Time Management Tips for Home Based Workers

Many Americans work outside of the home, but you may not be most Americans. If you work from home, time management may be a problem. Yes, working from home has its benefits and there are many, but distractions are easy to come by. So, how do you avoid distractions and increase your earning potential when working from home?

 

1 - Work the Same Hours Everyday

 

Whether you work from home part-time or full-time, having a set work schedule is advised. When your hours vary, you may find it harder to work. It is also advised that you work during the hours you perform the best. In fact, that is one of the many freedoms of working from home; you can typically set your own hours.

 

Do you perform better working during the day or at night? To improve your productivity, choose work hours that work best for you.

 

2 - Work Around Your Schedule

 

If you work full-time, you may spend all day or all night in front of the computer. This may not give you much flexibility. However, if you work part-time from home as an internet marketer, you have the freedom to set your own hours, as there are less hours to dictate.

 

When choosing which hours to work, it is important to look at your daily activities. Do you have a morning exercise routine? Or, do you take your children to school each day? Instead of working for two hours, stopping, and starting again, arrange your schedule so that you can work continuously. This will result in less distractions, more efficient work, and better productivity

 

3 - Do Not Answer the Phone

 

A problem with working from home is that it is a concept that not everyone understands. For example, you may have friends or family who actually assume you are home watching television all day. Yes, you aren’t, but these individuals often do not know better. This may result in multiple phone calls to your home during work hours. 

 

So, what do you do? Avoid answering the phone. If you are a parent, this may be difficult. For that reason, rely on the use of caller identification and an answering machine. This allows you to be alerted in the event of an emergency. As for why you should avoid answering the phone, you would not talk on the phone all day when working outside of the home, so don’t do it when working inside.

 

4 - Avoid Distractions

 

Before you can successfully avoid distractions, you need to determine what distracts you. Unfortunately, distractions are common when working from home. While working at your computer, you may glance over to a sink full of dirty dishes. Instead of stopping what you are doing, create a schedule. Set aside a daily block of time, such as one or two hours to complete house work.

 

In keeping with distractions, you will find the internet to be a huge one. Since you work from your computer, it is easy to go from using the internet as a research tool to communication with friends. If your weakness is checking your email multiple times a day, reading the news, or visiting online message boards to socialize, stay away from these websites. As an extreme measure, temporally block them from your computer.

 

5 - Remember Your Ability to Work Depends on Your Income

 

If you work from home as an internet marketer, the time and energy you put into work will depend on your income. This is one of the benefits and pitfalls to working from home. The more work you complete, the more income you will generate. However, if you find yourself easily distracted, not only will you fall behind, but you may lose money.

 

Simply remembering that time is money can serve as a much-needed source of motivation.

 

In short, working from home is beneficial, but it is not an easy task. To increase your income level, improve your time management skills. This is easy to do with simple tools, such as an alarm clock, schedule or to-list.

 

Internet Marketers: When To Outsource

Are you an internet marketer? Whether you sell your service to webmasters or if you market your own website, blog, product, or service, time management is important. When you properly manage your time, you get more work done. Since this work involves marketing and sharing website links throughout the internet, that work can translate into more income.

 

Yes, internet marketing and time management go hand-in-hand. To increase your earnings, improve your time management skills. With that said, even the most experienced internet marketers need help on occasion. That help usually comes from an outsourced worker.

 

So, can you benefit from outsourcing some internet marketing tasks? What occasions call for it? Continue reading on to find out.

 

When there isn’t enough hours in the day. There are hundreds of ways to market a website, product, service, or blog on the internet. Popular approaches include article directories, search engine optimization, and meta tags. Less popular, but still effective approaches include giveaways, advertising on internet forums, and Twitter. You can manage your time and create goals, but you may still find that there just isn’t enough time in the day. That is the time to outsource.

 

When you need experienced help. As previously stated, there are many ways to advertise online. Keyword optimized content will draw readers from search engines and article directories can generate traffic through back links. But, to implement these two approaches, you need to write content. Do you dislike writing? Does it take you too long to write an article? Are you worried about the quality of your work? If so, hire a professional to work as an outsourcer.

 

When you want to spend time researching. Internet marketing is an advertising practice that is always on the change. A good example of this was the above-mentioned Twitter. When Twitter first started, it was typically used only for social communication. Overtime, internet marketers realized the advertising potential that existed. Since new methods of advertising online are always developing, take time to research those ways. If you lose time or money doing so, outsource.

 

When you need to take a step back. Do you operate an online retail store? If so, you generate customers by spreading the word about your store online. The more you market, the more sales you will generate. Unfortunately, you cannot market 24 hours a day. If you attempt to, which many new internet marketers do try at least once, you will find yourself overwhelmed. If that time arrives, use an outsourcer. This allows you to get a much-needed break, while still advertising online.

 

When you need to focus on other tasks. As used as an example above, do you operate an online store? If so, there are many tasks you will have to complete. If your operation is small, you may be in charge of processing orders, updating products, and so forth. Internet marketing is not your only job. If you have other, important tasks to attend to, outsource.

 

When you have a life outside of internet marketing. As previously stated, many internet marketers try to work around the clock. Many thinks of the money they lose by taking a break. As much as you want, you cannot spend 24 hours a day on the computer, especially if you have a family. For that reason, hire an outsourced worker on occasion. When doing so, neither your family nor your business has to suffer.

 

When you have a deadline to meet that you can’t. Many online workers double as internet marketers, but some sell their services to generate income. If you are one of those individuals, you may be faced with a deadline that you cannot meet. If so, consider outsourcing. Just be sure to hire a professional and experienced worker, as your company name will be attached to their work. Before opting to outsource, ask for a deadline extension.

 

As you can see, there are many situations in which you can benefit from outsourcing. Outsourcing is often regarded as a bad thing, but it doesn’t have to be.

Bond with Your Passion and Set Free

There is so much to accomplish in life but there is only one route to bond with your passion and be a winner eventually. Learning to focus and by intensifying your concentration power is the secret to long-term gains. Masterminds are often noted for their unusual power to focus. Even the path to enlightenment in Buddhism is all about learning to focus. Remember, focus brings your passion together and focus only rips it apart. Those who can overwhelm anything through focus can dominate success and deceive failures. In a nutshell, don’t be undecided about what you want to accomplish in life, rather observe a person who is powerful in a unique way as he knows what he wants from life.

 

Since the energy within humans is very restricted, we ought to focus on them for a particular venture in a given frame of time. Learn to pre-arrange your aspirations and desires and pour all your energies on a sole goal without averting your focus prior to realization of success. If you want a union with your passion by learning to focus, then there are a only some questions which you ought to answer

 

• Do you produce so many ideas that at the last part of the day you are not able to finish lone idea to conclusion?

• Have you ever felt at the end of the day that you failed to bring about anything consequential towards your most sincere goals?

• Do you frequently speculate where all the time is lost?

• When there is a spurt of ideas in your mind, does that confuse people you share those ideas with?

 

Distraction obstructs imagination and internal seriousness from rising. It is tough to focus and complete what you began to perform, when you are greatly disturbed. Don’t let material distractions deter you from the trail to realize your passion.

 

Advantages of Attaining Focus for Professional Growth

A few people achieve something in life even as others just sit and gaze at them, and the solitary excuse given is that, ‘I am not fortunate enough’ or, ‘this was plainly not destined for me’. We observe someone else take away the reward while we chatter away excuses to overlook our inability to focus. It is time to welcome to the actual world and forget pointless thoughts that the creator has ambiguous plans that some people realize their desires whilst others look on. In the professional world, why do we gaze at others and say that they have something additional which helps them attain their most heartfelt professional desires? The added feature is that, they have fathomed the significance of focus in all endeavors.

 

Let us scrutinize what it means to focus on professional growth

 

• To envisage and project attention and energy

• To pursue just a straight individual path forward

• To identify and recognize the objective entirely

• Focus with perfect elucidation and not just pint and fire

 

Your office achievements depend a great deal on how you perceive your success while you are at work. There are easy ways to track the rising graph of your professional realization by preparing a written list. Write down at the end of every day, what your successes and failures were during the day and how does that help your business. If you feel that you can focus on the targets better when you are alone then there is no harm in picking a quieter work station in office. If your business deal involves promotion of online business, ensure that you set a business plan and focus on it tolerantly, by not getting upset when you do not see instantaneous results. Focus to study to successfully endorse your online business venture by using the internet marketing techniques you are learning and victory will swiftly follow.

 

Why Do You Need To Learn To Focus?

Mind power is undeniably powerful but it is principally unproductive without another constituent –focus. Our energies must be well channelized in the correct order to make them more functional. Unlike nature’s powers which cannot be caged and deflected, the human mind is free and more potent than any other power around us. It is extremely painful to see a person with potential, squander the possibility of a successful existence and end up living an average life. Our cognitive powers are ineffectual unless we learn how to focus on our goals and build up positive energy. The first step to learn how to focus is indulging in unwavering concentration. In actual fact focus is nothing but protracted concentration.

 

Focus is very important for people looking to lose weight. Spending all the time thinking about junk binging is a constant worry which most people find hard to deal with. There are four ways which will be of assistance to you to focus on weight control

 

• Focus hard and picture yourself thin – Before starting with a work out plan frame a picture of your slim body and bear it in mind recurrently. Remember, no one can underestimate your mind power.

• Eat neat – Focus on your eating habits and food weaknesses. Don’t let any temptations overpower your self-control.

• Acknowledge help – Do not be hesitant to accept positive reinforcement and never avoid a question even if it hurts as it will help you to become stronger in your efforts.

• Be your best buddy – Focus well on your strengths and weaknesses and let yourself down. Take pride in what you are and what you stand for.

 

When you try to solve a jigsaw puzzle, what is important? It is purely with focus that you can put all the pieces of the puzzle together. Our lives are similar to that puzzle and ultimately, we get what we focus on.

 

Focus On Strengths Not Weaknesses

At job interviews we are often asked a question that, what actions we have taken in the past to improve our weaknesses and we wonder why the interviewer can’t ask about our achievements. The answer is simple; he wants to know how well we have learnt to focus on our strengths and not wasted time and energy on the weaknesses. People are often taught that in order to be successful, they have to overcome those tasks and incapacities which they battle to perform. All historical, corporate, sports and science geniuses have focused merely on building their strong points. These masterminds are considered epitome of wishful thinking and not only have they been triumphant in their fields, they have set an example that one should love to accomplish his goals.

 

You should have the nerve to follow your heart and instincts. If you really want to be thriving, your focus should not be on attempting to amend those areas which characterize our weaknesses. It takes away from us, vigor, time and labors from chasing what should be our actual goals. Life is quite short to be lived like someone else’s. If we observe noticeably there are people around us who have shaped their lives based on the strengths they hold. The ideal place to begin a similar journey is to look into our own strengths and which will unquestionably lead us to a greater sense of success, contentment and delight in our lives.

 

Once you locate the areas where you can attain the most, it becomes easier to pursue those areas and contribute positive energy on the whole. This enables you to face challenges despite hardships and do the work which you love doing and outshine others with. However it does not mean that you totally neglect your weaknesses. Explore the hidden skills within you, you never know it may be one of your weaknesses!

 

Learning to Focus is Like Learning to Win

Being capable to focus appropriately and to concentrate and isolate your precise goal is an indispensable feature of success. Just like an inadequately presented TV channel gives out low quality images, an unfocussed psyche results in reduced outcomes. By focusing on your goal you can obtain finely tuned visualization and desires rather than sheer visions and desires. Have you ever wondered why practice makes a man perfect? The secret to perfection is constant focus and absorption of the defined targets. It depends wholly on how you choose to achieve those targets. Some prefer to go slow and steady, while some want to take the short cut to success. Those who shun the short cut and pay detailed attention to work on their strengths to shape them into building blocks to success are the last winners.

 

Focusing on proper scheduling and usual practice is fundamental to realize quick success. You must know that success does not happen overnight and requires long-drawn-out practice with persistence, hard work and willpower. For instance if your ultimate goal in life is to become a famous guitarist, you need to devote at least one hour of practice every day with a ten minutes break to re-energize yourself. Exploring your passion is a must as, without knowing your passion your body is a mere vessel without a soul. If your soul lies in playing the guitar then choose the genre of songs you like to play the most and make practice a pleasant experience!

 

Sometime we cannot choose to focus on something, we necessarily have to. It depends on the frame of mind we are in and the circumstances around us. That is why you must always be with encouraging people, sharing constructive thoughts and learning positive things. So be around cheerful people, focus on the right things and let your versatility not go waste.

 

Importance of Focusing In the Era of Distraction

How to be able to we refocus the energy from knocking pencils dropping out of the seats, constant talking and scribbling into constructive learning experience? Student life is a very precarious time which needs to be utilized for fortifying for better professional prospects. Following are some tried and tested methods for re-directing student energy and retrieving focus

 

• Instead of a teacher’s voice other noisemakers like chimes and bells can capture the student’s attention and create a positive habitual retort.

• Figure out calming strategies for angry or hyper students.

• Make quiet the pen tapper with a sponge back.

• Use natural lighting like sunlight, floor light bulbs etc to create a soothing effect and increase productivity.

• Play instrumental music in classrooms, auditoriums and cafeterias only during recess times to enhance learning. Don’t forget to turn off the music once you start teaching.

• Encourage students who like drawings and sketching, to illustrate the notes with drawings. This will make learning, an amusing trip for them!

• Keep multihued pens and pencils in the classroom for calming students. Coloring the outline calls for focus and coloring from inside unlocks creativity.

• Students can utilize colorful pencils to doodle after they finish a test rather than distracting others.

• If students are getting wriggly ask them to stand and draw out.

• Ask them to stand and buy a ticket to be seated again by revising a question or paraphrasing.

 

These are only a few methods to build focus to channelize student energy into something worthwhile. A very essential thing while dealing with children is that they are restless and lose focus quickly so you as a teacher have to come up with practical ideas to keep their concentration power high so that they score better in school and at home. Teach them novel facts with reinforcement lessons.

 

Excellent Way to Build Self-Confidence and Will Power

It is the lack of strength of mind and concentration power due to which most people fall short at their attempts. Building your will-power is straightforwardly associated with success in life. History tells us that many inadequately learned millionaires may have been short of education but this shortcoming was eliminated by their overwhelming power of will to succeed irrespective of how many times they botched next to the way. You ought not to be a whiz-kid to succeed; you just have to do what you want to do and at the right time. Personal mastery is an important ingredient of will power and requires fortitude and the everyday task of making it a practice.

 

When you set out on the path to success, parts of your journey are bumpy so do not expect trouble-free sailing. Focus will keep you strong and when you battle the storms it shows what substance you are made of. Imagine that the coarse path is a simple occurrence that has to be conquered before you reach your target. One of the many secrets to a flourishing life is to be able to pour all your energies on a single subject at a time. Also, don’t waste your time bothering about petty issues that litter your mind. Anxiety reduces your odds of success and makes living just as depressed for persons around you.

 

There is a lot our pets can teach us on learning how to focus! Even as you feed your pet, you will realize that it is circuitously teaching the art of focus and productivity. Observe your pet and learn the subsequent pointers:

• Don’t hesitate to go after what you desire

• Always focus on the reward 

• Take pleasure in receiving what you want

• Continue trying unless you succeed

 

Focus is an excellent way to build confidence and resolution and if don’t picture sweet success, we will never get it!

How to Buy Back Your Time!

If you ran a business, then you would recognize the value of time. Time is money as they always say and if you can get back an hour in the day then you can use that hour to do one more job for one more client and get paid once more!

 

Thus, any time you outsource a job, you should be able to work out just how much this is profiting you. Every job you hire someone to do should be an investment that will offer a return. The more you spend, the more you should make.

 

People don’t think about their personal lives this way but they should. Your time might not be worth money but it certainly has value. And it has much more value than most people give it credit for. Ultimately, time is freedom.

 

Time is what you use to do the things you love, to be with the people you love and to push yourself toward your goals.

 

How to Outsource in Your Personal Life

 

And just as you can in your career, you can outsource jobs in your personal life in order to gain back more time. Sometimes this will cost money but if you value your time as being worth more than the money you’re spending – which you should do – then you’re getting ROI.

 

So what’s an example of this? How about hiring a cleaner! When you hire a cleaner you are paying someone to do household chores that you don’t want to do. This can save you hours a week of sweeping, wiping and washing while at the same time resulting in a cleaner house than you could have accomplished yourself!

 

Alternatively, you could even consider hiring a VAS. This is a Virtual Assistant who can help you by doing any task they can do online: they will do things like making appointments, booking hotel rooms, booking meetings and more!

 

And then there are ways you can outsource your life by teaming up with your friends. For instance, if you want to save time shopping then you could partner up with someone and take it in turns to shop for each other (as you’re going to the shops for yourself anyway).

 

Or how about hiring your kids to sweep the patio? If they’re young enough they might even find it fun while you’ll gain more time to spend with them later on!

 

How to Sleep Better for More Time and More Energy

What many people don’t recognize about time management is that it’s inseparable from energy management. In other words, there’s no point getting back time to yourself if you don’t have the energy to use it properly.

 

Many of us want to work out and get into shape, or we want to learn a new language, or we want to start a side project. Unfortunately, we tell ourselves, we just don’t have the time to do those things.

 

This isn’t true though: if it were, then you wouldn’t have been able to watch that whole box-set of Breaking Bad recently!

 

The problem is energy. The problem is that you come home from work and have no energy remaining. One way to fix this is by getting more sleep. Let’s take a look at how you can make sure you do that.

 

Use a Daylight Lamp

 

One of the best things you can possibly do for your energy levels is to invest in a daylight lamp. This is a lamp that will get brighter slowly in the morning and that has a wavelength more similar to that produced by the sun. The brain interprets this as a sunrise and it helps you to slowly come around. 

When you wake up, the room is bright and you feel much less groggy. It’s a million times better than being startled awake by a loud noise in a pitch-black room!

 

Have a Shower Before Bed

 

When is the perfect time to wash? Before bed. Both warm and cold water have the effect of helping our bodies to regulate our internal temperature. Warm water also acts as a relaxant though and helps the muscles to release tension so that we can drift off into a deeper sleep.

 

Have Half an Hour Before Bed

 

Before bed, take half an hour out in order to unwind and during this time make sure you don’t look at any screens. Phone, computer and TV screens produce a lot of light which causes the brain to produce cortisol, thereby keeping us awake and preventing us from sleeping.

 

At the same time, our phones and computers make us stressed. When we look at them, it causes us to think of work or to get excited by whatever game or TV show we’re watching. Reading on the other hand calms and focusses the mine, winding us down ready for bed.

 

How to Spend Less Time Cooking

One of the biggest lies you see commonly in books and online is that you can cook a meal in ten minutes.

 

How often have you seen books with titles like ‘Ten Minute Meals’?

 

There are a few things you can cook in ten minutes but really these don’t get much more ambitious than beans on toast or ‘an egg’.

 

If you want to make an actual meal though, you’ll spend a lot more time in the kitchen.

 

The perfect example of this is when you see an instruction like ‘take your chopped onion’. Hang on a second! Where did this onion come from? Who chopped it? The onion fairies?

 

But even the books that don’t use these little tricks fail to acknowledge that you will spend more time clearing the surfaces, washing up afterward, finding the food in the cupboards and even shopping for those things. A ten-minute meal in reality takes 30 minutes if you’re lucky!

 

While I can’t promise to completely solve this issue though, there are some ways you can get around it and spend a little less time preparing meals. Here are some shortcuts that are free for you to use…

 

Cook in Bulk

 

One of the best things you can do to spend less time cooking is to cook in bulk. This way, you cook a large pot of food that will provide more food than you need. Then, instead of dishing it all up, you put some of it away in the freezer or in the fridge.

 

This then in turn allows you to get it out on evenings when you’re in a rush and heat it up ready for dinner!

 

Use a Slow Cooker

 

A slow cooker can save you a ton of time in the kitchen because it cooks your food when you’re on the way home. You prepare the food that morning or the night before then leave it in the cooker. It turns on at about 4pm and cooks slowly without risking a fire. When you get in at 6pm, the food will be ready to eat!

 

Get the Right Appliances

 

Many appliances can save you a lot of time and effort. One of the best examples is a food processor. But another good one is a waste disposal unit for your kitchen sink. This lets you throw anything down the sink without risking blocking it!

How to Workout in 10 Minutes

One thing you need to learn to do if you’re going to get more time back in your life is to work out in a small space of time. Why? Because exercise is crucial to giving you more energy which in turn will allow you to get more out of the time you do have. At the same time, exercise normally takes a very long time. If you are currently doing a 40 minute workout at the gym, commuting there and back and also washing up a bunch of your clothes, then chances are that you are spending 1.5 to 2 hours each time you train!

 

This will show you how to genuinely work out in ten minutes.

 

The Routine

 

This routine is a bodyweight resistance routine. That means you’re using your own body to provide the weight in the form of push ups and pull ups. At the same time, the routine is going to be a circuit. That means you’ll be going straight from one exercise to the next with no break or pause in between. You have 1 minute at the end to catch your breath and then you go for it again for a total of 3 rounds.

 

The workout is simple:

 

• Push ups to failure

• Pull ups to failure

• Sit ups to failure

• Jumping squats to failure

 

‘To failure’ means you stop when you physically can’t do one more repetition. If you do this right, then your muscles should be aching and you should be able to do fewer and fewer each time around.

 

But if you want to take this further and make it even more effective then try using ‘mechanical drop sets’. That means that if you can only do 5 reps on the last round for your pull ups, you make things easier for yourself for reps 6-10. That means you might put your feet on a chair and pull yourself up with a little help from your legs. Or it means you might let your knees touch the floor.

 

The Benefits

 

This works very well because it is ‘resistance cardio’. You are burning fat and improving fitness while simultaneously building muscle and strength. What’s more is that it can be done so quickly and shouldn’t cause you to sweat too much. That means you can do it without needing to shower after – or if you do it in the morning you can do it before your regular shower. Not 10 minutes plus travel: literally just 10 minutes.

 

Stop Deferring Your Happiness – You Can Already Do the Things You Want to Do

One of the biggest wrong assumptions that the vast majority of people on this planet make is that they aren’t able to do the things they want to do. To clarify, the assumption that many of us make is that we don’t yet have the means to live our dreams and that the only way to do so is to work harder.

 

Thus we put off doing the things we want to do and we end up taking on more and more work until the point where eventually we are spending every waking moment either working or feeling stressed about work. 

 

I’m here to tell you that it’s time to stop putting off your happiness and to embrace it. Here’s how…

 

There’s Never a ‘Good Time’

 

One of the most common arguments people make for not travelling the world, starting their own business or building their own home is that it’s not a good time. Right now they have too many financial commitments, they don’t have enough money or they have too much else going on. You probably are all too familiar with this!

 

But now think back to all the other things you’ve achieved so far. Was it ever a good time? If you’re a parent, then was it a good time to have a baby? Was it a good time to get married? A good time to start a relationship? A good time to buy a house?

When we have to, we make things work. There’s never a good time so if you really want to enjoy living your life to the full you only have one option: do it anyway.

 

It’s Easier Than You Think

 

And actually, many of the dreams we have are much easier to fulfil than we might initially think. For example, if you want to travel then you don’t necessarily need to spend a fortune or take a year off work.

 

How about identifying places a little nearer that you can travel to and then using budget airlines to go there for long weekends? How about a year of visiting the capital cities you can reach on short haul? That would be a fantastic year and doesn’t need to upend your life!

 

Want a better home? You don’t need to spend millions – just empty out your property of things you don’t need or redux your kitchen. You’d be surprised what a different small tweaks can make!

 

Top Ways to Automate Your Lifestyle

Automation is a business term that basically means you set up a system to handle a part of your job for you. This in turn allows you to spend more time doing other important things and at the same time to exponentially increase your output and scale your production.

 

The obvious example is to use an automated assembly line to create a product rather than doing it by hand. This saves countless man-hours and means in theory that you can produce 10x or 100x the amount of product to sell and scale up your profits in accordance.

 

You can also do this in your personal life and in just the same way, it can hugely increase your free time.

 

Here are some ways you can do that:

 

Shop Online

 

Shopping online and setting up standing orders is a great way to save time that you would otherwise spend going to the shops. At the very least you should use this for your regular grocery shop and this way you can get a weekly shop delivered directly to your door every day without having to head out! This can save 2, 3 or 4 hours a week!

 

You can also set up standing orders for gifts. Want to make sure your partner gets sent flowers every year on your anniversary? That’s actually quite easy to arrange! Or how about using a ‘product as service’ such as one that will supply you with all the shaving products you need every week? There are plenty of these that can save you a lot of hunting and shopping.

 

Robotic Vacuum Cleaners

 

If you can’t afford a cleaner, then consider hiring a robotic vacuum cleaner. These will move around your home all on their own making sure to reach every small patch of floor to vacuum up crumbs, dust, dirt and anything else that gets on your carpet or wooden floor.

 

You can also get robotic lawn mowers that do the same job but outside!

 

Cooking

 

In the kitchen there are tons of things that can save you time. A food processor for instance can automate the peeling process for you if you get one that is good enough.

 

Or if you want an even more automated service, consider signing up to a company that delivers healthy meals to your door every day. These exist and can actually save you hours while improving your health and energy levels!

 

Why You Need to Rethink Your Job

Right now, your job takes up the vast majority of your free time. You probably spend 8 hours a day at work and at least 1 hour a day commuting. Sometimes you’ll clock out late (most times in fact) and then there’s the time you spend getting your lunch and clothes ready for work. In short, you don’t really spend 8 hours a day at work… you spend 10 hours at least. You spend 8 hours sleeping too, so that means you have 6 hours max to yourself. 

 

Oh dear.

 

And here’s the thing: your job is only likely to get more stressful. As most of us try to gain a better salary, we are forced to take on more responsibilities and this ends up meaning we work longer hours and feel more stressed and more burned out at the end of the day.

 

The problem is that many of us don’t realize we have a choice. We assume that the only way to feel like we’re accomplishing something is to work harder. We feel like the only way that we can make more money is again to work harder.

 

The Alternative

 

Here’s an alternative: how about you aim to make your 9-5 job as easy as possible and in the meantime, you get your fulfilment and extra income from a hobby. 

 

Would you like to be a painter? Then you can work any job during the day and spend your evenings painting. The painting is where you can try and ‘achieve’ something and get the satisfaction, not your data entry job. And if you can sell a couple of paintings then you’ll be able to supplement your income as well!

 

Instead of looking for the job with the best salary, look for the job with the most flexible time. Time is worth more than money in terms of freedom and this will ultimately lead to greater happiness. 

 

Now you have a new aim: instead of working hard to get more work, work hard to reduce your work. Ask your boss about flexi-time, or if you can work from home one day in order to gain back more hours. You might be surprised how flexible they can be and if they’re not? Consider looking elsewhere.

 

Remember, even if you’re taking a pay cut, you can always make that money back in other ways and you can always find fulfilment in the things you’re really passionate about!

How to Get More Value From Necessary Tasks and Chores

Getting back time is all about having more time to do the things you enjoy in life. This means that you stop spending time working in the office and you cut back on washing up and commuting.

 

Instead, you’re going to try and start spending time doing things you love such as being with your family, watching great TV and pursuing your personal goals/projects.

 

But the way you go about this might be a little different from what you expect. Forget all the strategies you read about that tell you how to save ‘ten minutes a day’ or ‘an hour a day’. These cut off a little time at best and few of us stick to them.

 

Instead, ask yourself how you can get more value out of the time you’re currently using up. That means doing two jobs at once, or just enjoying the time you’re ‘wasting’ that little bit more.

 

Read on to see what on Earth I’m talking about…

 

Multitasking

 

One of the best ways to get more from your time is to multitask. You can’t multitask with jobs that require your full attention and creative awareness. But any job that can be done ‘mindlessly’ can be paired with any job that doesn’t require use of your body.

 

For example, you can catch up with correspondence or make important admin calls when you’re driving (if you have a hands-free system), when you’re walking to the shops or when you’re washing up! By doing two jobs at once, you free up one ‘slot’ to use yourself later.

 

Making it More Fun

 

At the same time, you can also multitask to make a boring job fun or rewarding. For example, if you’re washing up then why not watch your favorite TV show at the same time? You’re getting just as much out of that time and now washing up isn’t as dull.

Another great strategy is to do things with friends. Staying in touch and maintaining correspondence takes time. So instead of worrying about fitting it in, why not turn a boring job – the weekly shop, your workout – into something you can do with a friend?

 

If you commute on the train, then you can absolutely make more use of this time. How about using it to learn a language, read a great book or even start setting up your own side business using a laptop?

3 Tricks To Finding More Focus

It is not all that hard for you to stay focused and concentrated on whatever you want to do in the workplace or in your life in general. There are many good tricks that you can use to become focused so you can fix up whatever you are trying to manage.

 

1. Establish an environment that is conducive to your focus.

 

Many people often fail to focus because they may struggle to concentrate on whatever it is they want to do. If you keep a healthy environment going in your home or workplace then you should actually stay focused. This means that you have to clear out anything that you know can be a distraction to your work at large.

 

It's also a good idea to make that environment comfortable. Keep chairs and other pieces of furniture that you know are comfortable ready for you and anyone else in your space to utilize.

 

2. Make sure that you prioritize everything that you are doing.

 

You must be fully aware of how much time you are spending with certain types of functions in mind. You'll have to think about prioritizing different types of tasks based on what you know you can do first and what you feel you need to complete ahead of time.

 

You must prioritize everything that you are doing so you'll control your efforts the right way. Plan your events ahead of time so you'll know what you should be doing. This will provide you with solutions that are effective and sensible for whatever you want to complete.

 

3. Understand how you can manage stress in your life.

 

It's easy to become distracted by different things because of the stress that might come about in your daily life. However, if you understand how to manage stress then you'll easily figure out what you want to do with your life at large.

 

You need to especially encourage yourself to be a little more active and productive in whatever it is you want to do. Think less about what could go wrong in your life and think about how you're going to use different ideas for what you plan on doing while also leaving in some extra time for work. This can be based on the stuff that might get in the way as you're trying to do certain functions.

 

On a related note, think about scheduling some times for rest. If you give yourself a bit of time to rest then you need to think a little more about when you are going to fix up different issues over time. This is to give yourself more of an effort to take care of whatever you want to do.