ARTS&FOOD® LIFE HACKS – COLUMN
We notice how and when we waste time on a large scale. We notice that we spent an hour on social media or that we watched TV for three hours. However, these aren’t the only ways we waste time. We waste time in dozens of ways each day.
Many of these time-wasters aren’t always obvious, but the time can really add up over the course of a day, a week, or a decade.
Don’t let your time just be frittered away! Imagine how much you could accomplish in that time! What could you do that really matters to you?
Guard your time against the micro time-wasters with these strategies:
1. Have a phone charger with you. How many times in a week do you need a phone charger and have to go into the other room to fetch it? Have multiple chargers and keep them handy in the locations you spend the most time.
● It’s not just the time it takes to get the charger. It’s the disruption to your thoughts and workflow. Plus, once you leave the room to locate your charger, who knows what else will grab your attention along the way.
2. Internet speed. How much time do you spend waiting for a web page to load? Or a movie to stream? You might not think you’re waiting for very long, but it all adds up. If your internet is noticeably slow, your time is being wasted.
3. Checking e-mail. It just takes 10 seconds to check email, right? Hardly. That quick look alters your concentration, and there’s no telling how far down the rabbit hole you’re going to go.
● You might open three emails, respond to one of them, then remember that you have another email to answer, rinse and repeat.
● What if the email is a link to an interesting video of a dog or cat performing tricks, leading to more interesting videos?
● There’s no telling when you’ll get back on track.
4. Beverages. How many times do you get up from your desk to get a drink? However many times it is, it’s too many. Keep a beverage handy when you’re working. Take a sip and get back to work.
5. Snacks. Keep something healthy available at your workstation. If at an office when you go for a snack, you never know who you’ll run into, or how long you’ll be gone. Be prepared, keep your focus and get more done.
6. Get gas for your car on the weekend. You don’t want to be rushed on Tuesday morning and realize that your car needs gas on the way to work. Plan ahead on your days off.
7. Meals. We spend a lot of time thinking about meals, planning meals, buying food, cleaning dishes. If you have to stop on the way to work for breakfast, go out for lunch, and then pick up something at the store for dinner, you’re wasting a lot of time on your food.
● Keep a grocery list, a plan for the next week’s meals, and only go to the store once a week.
● When you are slammed at work… have food that can be prepared quickly and easily and doesn’t require an hour of cleanup after preparation.
8. Looking for “lost” things. This is MAJOR. We all lose our masks, keys, purse or wallet, pens, our shoes, jacket, umbrella, etc. So many things can be temporarily misplaced. Solution? Have a place for everything and keep your essentials in that particular place. For example, don’t ever put your car keys just anywhere when you come in exhausted, always put them in the decorative bowl on the way to the front door. You should keep a supply of pens at your desk, this is a priority. Your shoes, coat, and umbrella should be where they belong, it is a waste of time to simply undress willy nilly as you enter your home.
After you’ve eliminated the big wasters of time in your life, start looking at the tiny wasters of time. Getting rid of these tiny problems can have an impact on your life, which isn’t so tiny.
Every disruption has a greater impact than just the amount of time the disruption robs from you. More importantly it is the loss of focus and momentum that hurts productivity. It always takes more time than you would expect, to mentally get back on track, after you’ve scoured the house for something small you have lost.
Guard your time – to have the life you really desire!
ARTS&FOOD® LIFE HACKS – COLUMN
