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16 Great Tips That'll Add More Hours To Your Day: "
Everyday it seems that one of my friends is whining about how tied up he is in his work and household chores, and how he wished he had more than 24 hours to accomplish things. As if they were placed on Earth with some lesser amount of time than the rest of us. Don't get me wrong, I have time management issues too. However, I'd like to think that I'm the one in charge of the schedule, not the tasks.
The best way to overcome this situation (and the never-ending frustration) is by doing a careful analysis of your daily schedule and figuring out how to save time by doing the same things you do every day in a slightly different way.
The following points should help you get started. Oh, and please: don't do all of these tomorrow. Choose one or two that are simple to implement. Once you see some gains, revisit this article and grab two more and implement those. Time issues cannot be solved with a shotgun approach, you have to selectively and carefully target what needs to be tweaked.
Ok, so enough monologue. Here are some ideas to get you started.
Work From Home When You Can
Working from home sure saves time. Try and convince your boss to let your work from home for few days a month. And if she does agree, you should take a look at our posts on staying productive and beating the stress when working from home.
Make Use Of Your Commute
Can't get rid of the long commute? Boss won't let you work from home? Well, then make the most out of your commute. Reading a book, listening to a good podcast or catching up to the DLM feed in your RSS reader....there are just so many ways to utilize that time.
Spend Less Time Looking At Your Inbox
I have talked before about managing your email productively. If you are able to do that successfully, it could go a long way in adding time to your busy schedule.
Outsource Errands
We don't often realize that paying bills and running errands could suck up a good bit of time from our 24-hour days. May be you could outsource them to a local service, or find someone on a site like Mechanical Turk and have him do it for you. Maybe you go as far as finding a virtual assistant.
Use the Best Tools Of Your Trade
No matter what work you do, there are always tools available to make your job quicker and easier. The important thing is to know about them. For example, a list like this could come in really handy for web workers. So, tab into your inner autodidact and find the right tools of your trade.
Use Windows Productivity Tricks
Using a Windows PC? Implement these essential Windows productivity tricks to make your everyday computing a better experience.
Deal With RSS Feeds Productively
RSS Feeds could end up consuming a lot of time if they are not managed well. Our posts on avoiding RSS overload and getting good with Google Reader should help.
Use a Good Password Manager
A password manager can speed up the task of registering on sites and creating strong passwords. You should definitely start using one of these 8 amazing password managers.
Get a Good Startpage
A well crafted startpage can help you start off the day productively by letting you take care of multiple tasks from a single page. Try one of these 6 startpages and see how it pans out for you.
Be More Productive At Online Shopping
Shopping - even if it's online - could be one of the most unproductive exercises during a 24-hour period. And it's not usually avoidable either. We can't stop buying, can we? But we can be better (and faster) at it for sure.
Delegate Tasks Whenever You Can
Delegating tasks you are not good at (or you don't enjoy doing) can be a big time saver. Granted it's not easy but there's no harm in trying. Start with these four steps we talked about previously.
Make Use Of Your Offline Time
Are you one of those who can't figure out what to do if your internet is down? I don't blame you. We are just too hooked to the world wide web these days. But offline time can, and should be utilized. You can do a number of productive things during that time.
Don't Multitask
If you remember my productivity myths article, the very first myth I talked about was about the belief that multitasking works. I don't think it does. Save time by not doing it.
Declutter Your Home and Your Life
Decluttering your home and office can help you find things quickly when you need them. Eliminating unnecessary possessions also helps to clear your mind about what exactly you need and when you need them.
Get Things Done With Your Mobile Phone
It's hard to differentiate a computer from a mobile phone these days, at least in terms of functionalism if not the look and the hardware. Hence it'll be good to learn how to get the maximum out of your cellphone, and use it productively.
Use Twitter and Facebook productively
Last but not the least, we've got two social sites that could turn out to be the biggest time suckers - Twitter and Facebook. You might not be able to stop yourself from using them but you could certainly try and become an expert at using Twitter and be more productive on Facebook.
Cheers,
Everyday it seems that one of my friends is whining about how tied up he is in his work and household chores, and how he wished he had more than 24 hours to accomplish things. As if they were placed on Earth with some lesser amount of time than the rest of us. Don't get me wrong, I have time management issues too. However, I'd like to think that I'm the one in charge of the schedule, not the tasks.
The best way to overcome this situation (and the never-ending frustration) is by doing a careful analysis of your daily schedule and figuring out how to save time by doing the same things you do every day in a slightly different way.
The following points should help you get started. Oh, and please: don't do all of these tomorrow. Choose one or two that are simple to implement. Once you see some gains, revisit this article and grab two more and implement those. Time issues cannot be solved with a shotgun approach, you have to selectively and carefully target what needs to be tweaked.
Ok, so enough monologue. Here are some ideas to get you started.
Work From Home When You Can
Working from home sure saves time. Try and convince your boss to let your work from home for few days a month. And if she does agree, you should take a look at our posts on staying productive and beating the stress when working from home.
Make Use Of Your Commute
Can't get rid of the long commute? Boss won't let you work from home? Well, then make the most out of your commute. Reading a book, listening to a good podcast or catching up to the DLM feed in your RSS reader....there are just so many ways to utilize that time.
Spend Less Time Looking At Your Inbox
I have talked before about managing your email productively. If you are able to do that successfully, it could go a long way in adding time to your busy schedule.
Outsource Errands
We don't often realize that paying bills and running errands could suck up a good bit of time from our 24-hour days. May be you could outsource them to a local service, or find someone on a site like Mechanical Turk and have him do it for you. Maybe you go as far as finding a virtual assistant.
Use the Best Tools Of Your Trade
No matter what work you do, there are always tools available to make your job quicker and easier. The important thing is to know about them. For example, a list like this could come in really handy for web workers. So, tab into your inner autodidact and find the right tools of your trade.
Use Windows Productivity Tricks
Using a Windows PC? Implement these essential Windows productivity tricks to make your everyday computing a better experience.
Deal With RSS Feeds Productively
RSS Feeds could end up consuming a lot of time if they are not managed well. Our posts on avoiding RSS overload and getting good with Google Reader should help.
Use a Good Password Manager
A password manager can speed up the task of registering on sites and creating strong passwords. You should definitely start using one of these 8 amazing password managers.
Get a Good Startpage
A well crafted startpage can help you start off the day productively by letting you take care of multiple tasks from a single page. Try one of these 6 startpages and see how it pans out for you.
Be More Productive At Online Shopping
Shopping - even if it's online - could be one of the most unproductive exercises during a 24-hour period. And it's not usually avoidable either. We can't stop buying, can we? But we can be better (and faster) at it for sure.
Delegate Tasks Whenever You Can
Delegating tasks you are not good at (or you don't enjoy doing) can be a big time saver. Granted it's not easy but there's no harm in trying. Start with these four steps we talked about previously.
Make Use Of Your Offline Time
Are you one of those who can't figure out what to do if your internet is down? I don't blame you. We are just too hooked to the world wide web these days. But offline time can, and should be utilized. You can do a number of productive things during that time.
Don't Multitask
If you remember my productivity myths article, the very first myth I talked about was about the belief that multitasking works. I don't think it does. Save time by not doing it.
Declutter Your Home and Your Life
Decluttering your home and office can help you find things quickly when you need them. Eliminating unnecessary possessions also helps to clear your mind about what exactly you need and when you need them.
Get Things Done With Your Mobile Phone
It's hard to differentiate a computer from a mobile phone these days, at least in terms of functionalism if not the look and the hardware. Hence it'll be good to learn how to get the maximum out of your cellphone, and use it productively.
Use Twitter and Facebook productively
Last but not the least, we've got two social sites that could turn out to be the biggest time suckers - Twitter and Facebook. You might not be able to stop yourself from using them but you could certainly try and become an expert at using Twitter and be more productive on Facebook.
Cheers,
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