fill all your free time. To prevent this from happening, prescribe a holiday and its time frame in your schedule for the day. This will help you to rest and learn something new.

In general, do not be lazy to take the study of time management seriously – and it will save you not only time but also your strength.

Be flexible

Everybody on the day’s schedule has activities that can be combined. For example, checking your work email and social media responses, cleaning your apartment and listening to lectures and audiobooks, or cooking dinner and watching videos. This is very convenient: for example, while the dumplings are prepared on the stove, you can have time to read a whole chapter of the book or learn a dozen new words while putting things on the shelves. In essence, if you develop such a habit and combine your routine lessons with physical tasks regularly, you will notice how it brings the main thing – the result.