Marketed As The Cycle, It Takes Your Time. Budget To Get Some Back

Wake up. Eat breakfast if you can. Drive to work.

Try to focus.

Do the work. Coffee. Lunch. More work.

Go home. Dinner. Chores. Sleep.

Start over again.

Ever feel you could write your life in a checklist? Like time is a thing always drained away? You swore you’d get that hobby project done. Or finally fix that broken light in the hallway.

Yeah, me too. It’s hard. Life is a rush of responsibilities. And even when you have free time, the sheer number of things being marketed to you will pull you in many directions.

The world wants your time and your money. You budget money (I hope) and it helps you keep track of things. So, why not budget time? Or at least try to get a bit of control.

Sounds difficult because it is. And I am not perfect either. So, I fail at this too. But when life eats you alive, I have a few pieces of advice to make things a tad more efficient.

It’s A Thing Marketed Often, But Here’s Ways To Really Save Time

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• The “Have To” List.

Priorities are important. And some things you have to do. So, know those things down pat. Trust me when I say you’re less likely to get distracted when you know a list of everything you have to accomplish by the end of the day.

• No Television, No Facebook.

How much time do you spend on social media? How many hours? How much T.V.? Television is not a ritualistic thing. It is a relaxing thing. It’s a reward. It is not a given aspect of day-to-day life. Treat both as things you get when the “have to” list is done.

• Just Get It Done.

Life has a ton of tiny things you should get around to doing. So, just do them. Yeah, it will take like five to ten minutes, but trust me it will only get more difficult if you let it all form a pile. Buy those vitamins from Natures Food Patch. Mail that letter at the post office. Pick up the gift card for your mother at One Stoppe Shoppe on Cleveland Street. Go do it when you think of it—barring obvious delays. Random particles and tasks that need doing eat concentration.

• Fully Relax!

No, none of that “a reward YouTube video for each work assignment done” or “texting a friend while doing homework.” I am not pooh-poohing leisure time. We all need it, or we would explode. But, if you are going to have some—then it is relaxation time. Full-on. And if you have to do work, then just do the work. Multitasking for productive things is not a good idea, and you’ll end up using more time on doing both at the same time than if you did them one at a time.

Sounds difficult and annoying and hard? Yeah. It is. But I know of no more efficient way. And, like I said, I fail at it all the time. But it’s at least worth attempting.

Think of all the time you could save.

If you liked this article, you can read more of Brandon Scott’s work on The Hive, or at his website: www.coolerbs.com