THE TWENTY-FIFTH HOUR
If they can put a man on the moon and clone a sheep, they should be able to create more hours in each day, right?
Scott Westerfeld's novel Midnighters has an interesting concept. Those who are born at the exact moment of midnight get an extra hour a day. They have 25 hours instead of 24.
What could you do with an extra hour?
If you could discover where you tend to fritter away your time you might be able to add that one hour.
Think about it, five minutes here and ten minutes there add up. It's entirely possible to lose an eye-opening amount of time by wasting a few minutes several times a day.
People who know how to manage their time well usually have one skill mastered: They are aware of where they are in their schedules at all times. They may not be crazy about it, and it may have taken them a long time to train themselves, but they are able to keep their entire day in focus as they progress through each activity.
It might help to discover what kind of time waster you are.
Before you can manipulate your schedule so that it provides a boost to your efficiency at home and with your work, you need to first examine all the ways in which you don't make the most effective use of your time. The best way to do this is by keeping a detailed record that spells out exactly how you spend every minute of every day--or at least in five-minute increments.
For me, its the on-line games, FreeCell and Twitter. It used to be TV, but I put that on the weather channel now and ignore it the whole day.
What things trip you up when you're trying to get your WIP (Work-in-Progress) done?
