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Spiral Clock

Photo Courtesy of fdecomite (Flickr)

Life offers just one thing, time, and it is up to you to make the most of it.  Benjamin Franklin once said there are only two things certain in life: death and taxes.  Though he may be right in many respects, the reality is that we have an unknown amount of time in life and working a full-time job certainly uses quite a bit of it.  This reality leaves you with two choices, find a way to avoid ever working, or find a way to create time outside of work.

At the end of each day I always analyze what I was able to accomplish that day.  I question whether or not I used my time wisely and if there was more I could have achieved.  I’m careful not to take this too far because time in any given day is limited and there really is only so much you can do.  However, I have found ways to maximize the time that I have been given.  I’ve listed a few tricks and tips here and I hope there are as useful to you as I have found them to be.  Enjoy!

Time is the coin of your life. It is the only coin you have, and only you can determine how it will be spent. Be careful lest you let other people spend it for you.
–Carl Sandburg

Create Time Today

1. Buy an Automatic Coffee Maker - I’m assuming you’re just as passionate about coffee as I am.  I prep my automatic Grind & Brew coffee pot at night and let the tornado-sounding appliance wake me up in the morning.  It’s quite effective as an alarm clock and it keeps me awake with continuous energy blasts of caffeine.  Even if you’re not a caffeine junkie, you can find other automatic appliances and little tricks to speed up your life and and cut the chores down to a minimum.  I have my computer pre-set to turn on and automatically open every program I need right about the same time the coffee pot starts up.  So, by the time I crawl out of bed and grab that first cup, my computer is fired up and I’m ready to begin my day.

2. Create Your Weekly Schedule Months in Advance – It’s true, the busier you are the more you can accomplish.  However, you need to be diligent and disciplined with your schedule and your priorities to keep yourself on track on a daily basis.  For example, when I trained for my first marathon I created a six-month training schedule on iCal (Mac Calendar program), and stuck to it.  I had to plan every short run during the week and the long runs on the weekend, keeping every distraction to a minimum.  The hard part here is the follow-through, but if you’re serious about the schedule from Day 1, it’s much easier to reach your long-term goals in the end.

3. Use Mint for Your Money – I’ve discussed this one before because it’s a snap to set up and a breeze to keep updated.  Check out Mint.com where you can literally automate your financial life, sort of.  What Mint offers is a one-stop money shop where you can check ALL of your accounts online at the same time.  This includes everything from checking and savings accounts, to 401(k)’s, credit cards, loans, HSA’s, investments, and more.  However, you can’t forecast your expenses.  In other words, if you’re like me and have EVERY bill automatically withdrawn every month, you need to predict how much money will be in your account on any given day in the future.  I use MoneyWell, a digital checkbook for the Mac, to monitor these future transactions and it works really well.  The combination of future forecasting on MoneyWell and checking the past transactions on Mint keeps me inline all the time.

4. Batch What You Don’t Enjoy - This can go for things you enjoy also, but lets keep things simple and try to batch whatever we can.  Basically, batching is simply doing a small task in large quantities.  For example, if you only checked your email inbox once a week, or took out your trash once a month, or bought all your holiday gifts one day.  These may sound rather extreme but there is an art to batching and it takes practice.  Start small and build up as you manage more projects and find yourself being weighed down by daily tasks that could be done all at once on a different day.

5. Outsource Your Groceries – Depending on where you live this may not apply to you, but if you have this service, USE IT!  Many grocery stores offer a delivery service that lets you buy your groceries online and have them delivered at your convenience.  PeaPod is a popular choice and it can be amazing if you hate spending time purchasing the same foods over and over again.  The most effective way to use a service like this is to have your “essentials” automatically delivered on a routine schedule.  If you know you want 2 gallons of milk and 6 boxes of cookies every week, then set it up and what the food roll in like clockwork!  There is a delivery charge but it’s minimal if you buy in bulk.

6. Don’t Go Home After Work – The tendency for many is to rush home immediately after work, take some time to unwind, and then see how much time is left with their evening to accomplish something.  Try this: if you’re working on a long-term goal, or even just running errands, it is more effective to transport yourself directly from work to your ideal working environment.  Traditionally, home is where you and infinite distractions reside.  You may have noticed that you were more productive in the library than your frat house when trying to study in school.  The same applies in the real world.  Go to the library, a business center, coffee shop, or wherever you find the most effective to accomplish your goals.  After all is said and done, then you may go home, crash in your bed, and try it all agin tomorrow.

7. Work Less – If all of this productivity talk is starting to sound a little intense, you may want to consider giving yourself more time.  You can create it by simply working fewer hours per week.  This can be accomplished by scaling back from full-time to part-time, finding a new job where you work fewer hours and get paid more per hour, quit your job and live off the salary of your significant other, move back in with your parents . . . you get the picture.  Or, you can do what I’m doing, sacrificing now while starting a business so that later on I can work fewer hours and make significantly more income.

Whatever you choose is great, as long as it’s your choice.  If you like your job and want to work more, DO IT!  If you hate your job and desperately need to find a new one, DO IT!  If you simply want to find more time in your day do what you love, MAKE IT HAPPEN TODAY!  Just make the choice now and begin creating the time you want to live the life you have always dreamed of.  Good luck on your decision and stay positive!

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Don’t forget to check out my new revolutionary eBook for conquering life after college!

The Clueless Graduate,

Jeff & Tessa Sanders

Jeff Sanders


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