Who says that you can’t work full-time while living an exhilarating, self-inspiring life that you love? People do it everyday.
Gone are the days where you have to choose between your lifelong passion and your full-time career agenda. You don’t have to push your dreams aside in exchange for a steady paycheck; in fact, carving time out for the things you love will make you happier in the workplace, leading to more connections, rewarding projects, and a better attitude.
Are you ready to create a life that allows you to pursue your passion while working full-time? Here are seven ways that you can make that happen.
1. Know Yourself.
In order to do what you love, you must know what you love. Take time out of work to get to know who you really are. What time of the day do you complete your best work? What activities put a smile on your face? What drives you, challenges you, or upsets you? You need to be the master of who you are and know yourself in and out.
2. Prioritise Your Priorities.
Your job is to define what matters most to you every second of the day so you don’t get distracted doing things that don’t matter. Be focused and be willing to adjust your plans as needed. Prioritising gives you more time to do the things that you love. If you don’t prioritise, you might find yourself using valuable time surfing the net, looking and tapping into social media wedding photos of a person you don’t even know.
3. Add Personal Time on Your Agenda.
If you fail to add time for yourself on the agenda, you won’t be able to do your work for too long. How many hours can you allocate to the things you love every day? If you are working 8 hours for a company, you should be able to give yourself at least 2 hours a day and still have time for the other things on your to-do list. You have to add time into your schedule to be completely selfish and not feel guilty about it.
4. Keep Your Work at Work.
Every job has different demands, but you have to create expectations in your life if you want to have time for the things that you love. If you do have to take work home, don’t allow it to interfere with the quality of your life at home. Designate weekend time to staying ahead of work responsibilities if that gives you more flexibility during the week. For those who find joy in the work they have committed to doing in their profession, they may find themselves doing it at home. And that’s perfectly fine too, to an extent.
5. Take Advantage of Lunch Breaks.
What can you do in 30-60 minutes? You can do a lot if you plan ahead. If you find it hard to squeeze time to do what you enjoy in the mornings or evenings, make full use of your lunch break to do what you love: for example, if you love speaking, you can visit a toastmasters club on your lunch break or start your own club at your place of employment. Toastmasters meetings are only one hour and provide you with a dose of energy that will make you more productive in your work commitments.
6. Learn the Art of Delegation.
You can have more time to do the things you love if you delegate the things that you don’t love. You don’t have to do everything, but you need to surround yourself with a diversity of trusted people who can provide you with support. Commit to the activities that bring out the best in you and you will soon increase your effectiveness and productivity in everything you do.
7. Just Do It.
Nike’s famous motto “Just Do It” never goes out of style. The saying will always be a fashionable statement in the workplace because it forces us to stop dwelling on the how and to start making actionable progress towards the things we want. You will always make time for the things that you really want to do.
