How To Optimise The Tiny Little Fragments Of Free Time That We Have
We have 2,142 hours in a year. That's a lot of time! Now, we might all be getting 8 hours of sleep, but that means our average day consists of 8760 minutes. That's more than 18 school days!
The world is a constantly changing place, with new trends and activities popping up all the time. But, despite the constant bombardment of new information and tasks being thrust upon us every day; there are things that we can do to help optimise our precious little scraps of free time so they will be maximally productive.
Here's a list of my tips on how to make the most of your free time in a day :
1. Do something that you love!
Something that gets you motivated. The whole point of these activities is to have fun, right?
2. Do something that's productive! If you're doing something that doesn't really have an end-goal, it can take longer than if it were more directed towards achieving a specific outcome (example: playing games vs. getting good at playing games) . Just make sure your "daily game" is related to what you want to accomplish and puts you one step closer to it! (see tip #9 for more details)
3. Do something that is immediately fun! It's easy to get discouraged and quit when you pick something that takes more time to get into and doesn't necessarily motivate you.
4. Make sure there's enough time to do it all ! Depending on what you want to do, give yourself enough time in a day (or, you know, week) to accomplish the tasks on your list), or else you may end up being disappointed.
5. Do something that makes you feel good! This could include exercising or meditating, or doing something creative. Whatever it is, make sure your brain is getting a healthy dose of dopamine!
6. Do Something that makes you feel bad if you don't do it ! This will increase your productivity and make sure you don't procrastinate. It can be anything from self discipline to physical pain (i.e: running on a treadmill), just make it something that's enough to be a motivator but not difficult enough to stop you from doing the task.
7. Do it alongside someone else (if you can) ! Working alone is great for many things, but sometimes it's good to have someone to share the workload with!
8. Do it in a weird way ! This can be something like eating weird food (green smoothies are a current favourite of mine), eating weird meals (for example: usually I eat at 7:00, 12:00 and 17:00, I'm going to try changing this up by doing so only twice a week and replacing the other meals with green smoothies). Another idea is to get creative with where you work or what you wear. Making the ordinary seem new again might just make your day that much more interesting!
9. Make sure each task is related to what you want to get done! This will help you stay focused, give your brain a feeling of accomplishment and feel that you're making progress.
10. Simple planning is key! It'll just make sure that things don't slip through the cracks or get forgotten about. You can think of it like a weekly grocery shop: Each time you go, you'll be like "I need this for the week" so when time comes for things are running low, it'll be easier to grab them at the store.
11. If you have any free time on a particular day, do something useful! If you're having a holiday (i.e: Thanksgiving), you can use that time to make a long overdue call to that relative who you've been meaning to and share the food you made, or check in on all of your social media accounts!
12. Do something that might not be exactly what you want to do, but will help you get closer to it! You can't always get exactly what you want at the cost of nothing else (see tip #2 for more details). Maybe it's a side-goal, but getting up and going somewhere on your own could help motivate your main goal.
13. Make sure there's focus wherever possible ! This helps keep distractions at bay and helps train the mind towards a singular task. This is great for multitasking and can make you much more productive (see tip #3 for details).
14. Some people are morning people, some people are evening people: Find out what works best for you ! If you've been trying to go to the gym in the morning, but find it hard to get up early and be motivated enough, try switching the time up! It might motivate you more because it's later in the day.
15. Don't cut yourself short! Give yourself enough time to do what needs doing, rather than rushing through things or making do with less effort. It will usually take less time to do things properly, and it'll make you that much better at what you do.
16. Lastly, never forget why you're doing these things ! It'll keep you motivated and on track with your goals. But don't get too hung up on them or they'll just seem like more reasons not to do anything! It's a balance; if one of your goals is something positive then it won't be as bad as if it were negative. It can also help motivate those other tasks which might sometimes seem insignificant by giving them some meaning and making them into worthwhile efforts.
Conclusion
Making the most of your time can be difficult, especially when there are so many distractions and new things to do. But nothing worthwhile comes easy, and if you take the right steps then hopefully you'll make a success of it! Just make sure you enjoy what you're doing as much as possible (see tip #1); try not to get too lost in the things that cause you stress or anxiety (see tip #7); and remember why you're doing what you're doing! Finishing tasks that give your life meaning will keep motivation high for the rest of them! They might not be fun at first, but with enough persistence they'll eventually become enjoyable. And if they don't, then at least you'll be that much closer to your goals and making a success out of them.
I hope you found this interesting, and if you know anyone who could benefit from this advice then please share it! And if you've learned anything new from reading this article, then please leave a comment below! Thank you for reading.
Useless Facts (that may help with making the most out of your time)
In North America, the number of people counted in the census is about one quarter of the actual population (25%) because some groups are harder to contact or just don't want to do it.
Conclusion
Thank you for reading! If you have anything that you'd like to add or ask about, please leave a comment below! I'm glad I could help.
References: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_time_records_(athletics) http://www.jamesclear.com/writing-in-journal http://psychtoolbox.org/ http://www.sparkpeople.com/blog/blog.asp?post=making_the_most_of_your_time http://lifehacker.com/the-top-10-ways-to-increase-your-productivity-1694042919 https://www.