Time is a commodity like no other. We all have the same amount-twenty-four hours in a day, seven days in a week. As far as I know, no one has yet figured out how to erase time, and no one has figured out how to stretch it, except maybe Einstein-for most of us, it's a finite resource. Yet so many of us complain that we don't have enough time, as if we thought someone could do something about it.
The good news is, we can do something about it ourselves and it doesn't have to be complicated or difficult. Need more time? Here are four super simple ways to save minutes, hours, even days worth of time!
1. E-mail: Change your send/receive setting
When I ask my clients where they lose the most time in their day, most say e-mail. E-mail has become a vital means of communication in our business and personal lives, but it has also become a major distraction: it sucks up time.
In a study done in 2007, Microsoft workers took an average of fifteen minutes after checking their e-mail to again concentrate on serious tasks that required focus. Many in the interim found themselves replying to messages or sucked into the Web (for the article, see the New York Times, 3/25/2007). Imagine how much time you can recapture simply by reducing the frequency at which you check e-mail. If you check and respond to e-mail only once every hour or even once every two hours, your productivity will increase dramatically. As an aid, if you are using a tool such as Outlook, set your Send/Receive settings to your chosen time increment.
2. Web Surfing/Social Networking: Set a timer
Facebook and other social media is another time sucker a lot of my clients mention. It's a great way to take a short brain break when we need one, but chances are we spend twice as much time on it or on other Web surfing than we think. Try this experiment-time yourself during a few Web-surfing/social-networking stints. If you're satisfied with the time you're spending on them, great. If not, I recommend keeping these time vampires at bay by using a digital kitchen timer-or download a timer widget on your computer. Set your timer for however long you intend your break to take (and don't reset it!).
3. Television: Turn it off Televisions should be manufactured in the shape of vampires, to remind us what beastly time suckers they are. The United States is one of the highest-ranked countries in the world for television watching-an average of twenty-eight hours per week, or four hours per day. That doesn't sound so bad? It works out to about two months of nonstop TV watching per year. What could you get done with that two months of extra time this year? Cut back on the channel surfing by recording only your favorite shows or renting them.
Phone: Start with the end If you want to avoid the excessive chitchat and catching-up many phone calls involve, start with the end of the call in mind. When you want to ensure a more focused conversation, even for a friend's call, you can voice a time expectation up front. If you are making the call, you might say, "I'm calling about the report/the play date. Do you have ten minutes to discuss it?" If you are receiving a call, you could say, "I've got about ten minutes right now-is that enough time?" This tells the caller that right now, at least, time is an issue for you, and if they need more time they need to arrange for it.
