Where Did the Day Go? 3 Hidden Time Thieves Draining Your Hours

Anna Dearman Kornick: Hey, friends, and welcome to episode 326 of It's About Time, a podcast sharing stories and strategies to inspire better work, life and balance. I'm your host, time management coach, Anna Dearman Cornick. And I am so glad that you're tuning in today. Can I ask you something? And I really want you to think about this one. Have you ever had a day where your plan looked completely reasonable on paper? You weren't overbooked, you weren't doing anything crazy, and then somehow by two or three o' clock in the afternoon, you were behind? Just full on behind, like nothing went dramatically wrong. There were no emergencies, there were no major fires to put out, but you were still behind. And if you've ever had that experience, I, uh, want you to know you're not imagining it. And you. You, Your discipline, your willpower is not necessarily the problem here. What's happening on those days? The ones that kind of slip away without explanation, the ones that make you ask, wait, where did the day go? It's that something is quietly stealing your time. Not in big, obvious chunks and not even in ways that you would immediately notice, but instead your time is being stolen in small, sneaky, totally invisible ways that add up to hours lost every single week. And that's exactly what we're digging into today. In today's episode, I'm talking about why your schedule, your to do list, whatever it is you're playing for the day can look completely reasonable and realistic on paper and. And still fall apart. By noon, we're going to talk about the concept of transition time and why it might be the most overlooked piece of your entire day. I'm going to introduce you to three examples of hidden time thieves that are quietly draining your hours and what to do about each one. And, uh, finally, I'll talk through why simply naming these thieves, knowing that they exist, is one of the most powerful things that you can do to stop start taking your time back. And because I know you're probably making the most of your time and you're listening in the car, or you're folding laundry, or you're taking a walk around the neighborhood with your weighted vest on. Whatever it is, don't worry about taking notes. I've got you covered. You can find everything from today's episode in the show notes, including links to any resources I mention. And today's show notes can be found over@abouttimepodcast.com for. All right, it's about time we get started, so let's, uh, get this show on the road

Narrator: you're listening to It's About Time, a podcast about work, life and balance around here. We believe that busy is not a badge of honor. Your host, Anna Dearman Kornik, is here to share tips and strategies to help you make the most of your time. Listen in on real conversations and success stories to find out how other go getters are getting things done. If you're ready to step away from the overwhelm and spend your time on what matters most, then you're in the right place. Here's your host, time management coach Anna Dearman Cornick.

Anna Dearman Kornick: Okay, so I want to take you back to a morning a couple weeks ago. I had a great plan for the day. A realistic, thoughtful, totally doable plan. It definitely wasn't one of those plans overstuffed, you know, ridiculously color coded schedules, itineraries where every single minute is accounted for. It was just a really solid plan that I felt genuinely good about. And then I got in the shower. Now, the shower itself was fine. That wasn't the problem. The problem was what happened after the shower. I got out, I wrapped up in my towel. I picked up my phone just to check one quick thing. And then 20 minutes later, I realized I was standing there, scrolling Instagram. We're talking, you know, hair dripping, fully aware that I was watching time disappear in real time and yet somehow not stopping. And by the time I actually got moving with my morning routine, I was already behind. But here's where it gets even better. Later that morning, I sat down at my desk to start my workday startup routine. So this is something that I teach in the It's About Time Academy. And as I'm sitting down, I noticed a stack of papers sitting on the corner of my desk. Now, they'd been there for a few days and something in my brain, it was like alarms and red, like neon signs were flashing. And it was like, now. Now is the time to organize that stack. So I gave in and I did for almost 20 minutes, papers that had absolutely nothing to do with my priorities for the day. It was low value, low impact, and zero urgency. But somehow they became the thing I did instead of the thing that I was supposed to do. And then when I finally looked up from that stack of papers, I thought, okay, hold on. What is happening? My actual tasks, my to do list for the day, were not the problem. My meetings hadn't run long. I hadn't gotten any surprise fires to put out, no calls from school or preschool. So why did I feel like I was already chasing the day? And that's when it hit me. It wasn't that my to do list was too long. It wasn't that I was taking too long on the things on my to do list. It was the time in between them. It was the transitions, those in between moments from one thing to the next, where I had no clear plan, no clear on ramp, and my brain just drifted. It drifted toward whatever was easiest, toward whatever was in front of me, toward the Instagram scroll and the stack of papers and a, um, dozen other things that weren't on my list. And once I saw it, I couldn't unsee it. These in between moments weren't just a morning thing. They were sprinkled everywhere throughout my day. And I had a feeling I wasn't the only one losing time this way. So if this sounds familiar, if you know what it feels like to get lost in the in between, I want you to really sit with this. It's not your schedule that's broken. It's not your to do list or your project management system or your planner that's broken. It's the space between it. We plan for our tasks, we schedule our meetings. We block our focus. Time. But we almost never plan for the transitions in between those things and all that unplanned, unintentional in between time. That's where your hours quietly go. Not all at once. Just a few minutes here, a few minutes there, until you look up and wonder where the day went. I'll say it again. It's not your schedule or your to do list or your calendar or your planner or any of that that's broken. It's the space between it, uh, that needs a little attention. And the good news is, once you know that, you can actually do something about it. Now, I want to be clear about something before we dive in. What I'm about to share are three examples of hidden time thieves. Three of the most common ones I see show up again and again with the women I work with. But let's be real. There are way more than just three. Time thieves come in all shapes and sizes, and some of them are incredibly specific to your life, your personality, and the season that you're in. So as I walk through these three time thieves, I want you to listen for yourself and see if you recognize any of these in your own days. And stay curious, because the three I'm sharing today might just open your eyes to a few others hiding in your own day. So let me tell you about time thief number one. It's called the Drift. And the Drift is exactly what it sounds like. It's the unscripted gap between one task and the next. That moment where you finished something and instead of moving intentionally into what's next, you just kind of drift. This is that shower to Instagram spiral that I told you about. This is the I'll just check one thing that turns into 20 more minutes. And it's not just a morning at home thing either. Think about this. You're at work, you finish a task, and you decide to treat yourself to a fresh cup of coffee from the break room. Completely reasonable, except on the way there, you run into a co worker in the hallway. And then another one. And 45 minutes and two sidebar conversations later, you're back at your desk. And now it's crunch time, because your next time block was supposed to start 30 minutes ago. Does that sound familiar? The drift doesn't feel like wasted time while it's happening. The coffee run felt like a break. The chat felt like connection, or maybe even strategy, if you and your coworker were catching up about something work related. And sometimes it's genuinely all of those things. The problem is when it wasn't intentional, when you didn't choose it, when it just happened. So what do you do about it? So the solution is what I like to call a transition bridge. It's one single specific action that pulls you into the next thing. It's not a whole routine, it's not a checklist. It's just one deliberate move that you've decided on in advance. So, for my morning routine, my transition bridge is this. As soon as I get out of the shower, I do not touch my phone. In fact, it's not even in the bathroom with me. It doesn't sit on the counter tempting me. It stays on the charger. So I keep moving. Now, I'm going to be honest. I do wear an Apple watch. So as soon as I get out of the shower, one of the first things I do is put on my Apple watch. So if there's a truly urgent notification, maybe a phone call from family or a text message from a friend or some kind of, uh, update from the girl's school, I'll know. But Instagram or email or other apps that have that lure, that cause you to drift away from what you're supposed to be doing, and that can wait. So think about where the drift shows up most for you. And what could your one move transition bridge be to keep it from stealing your time? Okay, now let me tell you about time thief number two. This one's the Underestimated commute. Now this one is going to feel very familiar because we all do this when we are driving somewhere or we're on our way to appointment or maybe we're just walking to a meeting that's on the other side of our building. So imagine that you need to be somewhere at 10am and you know that it takes 20 minutes to get there. So you leave at 9:40, but then you hit every red light. You can't find a parking spot. And when you do find a spot in a paid lot, you realize you need to download a, uh, new parking app, uh, to pay for it. So now you're standing on a sidewalk trying to create an account, entering your credit card, wondering why this lot doesn't just take quite a while orders like a normal parking meter, and by the time you've walked in the door, you're five minutes late and you're already frazzled before you've said a single word. We chronically estimate how long it takes to get from point A to point B. This is a version of the planning fallacy, which is one of the three productivity pitfalls I talk about in the It's About Time Academy and in my book Time Management Essentials. Essentially, we as imperfect humans consistently underestimate how long we think things will take us, and we do it when we go. We underestimate how long we think it takes to get places, and we underestimate how long we think things will take on our calendars. So let's say that you work remotely, you work from home, and you have a 9 to 10am work block followed by a, ah, 10am Zoom call. Here's what that looks like. At 10am you're still wrapping up your train of thought from your focused work block. You're saving your work, you're tracking down the meeting link, you're running to the kitchen to refill your water because your dog, unfortunately cannot do that for you. You might need to run to the bathroom. You are switching mental gears so abruptly from deep focus mode to show up and be present on camera mode. And all of that takes time. And when we don't account for it, we start every next thing already behind and a little frazzled. Here's something I did recently that has made a surprisingly big difference. I shortened my podcast interview slots on my scheduling tool. I use calendly from 60 Minutes, which is the standard, uh, 326 episodes later. Every single interview block has always been an hour long. And I thought, why? Why not shorten it to 50 minutes instead? And that might sound like a really small thing, but that 10 minute buffer between conversations, it's everything. It gives me time to jot down a quick note, to grab some water, to take a breath, to read a quick brief or the bio for my next guest and actually show up ready for the next conversation instead of scrambling into it. And if you're someone who is in back to back virtual meetings or in person meetings all day, here's a question worth asking. Can this meeting be 50 minutes instead of an hour, or 25 minutes instead of 30? Most people will say yes. And that small shift can completely change the energy of your entire day. So the solution to the underestimated commute, even when that commute is between meetings, it's to start building margin into your calendar on purpose. A five to ten minute transition block between tasks or appointments isn't wasted time. It's protective time. And there's a big difference. One last thing I'll add here is that 10 minutes of breathing space between your meetings is huge. For my introverts who are listening, it gives you that time to take a breath, to create a quick recharge moment before you're back on camera and back in the game. Okay, now, Time Thief number three. This one is called the Low Value Detour. Oh, this one. This is my stack of papers on the corner of my desk. And I have a feeling it might be yours too. The Low Value Detour is when something easy, visible, or satisfying cuts in line ahead of what actually matters. And it's not that the task is bad or unnecessary. It's just that it chose the wrong moment to appear. And instead of saying to the task, not now, we say, sure, why not? It'll only take a minute. And here's what makes this Time Thief so particularly sneaky. The Low Value Detour feels productive. You're doing something that needs to be done. You're crossing something off, and you're making visible progress on something. And that feeling of accomplishment is genuinely satisfying in the moment. Oh, yes, dopamine hit. I did a little thing. The problem is, is that you just spent your prime morning energy, or your afternoon energy boost, organizing a stack of papers that really could have waited instead of doing the thing that would have actually moved the needle. Today in the It's About Time Academy, we call these low value tasks pebbles. And if we don't watch out, pebbles can completely take over our lives. So the solution to the Low Value Detour is again, something I teach in the academy, it's one of probably the most popular tools that we have, and it's called a shiny things list. Here's how it works. When a low value or distracting task pops up at the wrong time, say you're in a focused work session or you're in your workday startup, or you are supposed to be focused on something else. So when a low value or distracting task pops up, you don't do it right then. But you don't just ignore it either, because then it'll keep nagging at you. Instead, you capture it. You write it down on your shiny things. Listen, which could be a sticky note, uh, the corner of your planner. I like using a blank sheet of white copy paper or just a fresh page in a notebook. Wherever works for you. Then, after you collect some shiny things, you review the list and you decide what to do with each shiny thing you've collected. Do you do it? Do it now? Usually that's the answer. If it takes two minutes or less, do you delegate it to someone else on your team or in your family? Do you delay it and schedule it for another time? Or do you delete it entirely? You would be surprised how often our brain presents us with tasks that feel urgent in the moment, that don't even really need to be done. Some things that felt urgent, they just don't even make the cut when you look at them later with fresh eyes. The shiny things list gets the distracting idea out of your head and it protects your focus in the moment and it ensures the task still gets its fair shot just at the right time, not at the expense of your most important work. I actually like to say there is a time for this and now is not the time. I'm going to say that again just because honestly, I say that out loud when I'm in my office by myself. Sometimes when I feel tempted to do something that is easier than whatever I need to be doing, I'll literally say out loud, there is a time for this and now it's not the time. So there you have it. Three examples of hidden time. The drift, the underestimated commute, and the low value detour. And remember, these are just three. Once you start really looking for them, you start spotting little time thieves everywhere. They're sneaky, they're subtle, and they are absolutely stealing from you. But here's the really good news. Now that you know their names, you can start catching them in the act. Now, I know it might feel a little overwhelming to realize that even your in between moments need intention. And that's not what I want you to walk away feeling today. Truly. So here's the only thing that I want you to do this week. When it comes to these time thieves, I, uh, want you to just notice. Pick one transition in your day. Maybe it's your morning routine. Maybe it's the gap between lunch and your afternoon work block. Maybe it's the moment after a meeting ends. Whenever the meeting is. And just pay attention to what actually happens in that window. No judgment, no pressure to fix it immediately. Just curiosity. When or where does your attention drift? What's your go to low value detour? And how long does it actually take you to get from one thing to the next? You can't redesign what you haven't seen yet. You can't fix it if you don't know it exists. So just start by seeing it. And I promise you that simple act of noticing is more powerful than just about any productivity hack you'll ever try. Because awareness is always, always, always the first step. Now, if this episode resonated with you, if you found yourself nodding along thinking, oh yeah, that is exactly what's happening to me. I want to personally invite you to join me for a free live workshop happening on Wednesday, June 24th at noon Central, 12pm Central. It's called Time well Spent. How to reclaim 10 plus hours a week Without Sacrificing what Matters Most. And we are going to go so much deeper than what we covered today. I'll walk you through my proven heart method framework, the same one I use with my coaching clients, and together we'll look at how to build a schedule that actually accounts for all of this. The transitions, the detours, the drift. So that your days finally feel as intentional as they look on paper. It's completely free and you can grab your spot over@abouttimeworkshop.com and since we're meeting right at noon, feel free to bring your lunch. This is a come as you are kind of session. Whether you're tuning in from your kitchen table, your home office, the car during the camp pickup line, or your transition between meetings, I've got you. I would love to see your name in the chat on June 24th. As always, all the details from today's episode, including the link to save your spot for the time well spent workshop can be found over in the show notes@abouttimepodcast.com 326 all right, my friends, I'll see you next week. Until then, keep making time for what matters most.

Narrator: Thanks for listening to It's About Time, a podcast about work, life, and balance. Head over to www.abouttimepodcast.com to join the conversation. Check out the show notes and dive into bonus content so you can start living your best life today. Love this episode. Be sure to share it with a friend, subscribe and leave a review. Thanks for tuning in and we'll see you in the next episode.