Wish there were 48 hours in a day? (Hints and Tips in General)

Member Name: lellagrace

Product:	Hints and Tips in General
Date:	19/09/07 (102 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Organise your life at home as you would do in business.

Disadvantages: Time is easily wasted.

Hints and tips on what? Well, I am going to write about hints and tips on time management, a bit different I suppose. Hope you find it useful.

Today I received an e mail from a friend who has been retired for a while and now has time to do all the things she has wanted to do, but never been able to fit everything into a busy schedule.

There is an old saying "If you want something doing, ask a busy person to do it for you." How true, if you are busy you may feel like you will never get round to doing everything, but the fact that you have lots to do will actually spur you on to complete all the tasks.

So why is it that when we are working we long for retirement or to have time off work, but then when we have the time we don't use it properly.

Let's start with a plan. When you have to go to work you know what time you have to get up in the morning. But when you have a day off, it is a bonus to be able to spend an extra hour in bed. That is the first mistake, get up at your usual time and you will then be able to do lots more. An hour in the morning is worth two in the afternoon, is another saying. In other words, we all work better in the morning. (Even though it does take several cups of coffee for some of us!)

I have now stopped going out to work and have more time at home. For the first few weeks I was eager to do all the things I never had time for before. However, because I was not restricted to a time schedule I found everything was taking a lot longer. I am sure this was because I had all the time in the world to do things. What didn't get done one day could wait until the next, what was the rush? Before I knew it a whole month had passed and had I done everything I planned? No, it seemed as if I had harldy done anything. Well, maybe to be truthful I was in need of a bit of a rest, but to spend a whole month doing .... err what exactly??

So time to sort myself out. If any of you were told you could have a whole month to do as you like, wouldn't that be great? But I had wasted all that time!

First thing was to I make sure I get up at the time I used to do when I was working. I admit I do have a leisurely breakfast and listen to the news, a luxury I couldn't afford before. The tv is then switched off and I get on with the tasks I have planned for the day.

Yes, planned. I now make a plan each week of what I hope to do throughout the next few days. As I was used to working to a strict schedule, with every part of the day accounted for, I decided the only way to make the best of my time at home was to do a similar thing. In fact, when I worked my whole year had to be planned, but I am not so strict with myself now.

The difference is that now I make a list of what I hope to do each week, but there is no particular order in which this has to be done.

I am not just talking about necessary tasks, such as housework or gardening and shopping. I add in things such as lunch or coffee with friends, trips out, hobbies and even watching tv.

It is all too easy to sit down in the morning and switch on the telly and spend all day watching different programmes. As far as I am concerned this is a complete waste of time. There are far more interesting things to do than watch tv all day. But there are programmes I do want to see, so these are recorded of fitted in to the schedule.

I have made an effort to also catch up on old friends. My more recent friendhips had been with work colleagues and as they are still working I can't see them in the day. Therefore I made a determined effort to make contact with friends I had not seen for a while. It was nice to be able to ring them and arrange to meet. Some of them are working in nearby towns, but now I am free to meet them in their lunch hours or after work, without having to worry about the distance, it is easier to make arrangements. Don't be vague and say "the next few days", get out your diary and make a firm arrangement - just as you would do if it was a business meeting.

I also looked up some of my old school friends and former neighbours. Many of us are now in a similar situation, having stopped work for various reasons, and were finding it hard to build up contacts who are free in the day. We now meet regularly for lunch.

If you need to get organised to spend your non-working week wisely then allocate a certain amount of time in your week to get the essential chores out of the way. Don't think because you have all day at home that you can take your time over the housework. How did you manage when you were working? I found that I was doing housework almost every day, whereas when I was working I did all the cleaning in one day. Now I split it into two half days, allowing me more leisure time.

Of course I have to discipline myself to stick to my new routine. It would be all to easy to sit around doing nothing some days, but if I have scheduled "time for me" into my week, then I can do just that. But then I still have to fit in all the other things at another time.

So now you are probably wondering why I am spending all this time writing a review? Simple, each day I schedule time for putting the computer on. Again, it can be a great time waster surfing the internet and before you know it a couple of hours has sped by. I set aside time each day when I check my e mails and have a look at Dooyoo reviews, and maybe write my own. The computer is then switched off unless it is needed for another scheduled task.

By working out my schedule in this way, I now find that I no longer say there are not enough hours in the day to do everything. I find I have a more organised lifestyle, with time to enjoy myself and to do what I want to do. A typical working week is around 35 hours, plus travelling. That is a lot of time to fill when you stop work, so why waste it.

I once read somewhere that work will expand to fit into the numbers of hours that are available. But this is also true of leisure time. Use time wisely and get organised and you will have time to everything you want to do and everything that needs to be done.

Summary: Make a schedule to do what you want.