7 Ways To Save More Time In Your Life

For the average men in a twenty-four day, 8 hours are already spent in their sleep. When you consider the 2 hour for meal time and another 2 for traveling time, half of twenty-four hours are already spent without any work done. Now let's take into account the time spent on recreation and hobbies, with friends and miscellaneous activities such as exercising and Facebook-ing. That would bring the 12 hours to a 15. In other words, the average men have 9 hours per day for doing productive work, the rest are spent on work-unrelated activities. Take note, the hours spent on jobs are not factored in yet.

Some people understand the importance of this, that's why there are people who reduce their sleeping, eating and recreational time; and people who start trying polyphasic sleep (an alternate sleeping pattern to the conventional monophasic sleep), photoreading (a more effective variant of speed reading), audio learning tool for en route and expensive instant fixes to make the most out of each second and save more time in their life.

Here are 7 ways to save more time in your life:

1. Cut back on television and the Internet

With the increasing popularity of catching shows on video sharing sites, online videos must be taken into account too. The fastest way to start saving time is to cut down on the hours spent on watching shows. Not that I am putting the billion dollar industry down, but most likely, they are not the top priority for now.

2. Create routine

It is common sense that if you practise something every day, you're bound to be good in it. Create routines for your daily life. Once you have adapted to the routine, it is much easier to get things done with minimal distractions. Secondly, by familiarizing with a daily routine, it is much easier to find out smarter and faster ways of doing things. To start: Identify recurring activities that you have to perform, it can be work-related or domestic chores. Connect them together to form a flowing sequence of steps. Now, maintain the new routine until it becomes your second nature.

3. Find alternatives

Once a routine has been set and maintained for some time, it becomes possible to start noticing some repetitive patterns, redundant steps or time-saving shortcuts. Trim whatever is unnecessary and test out the shortcuts, it will save you time. To start: Think back on those times when your gut feelings tell you that you are putting in more time and effort than the result you are getting. If the routines can be further improved upon, test them out. Time is precious.

4. Organize and categorize

Still remember the 9 hours we have left for real work? More often than not, trying to locate anything in a mess takes some time. This can seriously cost you a bomb, in terms of both lost opportunity costs and distraction from the clutter which will take up your time again. A logical system of categorization will save you time by allowing to get what you need the instant you need it. If you have to frequently refer to archives or retrieve goods from a logistics nightmare, keeping the archives and inventories organized will definitely save time. To start: If you have ever faced similar problems, the best thing to do is to reserve a date to organize and tackle the mess.

5. Multi-task

This is rather subjective. Some actions should never be multi-tasked, such as reading the news while having dinner; or messaging your friends on the cellphone while driving. It is public consensus that they pose certain risk to our health or others' safety. Otherwise, it is possible to multi-task in order to save time. I know of a friend who is no stranger to multitasking. He lifts weights while reading, trains his mind while sleeping (he uses a brainwave entrainment audio program) and easily alternates between his workloads. He had proven to me that he can perform them with ease, but it comes with practice. To start: It is not necessary to become an eight-legged octopus like my friend. For a start, it is better to get accustomed to the aforementioned routine first. Multitasking will follow naturally. If you like to get hands on now, consider scanning your computer for spyware as you read this.

6. Plan ahead of distractions

The shortest distance between two points is a straight line. It applies to anyone and their tasks at hand. The problem lies with distractions which draw us away from our tasks and cause everyone to take long and unnecessary detours instead of a straight path. You have to plan ahead of these distractions to avoid them. To start: For physical distractions such as noise, interruption and clutter, you can either remove them or avoid them. For mental distractions such as, temptations, or self-sabotaging thoughts like irrational fear (will be covered below), you may want to try processes like the 'Emotional Freedom Technique' (EFT).

7. Deal with self-sabotage

A lot of precious time is wasted on negative thoughts and thoughts that do not bear result. You may have met someone who spent days crying over spilled milk or absolutely refuse to move an inch due to irrational fear. Morally speaking, they have the right to mourn for their losses or worry about their 'safety'. Logically speaking, if their emotions are pulling them back to that extent, they have to start learning to deal with their emotions. It is taking up too much of their precious time. To start: If you feel that your emotions are dragging your productivity down the drain, try to find out what is causing that emotion exactly. Be honest and avoid excuses, once you have pinpoint it, overcome it with 'EFT' or 'Sedona'.

Run through the 7 ways again and remember this: "Time may be a man-made concept, but it cannot be created. Hold this truth close to your heart and bear it in your mind."