{"id":11939,"date":"2013-03-17T09:46:30","date_gmt":"2013-03-17T17:46:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.pickthebrain.com\/?p=11939"},"modified":"2013-03-17T09:46:30","modified_gmt":"2013-03-17T17:46:30","slug":"5-tips-to-making-efficient-use-of-your-time","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.pickthebrain.com\/blog\/5-tips-to-making-efficient-use-of-your-time\/","title":{"rendered":"3 Tips to Making Efficient Use of Your Time"},"content":{"rendered":"
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\u201cI don\u2019t have enough time.\u201d\u00a0 \u201cI\u2019m too busy.\u201d\u00a0 \u201cThere aren\u2019t enough hours in the day.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

On average, I hear at least one of these expressions twice a day.\u00a0 And quite frankly, I\u2019m a bit tired of it.\u00a0 So I decided to make it my personal mission to rid the world of these phrases.<\/p>\n

Okay, not really.\u00a0 That\u2019s probably too ambitious of a goal.\u00a0 But I would like to help people realize that they do in fact have enough time to, lets say, go to the gym, start a new project, read a book, spend more time with their family, or whatever else they may be skipping out on.<\/p>\n

You see, I\u2019m one of the many people that is incredibly pressed for time.\u00a0 I\u2019m a Software Engineer working full-time at my present company and I recently began working on a new venture part-time.\u00a0 I also make it a point to go to the gym at least 4 times\/week, spend time with my family, and read for pleasure.\u00a0 So, needless to say, time is not easy to come by.\u00a0 And I\u2019ll often get asked \u201cAnil, how the heck do you manage to do all these things?!\u201d.\u00a0 Well, it\u2019s really quite simple:<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

I make efficient use of my time!<\/p>\n

I know, that sounds like a very obvious and somewhat anti-climatic answer.\u00a0 But let me break down exactly what I mean into three simple items:<\/p>\n

1) No more sleeping in! <\/strong><\/p>\n

And yes, this includes weekends.\u00a0 Some people can operate on 6 hours of sleep, and don\u2019t have as much a problem with this one.\u00a0 Others, like me, need a good 8 hours\/night.\u00a0 So, I follow the old adage: \u201cEarly to bed and early to rise makes a man healthy, wealthy, and wise\u201d.\u00a0 I can\u2019t absolutely guarantee the wealth, but I can assure you that sleeping early and waking up early every day of the week will result in a productivity spike.\u00a0 Especially on weekends!\u00a0 You\u2019d be amazed at how much more you can accomplish waking up at 8am every Saturday and Sunday as opposed to waking up at 10am.\u00a0 Use the extra 2 hours to complete some errands, go for a workout, or whatever else you may have planned for the day.<\/p>\n

2) Don\u2019t waste time!<\/strong><\/p>\n

Let me give a specific example for this one:\u00a0 working out at the gym.\u00a0 I can\u2019t tell you how many times I\u2019ve heard people complain about not having enough time to work out, and then seeing these same people at the gym take two hours to complete what should\u2019ve been a 45 minute workout.\u00a0 I won\u2019t go into details with regards to effective ways to work (that\u2019s a topic best left for another article), but in short, most workouts can and should be completed in 45 minutes.\u00a0 Don\u2019t waste time chatting at the gym.\u00a0 Don\u2019t spend an hour on the treadmill when 20 minutes of high-intensity cardio could do the trick.\u00a0 And if weightlifting, don\u2019t take 5 minutes between sets.\u00a0 The same theory really applies to all aspects of your day.\u00a0 Evaluate what you\u2019re doing, and if it can be done much more effectively, then do so!<\/p>\n

3) Multitask!<\/strong><\/p>\n

My personal favorite, and one I use, well, every minute of my day.\u00a0 At work, if you\u2019re waiting on something to complete (a long download or upload perhaps), work on something else in the meantime.\u00a0 In my case, for example, if I\u2019m waiting on some software I\u2019ve written to compile, instead of just sitting around, I\u2019ll answer emails or begin looking into and preparing for my next task.\u00a0 It may only be 10-15 minutes at a time, but doing this throughout the day ends up saving an incredible amount of time (on average, it increases my productivity by about 2 hours\/day).<\/p>\n

And that\u2019s about it!\u00a0 Simple, yet effective.\u00a0 I follow these three tips and am able to fit everything I need into my daily schedule, and leave room for some down time at the end of the day!<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

If you\u2019ve got any personal daily productivity tips, I\u2019d love to hear them!<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Anil Merchant is a Founder at Entfusion – a social platform aimed to help connect customers searching for entertainment vendors and vice-versa (http:\/\/www.entfusion.com<\/a>). \u00a0He also maintains a personal blog at:\u00a0http:\/\/www.entfusion.com\/blog\/5<\/a>. \u00a0In his spare time, he enjoys staying active through weight-lifting and boxing. \u00a0Find Anil on Twitter at\u00a0https:\/\/twitter.com\/Anil_Merchant<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n

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 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u201cI don\u2019t have enough time.\u201d \u201cI\u2019m too busy.\u201d \u201cThere aren\u2019t enough hours in the day.\u201d<\/p>\n

On average, I hear at least one of these expressions twice a day. And quite frankly, I\u2019m a bit tired of it. So I decided to make it my personal mission to rid the world of these phrases. Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":12163,"featured_media":13200,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0},"categories":[17,6,39],"tags":[81,4639,4629,4647],"yoast_head":"\n3 Tips to Making Efficient Use of Your Time - Pick the Brain | Motivation and Self Improvement<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.pickthebrain.com\/blog\/5-tips-to-making-efficient-use-of-your-time\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"3 Tips to Making Efficient Use of Your Time - Pick the Brain | Motivation and Self Improvement\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"\u201cI don\u2019t have enough time.\u201d \u201cI\u2019m too busy.\u201d \u201cThere aren\u2019t enough hours in the day.\u201d On average, I hear at least one of these expressions twice a day. 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