“I never have enough time.” “I can’t believe how this week has flown by.” “I’m too busy to job search.”
We say it, think it, and believe it constantly. In our minds, time walks away from us, catches us off guard, and sneaks up on us. It’s our worst and yet most valuable pest.
But what if we took control of our time instead of letting it get the best of us? What if we said, “I have X minutes a day and I want to spend them doing these X things.” Just like that.
This is exactly what Wait But Why author Tim Urban decided to conquer. In his recent post, “100 Blocks a Day,” he divides every day into 100 10-minute blocks, assuming that the average person sleeps seven to eight hours and thus has 16-17 hours (or 1,000 minutes) of productive awake time. He includes this awesome, printable grid so you can try this out for yourself.
The best news is that this isn’t just an awesome formula for tackling your days the right way, but also a great tool for your job search. Especially if you’re that person who can’t seem to find any spare time to kick off the process.
Because you get to decide what activity you use for each box, you can quickly see which 10-minute blocks of time can be used more wisely. Coffee meeting? Six blocks (instead of one episode of TV). Editing your resume? Three blocks (instead of scrolling through social media). Updating your LinkedIn? One block a day (instead of browsing online for things you’ll never buy). That doesn’t sound too bad, right?
As you look at your grid, you’ll really start to see exactly how much time you control on a daily basis, as well as how much you unconsciously let slip away. For example, you might see that you’re spending 480 blocks a day in a job you hate when all you need is to set aside a few of those each day to find one you love. This all feels more do-able now, right?