Off the Clock: Feel Less Busy While Getting More Done

People often complain about not having enough time to accomplish what they want to do. Yet, when delving into their detailed time usage, they find that they end up wasting a lot of their time. Off the Clock recommends being mindful of time usage in order to accomplish what we need and have more free time. 

It is tempting to pick up the phone to scan some random social media when we have a free moment. However, very few people would mention "spending three hours scanning social media" as something they want to accomplish for the day. Even though exercising only takes a few minutes, most people claim they don't have enough time to fit it into their schedule. By tracking our detailed activities each day, we can get an idea where our time really is going. We may find that we are spending less time working than we think. 

In choosing the areas to spend our time, it is often valuable to block of time, such as the start of day to engage in our high-value individual activities. We should also know how things typically work. If meetings run late, don't schedule them back to back. If it often takes longer than expected to go to a soccer game, add in buffer time. Make valuable use of the time that you have. Spending time socializing with coworkers can be help accomplish more than working through lunch. "Appearing busy" does not provide as much value as we think. Accomplishing things does. Even in a marriage, we have picked somebody that we want to "suffer the least" with. We will have challenges with our time. We can make the best of them.