As we settle into the new year, you don’t have to look very hard to notice the alarmingly high levels of anxiety, busyness, and overwhelm affecting people thanks to factors like lingering workplace staff shortages that mean longer working hours, daycare challenges, and stress at home.

As a result, people are searching for more margin in their lives.

Are the traditional planning and time-management prescriptions really that helpful?

How’s your alignment?

When they plan for a new year, I think most people know what they want, or at least what they don’t want; the issue is alignment–that is, how we approach our lives day by day.

Think about learning a new skill–golf, Olympic weightlifting, ballroom dance–any complex movement.

With no exceptions, the first thing your instructor will teach you is the proper setup: your stance, posture, body alignment, etc. That’s because it’s impossible to execute any physical skill without the proper alignment.

The same principle applies to how we approach our lives in 2024.

How can we position ourselves for a productive and fulfilling year with the margin we need to be the best version of ourselves?

While proper alignment and balance may feel like far-off dreams right now, here are four simple steps that will get you a lot closer.

1. Shift your mindset from “I don’t have time” to “I have all the time I need to do anything I want.”

I know what you’re thinking:

“Are you kidding? You haven’t seen my schedule.”

But consider this one insight that totally changed the way I approach my days:

Time doesn’t discriminate. With the two exceptions of the day you’re born and the day you die, everyone gets exactly the same amount of time every day.

No one gets an eighth day of the week when they have a baby, get a promotion, or go to grad school.

Think of the busiest, most productive people you know—from Fortune 500 CEOs, media moguls, or the mother of four kids who works full time and trains for triathlons.

Regardless of the demands, they all get the same amount of time you and I get.

This also means some people are staggeringly great at handling time. Teddy Roosevelt, for example, read over 500 books a year…during his presidency!

Once you realize this, you can more easily eliminate the excuses you make about not having enough time.

So, start by telling yourself the truth:

“I had the time. I didn’t take it. I had a chance to get it done. I didn’t do it. I was able to finish it. I just didn’t. I could do it. But I’m choosing not to.”

This single mindset shift can change everything and help you reclaim hours every week.

2. Identify the root of your busyness.

Research shows that people tend to do whatever it takes to keep busy, even if the activity feels lifeless to them.

In fact, one study concluded that “while it has been long presumed that people engage in activities in order to pursue goals, we posit a reverse causality: People pursue goals in order to engage in activities.”

In one of my previous posts, I shared how, in a culture that increasingly values preoccupation and over-commitment, “crazy busy” has almost become a badge of honor–a statement of validation that falsely reinforces that I am significant and that what I am doing is important.

If you find yourself on the hamster wheel of constant activity, consider taking time to ask yourself:

“What do I really want out of my life? What’s truly most important to me–and is my daily calendar supporting my priorities or is it more of a numbing strategy to keep me from leaning into the truth of my deepest values and beliefs?”

3. Learn to live in the present moment.

Our lives are the sum of our days, of what we repeatedly do even in the smallest details.

When you understand this you realize how unhealthy it is to dwell on the past or the future. I love how elite fitness coach Ben Bergeron put it:

Understanding that you only have control over the present moment is the key to being able to turn the page. Reliving the past is a recipe for unnecessary depression, and fearing the future is a surefire way to anxiety. Learning to live in the present moment is vital because it’s the only thing you have any control over. The only thing you can do to rectify the past or influence the future is to take action now, in the present moment.

4. Ruthlessly reduce digital distractions.

A 2019 study by software company RescueTime looked at 185 million hours of working time. Here are some key findings:

• Workers average just 2 hours and 48 minutes of productive device time a day
• 21% of working hours are spent on entertainment, news, and social media
• We check email and instant messaging, on average, every 6 minutes
• 40.1% of our day is spent multitasking with communication tools

If you pause to consider these findings, you realize it’s no wonder why so many people feel so overwhelmed and anxious.

I read recently that, in 2021, Americans spent an average of 142 minutes each day on social media. That’s 2 hours and 21 minutes or 15% of our waking hours!

If you want to reclaim time in 2024, this is the first place you need to look.

Check out one of my first blog posts from more than ten years ago. I shared six strategies to reduce the toxic effects of digital distraction at that time–and all of them are still applicable if not more so today.

I realize that some people are in a season of life marked by busyness and overwhelm.

Students working multiple jobs to pay for their studies, working parents with young children—not everyone has the luxury of managing their time the way they want to.

Many people, however, do have this flexibility, but too often allow their schedules to be hijacked by an inability to focus time and manage priorities.

Remember, before you download the next productivity app on your phone, check your alignment–and set yourself up to reclaim the time you need to accomplish everything you want.

As you consider ways to better manage time this year, which of these 4 steps resonates the most with you?

What would it mean to you and the quality of your life to reclaim several hours of time every week?

I’d love to hear your feedback.