“I don´t have time!” Sounds familiar? We work harder and try our best, but our schedule stays overwhelming. In this post, we will show you how to reclaim control over your time and how to prioritize the things that really matter to you.
In my corporate life, I used to chase success and freedom. However, it seems like I was just a victim of my schedule. I tried to balance my corporate meetings, my family obligations, my friends, and my self-care and tried to fit it within the 24 hours that we all have each day.
But usually, they were not enough which led to stress and dissatisfaction. Everything was urgent and I was rather reacting than creating my own life. This wasn´t the life I had imagined. So there had to change something. I believe in freedom as a core value and I wanted to have a free life…
I decided to change my life, I quit my job, started traveling with my family, and built my own business. While this is not a guaranteed recipe for time freedom, I also changed my relationship with time and developed a clearer understanding of my priorities.
This helped me to become more positive, more relaxed and ultimately to have more time for what really matters. And it will do the same for you.
Understanding True Time Freedom
Time freedom doesn´t mean that we can spend day after day sitting at the beach and watching the waves. Or that we sleep every day until noon. These are usually just activities or reactions to our missing ability to define what are the “right” things to do with the limited time we have available.
True time freedom is about having the courage and clarity to actively design your life with tasks that truly matter to you. And this understanding can be scary because it means that only we are responsible for the things we do.
J.P. Sartre suggested, that “men are condemned to be free, because he is responsible for everything he does.” We don´t have a choice. It´s our freedom and our responsibility. Even if it´s terrifying. We can´t blame our circumstances, our boss, our partners, and not even our politicians for how we spend our time. It is all our choice, whether we´re aware of it or not.
Time freedom means Responsibility
There are 2 ways how people respond to this. Either they actively create their life by focusing on purpose and meaning. Or getting distracted between irrelevant tasks, time-killing social media or other addictions, and reacting to external circumstances.
As a consequence, we actively choose to be too busy, to not have time. We surrender control of our schedule and priorities in order to avoid the possibility of making a poor decision. We have doubts in our own judgment and therefore we prefer the safety of external demands. But don´t blame yourself for that. We are all to some degree guilty of doing that.
Having time freedom doesn´t necessarily mean working less. It means to be able to decide to work on the things that matter to you. It also means having the flexibility to choose when and where to work. By creating this flexibility you get back the power to design your days with intention.
Achieving time freedom requires discipline and responsibility. It means that you have to work with and on yourself in order to understand what matters to you and what are your values. It also requires the courage to say No to things that are not important to you.
The Benefits of Designing Your Ideal Schedule
When you become aware of that and start to work on self-discipline and you understand your responsibility, you can take back control over your schedule. That sounds like a small change, but it changes everything. You transform from a victim and consumer to a creator. You start to add meaning to your life because you realize that you can make a difference. This is a huge mindset shift.
Accepting this new reality will lead to tremendous improvements in your life. It will release the stress of not being successful and will have a positive impact on your physical and mental well-being. You will become more present because you stop over-worrying about the past or future.
It will also help you to be more productive. You will be more aware of distractions and have the power to reduce or even eliminate them. You can start listening to your body and work with your natural rhythms rather than against them. Change busyness into effectiveness.
If you commit to this shift, you will create the space for personal growth and interests that once you didn´t dare to think of. Since I quit my job, we traveled Mexico, I became fluent in Spanish, built my own business, have more time for my kids and my wife and we built a house with an (almost) self-sustaining garden.
But the most important thing is, I’ve discovered a greater sense for myself. For my true values and the things that fulfill me. And I encourage you to do the same. Stop reacting to external circumstances and focus on yourself. This will create the freedom you need to build the life you want.
Redefining Success and Value
Before we dive into a practical framework to achieve time freedom, we have to address the big issue: Our modern culture is obsessed with productivity and achievement. We focus too much on the outcomes, on the results rather than on the process.
More money, more vacation, more possessions, more promising job titles. That seems to be the societal definition of success. And we all heard, that “Time is money”, thus it needs to be optimized as well. But that´s not correct. Time is finite and precious, while money is just a commodity without intrinsic value.
We believe we need to make money to buy back our time. But this is a hamster wheel that shall keep us busy. Many already realized too late, that once they achieved their material goals the best parts of their time were lost.
Don´t fall into this trap. Don´t wait too long with it. True time freedom requires, that you find your own definition of success. And to reach this understanding requires some effort. The answer can´t be found in Personal development books or YouTube videos. But only within yourself.
You can start the process by asking yourself some simple but deep questions:
- Who are you?
- Who do you pretend to be?
- What is important to you?
- What does success look like?
- What do you really want?
- What are you afraid of?
Don´t hesitate to answer these questions. They might seem obvious, but our minds are biased. By the things we hear and see every day. From friends, social media, and colleagues. If you take enough time to reflect on these questions, you will find a much deeper truth within yourself.
The Power of Now
The other aspect of success that many neglect is, that you can only be successful in the present moment. Don´t postpone your success. How many times we´ve heard it: “Once I hit 7 figures…”, “After the next product launch..”, “As soon as I can afford to hire an assistant..” But achieving such goals is just like ticking the box on a to-do list. A new goal will arise and you start over again.
Time freedom also requires presence and the understanding that your life is happening right now, not one day. Therefore it is important to shift your focus from the outcome to the process. Celebrate the small daily wins. This will also release the fear of failing.
Common Misconceptions About Time Freedom
On our way to achieving time freedom, there are also some misconceptions that hold us back or cause us to focus on the right things. Let´s address them here:
- The Celebrity Illusion: Many people believe, that especially celebrities in business and entertainment have a lot of time freedom. Well, these roles often come with large demands and require a lot of discipline to get where these people are today. Often we don´t see the years of effort and renuncation required. True time freedom is not about status symbols, fame, or money. It´s about aligning your values with your schedule.
- The Retirement Myth: “I’ll have freedom when I retire” is perhaps the most dangerous misconception. It means postponing your happiness to a future that may never arrive. If you want to live freedom you got to live it now.
- The Hustle Fallacy: Working harder is not always better. Success doesn´t always require 16-hour workdays. This approach can work for a while, but in the long term, it usually leads to burnout. The goal is to work smarter, not longer.
- The All-or-Nothing Trap: You don´t need to quit your job, give up everything, and reinvent your life. Just work on small consistent changes and make sure that you always make improvements. And stop blaming your circumstances for your situation.
The Five-Step Time Freedom Formula
Now let´s get practical. After many years of studying, experimentation, and working with my clients, I developed and improved a framework to achieve time freedom. The Time Freedom Formula consists of five interconnected strategies that will help you transform your relationship with time.
1. Intentional Digital Detox
Social media is a real-time killer and therefore a threat to our time freedom. These apps are engineered to keep your attention and distract your focus. They make us addicted to the dopamine kick they release. It is also very difficult to release them because they have a big importance in the way we communicate and interact with others in our network.
The fact that we use Social media not only for consumption but also for creation and communicating with friends makes it even more difficult to eliminate the distraction that comes with it. For most of us, the negative, consuming habits of using these technologies outweigh the positive effects.
So how can we rehabilitate from Social Media abuse while maintaining productive usage? One way I found very helpful is to eliminate SM apps on the cell phone. Due to its nature, the phone supports the addictive element of Social Media much more than a computer.
our phone is always available and we get the dopamine kick much more easily. Dopamine is usually not released when we read a message or a post. It is released when we draw our phones or scroll. That leads to the conclusion that the information in a message is not even important. It is just the expectation of something new, that leads to this chemical body reaction.
Deleting Social media therefore reduces the reactive usage of Social Media significantly. the desire to grab your phone to check “What´s new” will disappear quickly. And you will be able to use the time you save more consciously. Focus on your environment, the nature and the people around you. This will help you to develop a healthier relationship to digital distractors.. If you want to learn more about Digital Detox, check out our video on that topic.
2. Environmental Optimization
Your physical and digital surroundings can either support your priorities or undermine them. Chaos in your workspace leads to chaos in your brain. The second strategy in our framework is about decluttering our environment.
And this isn´t just about aesthetics. Physical clutter creates mental clutter. It distracts us from the important things. You might not be consciously aware of that, but all kind of clutter drains your energy. The same applies to digital clutter. Too many apps, documents, and open tabs lead not only to confusion but also to technical friction that slows down your work.
The goal of this step is to redesign your environment in order to minimize distraction and maximize focus. Keep your phone in a different room during focused work sessions. Remove items on your desk that easily catch your attention. Face your desk towards the wall, not towards the window.
Be also more selective about the meetings you accept and the newsletters you receive. Always ask yourself: “Is this really important to me?” If not feel free to decline or delegate it.
Decluttering your space is an important step to gain more focus and clarity. It´s a one-time effort that frees up plenty of time and energy.
3. Strategic Time Blocking
Once your distractions are minimized and your environment is optimized, you can start a strategic planning process. This will help you to distinguish between things that are urgent and the ones that are really important.
I recommend starting this process with quarterly goals. I also work with annual goals, but they might seem too unrealistic, or the process of how to get there is less clear. Today I almost completely switched to a quarterly planning horizon.
that allows you to set clear and realistic, but still challenging goals and you are able to track your progress and to see if you´re heading in the right direction. List out your 2 or 3 most important goals for each area of life (business, relationships, health, personal growth) for the next 3 months.
From your 3 month targets, you can easily derive weekly and daily goals. Now, the planning goes from the long-term to the short-term goals. However, when you execute, start with your daily goals. Again, write down the Top 3 goals for each day and begin your mornings by completing them.
Administrative and reactive tasks should be scheduled in the afternoon. This is when usually your creative energy drops. You should work in focused blocks of 60-90min, followed by a real break. I like to keep the duration of a focus block flexible because also our energy and focus are not always the same.
However, I want to emphasize that you shouldn´t structure out your entire day. Leave some space and flexibility for the unexpected things, because they keep our life interesting. By that, you can combine structure and discipline with the power of being present and open to life presents.
4. Mindset Cultivation
Any type of freedom, whether it is financial or timewise, starts with the freedom of your mind. If your mind is trapped in limiting beliefs and social constraints, you can never be free. There are many ways to cultivate your mindset, but the basis is always to have some fixed rituals that support it.
You need to find your own rituals that support a positive mindset, but whichever you choose make sure to stick with it for a while, before you draw any conclusions on their effectiveness.
Positive rituals include meditation, journaling, manifestation, mindfulness, and gratefulness.
Also, the time during the day doesn´t matter so much. Just make sure, that you can do these activities every day during the same time. While there are active habits that should have a fixed schedule (like meditation or journaling), others (like being mindful or grateful) can just be cultivated throughout the day.
An important aspect that shapes our mindset is our language. Not only how we talk to others, but also how we talk to ourselves. So make sure the language you use is positive and oriented towards the values you support. The stories you repeatedly tell yourself become your beliefs. And your beliefs are not right or wrong, good or bad. They are just supportive or holding you back.
Beliefs that hold us back can be changed. They are not a universal truth. They are just part of your story. But changing limiting beliefs doesn´t happen overnight. It requires constant self-reflection and eventually the help of a coach or mentor that can point you to the areas of your story that you try to avoid. But once you shift your mindset, freedom becomes easier and more natural.
5. Systems Implementation
The final step of the Time Freedom Formula is to create supportive systems. Especially in the coming age of AI, it becomes more and more important to automate repetitive and standard tasks. Automation doesn´t only help you to save time, but also to improve your results. Because you streamline the process and make the outcome more predictable.
Automation doesn´t need a degree in software engineering. There are numerous tools out there that can help you to automate everything. E-mail sequences, bill payments, posting schedules. This is your leverage to become at least 10x more productive. And with AI to come it will be even more.
The only thing you need to do is to train your systems in order to get the result that you want. And don´t forget to plan regular reviews of the processes in order to make sure they are still on track.
Reducing your focus from routine tasks allows you to focus on your real assets. Your creative work, that requires your unique skills. This is also the work that provides ultimately the greatest satisfaction.
Creating Your Personal Time Freedom Plan
By now, I hope you understand, that there is no universal recipe to achieve time freedom. there are no one-size-fits-all solutions. Because each of us is different. We all have our own values, our own definition of the truth, and our own model of the world. Your pathway won´t be the same as mine. But the principles stay the same.
Start by doing a radically honest review of your relationship with time. Where do you spend your hours? Which activities throughout your day are serving your goals, and which are only distractions?
Then clarify your values and priorities. What is really important to you? What do you regret that you didn´t start it earlier? Is your time distribution aligned with your priorities?
If not, start to change your schedule. Gently shift towards more creative and fulfilling activities while still acknowledging your responsibilities.
You will see, with your first successes you will start to feel better and live more intentionally. As you learn more about yourself, be open to adjusting your process and relationship with time.
Conclusion: The Responsibility of Freedom
As Sartre taught us, freedom comes with responsibility. We are “condemned to be free”. We can´t escape the burden of choice – even not making a choice by itself is a choice.
Time freedom isn’t about escaping this responsibility but embracing it fully. It’s about recognizing that how we spend our hours is how we spend our lives, and taking ownership of that profound truth.
The journey to time freedom doesn´t have to be perfect or linear. We are all humans. We make mistakes. And we have the tendency to fall into old and sometimes destructive patterns.
The goal is to become aware of that and to increase the times when we live according to our purpose and autonomy.
This is also not just a privilege that is reserved for the lucky few. We can all build our discipline, our willpower, and our habits. And we all search for our own definition of success and strive for that.
The time to start is now. Every day you wait is a lost day. You will always find an excuse not to start. If you don´t start today, you will never. Tomorrow it will be the same. So start now.
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