Making Time for Personal Growth

One of the key challenges to any personal growth – or personal development journey is to find the time to commit to the work you need to do to keep taking yourself forward. Personal development is an ongoing process that above all else requires time and commitment. However, with the busyness of everyday life, it can be challenging to find time to focus on your personal growth and well-being. In this article, we will discuss some strategies for finding the time and commitment to your personal development so that you can start to do this on a regular basis.

Finding the Time

The first step in making time for personal development is to review how you currently spend your time. Take a look at your daily schedule and make note of the activities that take up the most time. Ask yourself if there are any activities that you can cut back on or eliminate altogether. For example, do you spend too much time scrolling through social media or watching television? While these activities may be fun, they may not be essential for your well-being and could be reduced to make more time for your personal development.

Getting Organised

Once you have identified activities that you can cut back on, the next step is to organise your schedule in a way that allows you to devote at least 20-30 minutes a day to work on your personal development goals. This could be in the form of journaling, reading, meditating, or working on a specific skill. The key is to make sure this time is dedicated solely to your personal development, and not to other distractions. You can do this by finding a certain time of the day when you can devote yourself to working on your journal or reading for 10 minutes a day. It’s surprising how quickly this time builds up and at the end of each week, you will see tangible results from your regular dedication to your personal growth.

Managing your Time

In addition to setting aside dedicated time for personal development, it’s also important to be mindful of your overall approach to time management. Consider adopting a method such as the Pomodoro Technique, which involves breaking your work into 25-minute intervals, followed by a short break. This approach can help you stay focused and prevent burnout. You can learn more about the Pomodoro Technique and you can adapt the length of time you devote to tasks, so this method can work best for you.

Another strategy to consider is to set specific and measurable personal development goals. You can use SMART to set yourself specific, measurable, achievable, realistic, and timed goals and incorporate reviewing these goals into your overall approach to your personal growth. This will give you a clear direction and purpose for your personal development efforts, and help you stay motivated and focused. It also allows you to track your progress and see the progress you are making toward reaching your goals.

By being mindful of your overall approach to time management, and by setting SMART goals you can also build in regular reviews of your progress. So for example, if you set yourself a goal to read one self-development book a month you can soon start to see how you progress against your goals.

By reflecting on what you’re learning in your journal you can also start to take away the knowledge you’ve learned and start applying it to yourself and your life goals. When you implement these strategies, you can soon make personal development a regular part of your life and indeed a habit,  and you’ll soon see tangible progress you’re making toward achieving your goals.

If you’re ready to start your own personal development journey please check out our blog posts on How to Take on your own Personal Development Challenge in 2023 and Moving your Career to the Next Level in 2023.

We have lots of advice and guidance on our website about how to develop yourself, and your career and find the perfect work-life balance. You can make the perfect start on your journey by downloading our guidance on Top Tips for Work-Life Balance  – 70 tips to help you to start your own self-improvement journey.