Aaron Huizenga shares 5 hacks to take back your time

August 26, 2025 By Aaron Huizenga 0 Comments

Image: Andranik Hakobyan/iStock / Getty Images Plus/Getty Images — Image: Andranik Hakobyan/iStock/Getty Images Plus/Getty Images

Time management is one of the hardest things to wrestle with in our constantly connected and busy lives as working adults, parents, leaders and community members.

There never seems to be enough of it. From time to time, I wish there were eight or nine days in a week because there just isn’t enough time to get everything done that I had planned.

Time is the one single commodity in this world that no one owns, can sell, buy or trade. It is an enigma under which we are all servants. That is a simple fact of life.

There are, however, a few little hacks that can help you get some of your time back, or at the very least, leverage to get more out of the roughly 4,000 weeks that we have on this planet.

I will break them down into five suggestions that work for me.

⦁ Stop getting distracted. There are a thousand things that happen during any given day that can pull you away from something productive. The dog barks at the Amazon driver; there is a crashing noise in the kitchen; the Ring camera is going off; etc. etc. etc. Shut them out of your mind if you are in a productive flow. Post COVID-19, we are all used to hearing all kinds of randomness in the background … let it go. Unless there is a zombie or a T. rex running around in your living room, the chances are pretty good that everything is just fine. Tune it out and practice some selective hearing. Life is happening around you while you are working and producing, so let it happen and block it out. By the way, this strategy also works at the office.

⦁ Turn off the notifications. About a decade ago, I turned off all the dings and chimes for every notification on my phone and computer, except for text messages. The Outlook pop-ups are disabled, and half of the time, my phone is on silent. Not to ignore the calls and emails, but to help control the flow. Some would say doing this is crazy, but it works for me. With all of the noise turned off, you are now in control of what you see and what you react to in a moment-to-moment workday. You dictate what your mind is working on. Multi-tasking is a farce; your brain is not wired that way. Seriously, look it up.

⦁ Utilize the in-between time. We all have time when we are driving, mowing the lawn, cleaning the house, etc. Use this time to invest in yourself or to catch up on conversations. I drive about 70,000 miles a year for work and leisure, and during that time, I call my grandmother, my mom, the managers I work with, and consume about 15 leadership and self-development books a year. I use the in-between as an opportunity to connect and invest in myself. It is a great time. Even if you are only running kids to soccer or dance to get 20 minutes of personal growth … use it. You will be surprised at how listening to a podcast can open up new pathways and ways of thinking in your brain in those few simple moments done consistently over a year.

⦁ Get rid of the noise. Hack No. 3 said to use the time to make phone calls or listen to podcasts, but there are times when silence is golden. My family will tell you that they think I’m crazy for being able to drive or sit for hours on end with no radio, conversation or interaction. It seems weird to many, but I build time into my life to simply think. No noise, no distractions, no nothing. I just put it on autopilot and think. It is amazing the number of new ideas, articles, thoughts and originality that can come from silence of the mouth and ears. Try it a few times. It takes practice, but it is powerful.

⦁ Strike when the iron is hot. All of us have a thermometer to tell us when the time is right for something. Ready to get out of bed. Ready to start that project. Ready to have that difficult conversation. Ready to “fill in the blank,” and that is the exact time to get it done, regardless of what time the clock says.

In full disclosure, I wrote this article at 11:37 p.m. because that is when it popped into my head. Normally, I would have been asleep two hours ago, but hey, strike while the iron is hot! When you sleep, your brain does not actually fully sleep; it is constantly unpacking and reorganizing information it has acquired, and there are times when it ignores that tick-tock on the wall that says it’s work or family time. Take it as it comes and leverage it when it is ready. There is great peace in that, and it won’t even feel like work. Want to do the laundry at 2 a.m.? Go for it if that is when it feels right. Finish that PowerPoint at noon a week before the presentation, then own it. Time is a man-made constraint; let creativity and work happen when it suits you. Just don’t miss that deadline!

Not all of these hacks will work for you, but they work for me, and you can use them as you like. Overall, take away the fact that you are in control of your time. It is your greatest asset, so use it wisely. You can never get it back; you can only spend it. It is a limited resource, so be mindful of that every day.

Let’s work on your upgrade!

Aaron Huizenga is East Division manager for Lakes Gas in Wisconsin. Reach him at ahuizenga@lakesgas.com.