Tuesday, July 9, 2013

Time Management Tools: Create More Free Time Using Two Simple Tips

By Lachlan Haynes


Your time is by far your most important resource. Why? Well it's the only thing you can't get more of. Think about it. No matter what you do you can never ever get more time. Can you?

One of the most intriguing aspects of time is that humans regularly waste it despite it being a non-renewable resource. Don't we? Most people spend their lives effectively trading whatever time they have for money in order to hopefully create a situation where they have 10 or 20 years of "free time" at the end (i.e. retirement). The great goal in mind is that we get to 60 years old and we get to be free and spend our lives as we please from then on! That's pretty much the deal isn't it? The only problem with this plan is that you will be old when you have created some lengthy "free time" and there's absolutely no guarantee at all that you will make it to 60 - or that you will have enough money to stop time trading even if you get there!

In truth the way humans approach time is completely flawed. There is no guarantee on time. You could have 60 years or 60 seconds left. There is one thing you can be certain of though. You can be certain that you don't know how much time you have left. So, can you see that your time is valuable and not to be wasted?

The real question is what are you doing with your time? Are you working towards something special? Are you filling your time with things you love? Or are you wasting your most precious resource? Whittling it away day after day with empty pursuits that don't really take you anywhere? The bad news is no one can create more time. I don't care what you do, you can't create time. You can however save time, and if you save time you can have more free time.

We all love free time don't we? Free time is time free of any outside obligation. It's all yours to do with as you please. Ideally, your entire day (every day) would be free time. That would be time nirvana! But that's a discussion for another day. You want more free time so that you can spend more time doing whatever you want to do (like play video games or sit on the internet for 6 hours straight for no reason). So let's look at two simple strategies that you can use straight away to create more free time.

Number one: Four or five 15-minute breaks from doing work equals an hour or more of free time every day. If you do that five days a week that's five or so more hours of free time every week. Five hours a week equals 250 hours a year! What could you do in 250 hours of free time? That's a lot of time to do whatever you love doing.

Number two: There are certain times that are what we call "dead time". Dead time is time when you're not working towards any of your goals but it's also not free time. It's just dead time. For example, you might be walking the dog, riding your bike, sitting on the bus or in a car (not being driven by you!), or waiting at the train station for the train to come. This is time that isn't used for anything much - so start using it.

Maybe you can make a recording of the notes you must memorize and you can listen to them during these times? Maybe you have some flash cards you made and can use the time to look over them? Maybe you have an oral examination coming up and can practice your speech? Maybe you can just read through your text book. The point is take your dead time and make it time well spent. Fifteen minutes spent studying whilst on your way home from school is fifteen minutes you don't have to do that night.

I truly hope that after having read this you understand how valuable your time is. You can never get more time. Every minute should be precious to you. You can do great things with your time. It's all you really have. So starting saving as much time as you can each and every day in order to free up as much time as possible. It makes sense doesn't it? Don't wait until you're 60 years old - do it today! Spend your time doing what you love to do. What else really matters anyway? Good luck!




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