Here's How To Squeeze More From Each Day
We all live in a fast paced world where time constantly feels like it’s in short supply; indeed, the world seems to have picked up pace in recent years due to advancements in technology amongst other things. Today, we are more time starved than ever because, for some reason, we feel we need to be doing so much more than we used to… that said, we’re also becoming more mindful and aware of the need to take time out for ourselves.
Indeed, many people today are looking more to making more money than they are time. It seems to be more understood and appreciated that whilst we can quite easily make more money we can never make more time, in terms of the fact we each have a limited time here - and therefore we need to make the most out of the time we do have.
Time is an incredibly valuable and scarce resource; so in this article we’ll look at some time saving ideas to help you squeeze the most out of each day, not just in terms of productivity but in terms of life.
See, life is for living yet so many of us spend our lives being dominated by work - and when it comes to productivity we often feel the need to supplement with a performance enhancing pharmaceutical product such as adderall in order to keep up with the demands we now have upon us, yet this isn’t very beneficial to our long term health as taking too many meds can lead to chronic heartburn and gastric reflux.
1. WORK REMOTELY
If possible, see if you can work remotely, from home, in a way that enables you to work flexible hours; this way, your time becomes your own. This not only saves time in terms of commuting to and from work, but also money, as there is a considerable cost associated with most people’s daily commute to and from work.
Similarly, if you study, online courses are often cheaper than traditional courses due to the reduced overheads plus you don’t need to travel to the course, pay for extra accomodation, and so on, meaning you save some money that could be better spent too.
If you run a company yourself, or have influence within your workplace, you might want to recommend Riteq as a tool to help manage workplace productivity - meaning there’ll be more leniency to allow staff to work from home, given the reporting mechanisms that can be put in place.
2. ORGANISE YOUR TIME
The convenience of online working and online studying means you have much more time to enjoy your life. In reality, we often spend far too much time living in reaction to work - trying to fit our lives in and around our work commitments, yet it doesn’t have to be that way.
The amount of time you can save by having a good planning system in place is absolutely phenomenal… indeed, a lot of “time management” comes down to planning your tasks before starting them, so that you can keep on top of things and make progress where it really counts
3. RELY ON A TEAM
Most people feel like they need to do everything on their own and the concept of delegating important tasks can be quite a scary prospect, particularly if you have a small business, but even in your personal life it can be good to assemble a team of people to support you and delegate tasks to specialists within each area; whether that’s high level business activities or housekeeping, the principle remains true.
4. THE PARETO PRINCIPLE
The Pareto Principle, often known as the 80/20 rule suggests that 20% of our activities account for 80% of the final outcome; meaning 20% of the tasks you have on your to-do list will create 80% of the good stuff you want to bring about.
In simple terms, you want to focus on tasks that are going to have the greatest impact and get these done first. The first step, of course, is to work out what these priority tasks are.
The best way to go about this is to write a list of all your tasks for the day, week, or month and then determine which tasks are going to create the greatest impact; and make sure you do these tasks as a priority. Sometimes these won’t be pleasurable tasks, but it’s not about doing the tasks you find most enjoyable or effortless first - it’s about getting through the tasks that are going to make the biggest positive impact.
5. WORK WHEN YOU WORK
Brian Tracy, a pre-eminent time management expert that wrote the book “Eat That Frog” advocates the idea that you work when you work and you rest when your rest; meaning, if you are sitting down to work - ensure you have a singular focus on the task at hand in a distraction free environment. Similarly, if you’re going to rest then make sure you make this time a time of proper rest and relaxation.
Today, particularly when working from home, people multitask by working with their laptop on their lap whilst having the TV on in the background, or even dropping in and out of a conversation with their spouse. By fully working when you work, you can drastically reduce the amount of time you are needing to spend working - and you’ll get the added benefit of being able to fully rest when you rest, rather than having one foot in both camps, half working and half resting.
6. USE LISTS
The world’s most successful people have one thing in common; they all write lists for everything, whether this is their goals or their tasks for the day, it’s always written down.
Today, there are a number of apps such as Wunderlist that help people keep track of their to-do lists, and the great thing with an app like this, is that a number of categories can be created in addition to a high priority section. Each time you tick something off your list, you will receive a physiological boost in the form of an endorphin release which will catapult you forward into making more and more progress, because positive progress can be addictive (in the best possible way).