“I don’t have enough time.”

Being honest, how frequently does that familiar excuse come up?  You might say to yourself:  sure, I’d like to be out there more, but my job is sixty hours a week and I simply don’t have the time.

 

As with many excuses, this is often simply a rationalization for not being proactive with your life.  Want more time on your hands so that you can have a more active social life?  Here’s how.

 

1.  Cut the junk out of your life.

 

Many times, time management is about realizing that you do have enough time to get things done – you just have to move some things out of the way.  If you put off going out on a Friday night because you just have to see that one TV show at that one particular time, maybe it’s time to cut TV out of your life.

 

The principle here is simple:  if something in your life is taking up a lot of your time and not producing a lot of great results for you, cut it out, or at least cut it down.  If you’re wasting two hours on Facebook every night instead of going out, it’s time to cut the junk out of your life.

 

2.  Do work in batches.

 

Don’t bring one form of work with you to another form of work.  In other words, chunk the different areas of your life together in order to become more efficient.  Leave the 8 hours a day at the office to the office, and run all of your errands at once.  You’ll find that doing things this way gives you way more free time that you previously filled up by being overly “busy.”

 

3.  When in doubt, automate.

 

Have you been working on your time management but still can’t seem to get around to your dating life?  Why not set up an online dating profile and a separate e-mail account to handle it?  You can be receiving e-mails from interested members of the opposite sex while doing your work at the office or while you’re at the gym.  As odd as it sounds, if you do one thing at a time, you can still do two things at once if you automate.

 

4.  Concentrate on the most important aspects of dating.

 

If you spend five hours a week on finding new clothes but just one hour actually interacting with new people, you’re not concentrating on the aspects of dating that will bring you the greatest returns.  Instead, ask yourself where most of your dating success has come from, and start focusing on that area more.

 

5.  Treat your dating life like a business.

 

If you’re busy at your job, that often means you’re a successful professional.  Why not bring that attitude and track record to your dating life?  You can start treating your dating life like a business by following a few rules:

 

  • Put in regular hours.  Whether you want to or not, get out of the house every Friday and Saturday night and meet new people.
  • Keep a contacts list.  Keep track of the people you meet!  You don’t want to forget someone’s name or forget the history you have together.
  • Keep a schedule.  Have a schedule for yourself, just like you would at work.  Treat dates like meetings!  Feel free to schedule a “do-nothing” night every once in a while for a bit of rest.