6 Ways to Becoming More Productive at Home
In a previous post I had mentioned that I would follow-up with how to become more productive at home. Unlike the first part however, I wanted to keep this more straight forward. I’m learning as I go folks. Better get used to it ;)
1. Cut your TV usage by half. As I mentioned last week, if the average person spends 4 hours a day watching TV, think of ways you could get that down to two. How? Do your best to avoid network scheduling and their advertisements. Stop watching the news. If you need updates ask people in your office or commute into work. RSS feeds are great if you know where you get the right information.
2. Limit your time on Facebook and MySpace. Stop creeping and status checks to 1-2 times per day (gasp!). They’re poor news aggregators and if your goal is to know what your friends are doing you’ll still be able to by checking in once before work and once after you get home. If you’re having a tough time adjusting you can block sites on your home computer so you’re less inclined to check. I’ve done this in the past with amazing success.
3. Finish one task before you leave for work. I could probably just tell you to get up at 5:00am but everyone has their own schedule. Whenever you start your day, be sure to get up 30 minutes earlier than you do right now and get one thing accomplished. Maybe that’s reading a book or learning a new skill. Whatever it is it has to be productive. Don’t just spend an extra 30 minutes surfing the web, using twitter or watching the news.
4. Cook. It might seem counterintuitive as it takes time to eat but if you can learn how to prepare quality meals you’ll feel less lethargic, sleep better and also learn a thing or two about diet. The quicker you learn to cook, the quicker you’ll be able to refine the process and get your time down. Like anything we learn it takes time to refine.
5. Be active enough to sweat. Again, it’s counterintuitive but this improves the quality of your sleep, reduces stress and improves your immune system all the while increasing your endurance. If you find yourself forgetting to fit it in stick post-it notes around your home or set up calendar reminders on your cell phone. If you can’t find 30 minutes a day to do this you’re doing something wrong. Yes, this goes for parents too. As busy as you are you’re just as good (if not better) at making excuses.
6. Stop saying “I’m busy”. This is probably the most overly used and poorest excuses we use in our daily lives. ”How was the weekend?” “Oh, you know busy, busy”. Really? Ask that same person to list out what they actually did and you’d have to assume they slept 16 hours a day. Keep in mind this isn’t to say that everyone lies about their work load but it’s clearly exaggerated for some odd social merit.
Feel free to add a few more to the list.
