One of the most common irritants in life is the thought or notion of wasted time. Not a day goes by when I feel that I could manage some portion of my day better or more effectively. After implementing a few principles to my day, I have noticed that I have doubled the effectiveness of my time. Each day. I mentioned yesterday a great way to start managing your time by auditing, graphing, and ruthlessness. Here are more:
Wake up early- I try to get an early start on the day. Every day. I have noticed that too many students (or just people in general) are in love with sleep. After noticing this, I also noticed that they rarely achieved their goals, or never had enough time to do so. Waking up early has given me an advantage from getting an early edge on the day. I like to think that I am ‘beating’ everyone each morning and investing time in my future while I could be otherwise sleeping.
Time your tasks-Most productivity hackers might call this working in “bursts”. I just call it timing my tasks. Since I use a Mac, I have a handy widget that I can set for an amount of time (usually 15 or 30 mins). When I use it, I will focus my efforts for that amount of time into a concentrated, productive block of time. It seems that when I time my tasks that I typically have an increased amount of focus because it is less casual. Compare it to writing an exam: You have 2hrs to write 25 pages of content that you are being tested on. For some reason, you completely neglect your surroundings and you focus in on your work. Timing your work is much like this. I have increased my productivity exponentially because of this.
Skim- Reading is something that we do in everyday life. Either in work or school, it is likely to be a necessary task. I hate it when I have to find 2 relevant points in 20 pages of irrelevant material- it’s a huge time waster. Because of this, I only read what I need to. Search for key words, titles, or headings. Trying to relate the context to the answer you are looking for is also extremely helpful. I find that I spend 5-10 minutes on a task that usually takes 30 when I skim, so obviously this is a huge time saver.
Find your space- I can’t work with distractions. Not many people can. I rarely go to the library or Starbucks for this reason. All too often I find students or professionals chatting it up at a coffee shop with their books or laptops open, but getting no work done. It’s surprising how a conversation about macroeconomics can quickly shift to my spring break vacation. The honest truth is being a hermit=productivity. Whenever I work, I avoid people, noise, and anything else that will take me away from focusing on the task at hand. Take the time you have saved while being a hermit and allocate it into something fun, while the people over at Starbucks are on their 5th latte hours later.
Saving time doesn’t necessarily equate to being a lonesome hermit. Rather, I like to think of it as deferred socializing. If I spend 2 hours on a task that typically takes 5, I can take the 3 hours and use it towards other, more enjoyable things. Simple.
-Back with new stuff tomorrooowww
but…i like wasting time
your dum