We have talked a lot about Mann(ey) Ki Baat (Money Matters) in the past. Today, I intend to talk about a resource, which is available for free to everyone. However, you have to pay a hefty amount for NOT using it. It is important to understand that time is one of the most valuable assets of your lives. In fact, one of the rare assets that are equally available and accessible to everyone. Rich, poor, old, young, everyone has 24 hours in a day. It is just how you use those 24 hours, makes all the difference. So, it is of utmost significance to answer the age old question of: How to save time?
Now, I am always running a tight ship when it comes to managing work. I am working full time and the work’s a plenty. Apart from that, I blog for about 15 times a month. I also love playing with graphics to come up if informational carousals on Instagram. In a nutshell, my entire day is jampacked. In the middle of this, I have been married for three years now. So, a significant part of my day, and rightly so, goes towards that too. At this point, I could easily ask for a couple of additional hours in a day from the god, but he just won’t listen. Until, that moment, here are some tricks, that I personally use, to save time.
Disclaimer: My friends and family think I am crazy for doing this, but hey, as long as it works.
1. Tweaking My Sleep Hours:
Remember how they used to say that an adult should get a minimum of 7-9 hours of sleep every day? I think this figure is an average of a lifetime sleep. So, when we were kids, we slept for about 14-16 hours a day? Who knows we get that opportunity in the future as well right? Therefore, I prefer to go against the tide in this case.
How? I intentionally trained myself to sleep for only 6 hours and 30 minutes. Before all of you ‘beauty sleep’ practitioners start bashing me, hear it out. For the past one year, I have tried multiple combinations. Constantly changing sleeping and waking up times, duration, sides of the bed etc. Finally, the timings that work the best for me are from 12 midnight to 6:30 in the morning.
This has become a so important part of my daily routine that I almost sleep instantly every night at 12. Also, I rarely need alarms to wake up at 6:30 AM.
I tried sleeping for 8 hours a day, but I just wake up with a headache every time I do that. 7 hours is optimum, 6.5 works just fine for me.
2. YouTube at Lightning Speed:
In order to upgrade my skillset, I stick to two sources of knowledge. Audio books and YouTube videos. But YouTube is a slippery road. Therefore, to ensure that I am always up to something productive, I watch the videos at a 2x speed.
By doing this, my focus and concentration boosts multifold. I pay attention to each of the word more clearly. While doing this, I also cut down the time required to view these videos in the half. Don’t believe me? Here, check out this video I posted on IG lately.
Also, you don’t have to start with 2x speed right away. You can pick up 1.25x, 1.5x and progress on the way.
Another merit of doing this is that it only works on informational videos. If you try doing it with the entertaining stuff, you would not enjoy it, and hence quit. Therefore, ensuring that you are focusing on value adding videos only.
Your family and friends will judge you initially. It would seem like you are watching Chipmunks with a serious face. However, this trick has saved me enormous hours in the past few months of practicing it.
3. Multitasking and NOT Multitasking:
I hate multitasking to the core. It takes the fun out of the very thing you are doing. Eventually, you end up doing even less, with a poorer quality. Hence, defeating the entire purpose of multitasking. Therefore, I discovered some multitasking combinations, that not only work, but also save a ton of time for you:
A. Walk and Talk
B. Drive and Read
C. Eat and Multitask
This Instagram post will help you cull out the important details of the science behind this madness. Let me know what you think about them.
4. Watching Everything on OTT Platforms:
Apart from saving cable TV costs, there are tons of benefits of watching your favorite TV shows on OTT platforms instead. For example, how much time do you spend on watching Indian Idol (No judging). The show runs from 9:30 PM to 11 PM every weekend. I watch this show purely for music. I don’t like some random anchor trying too hard to make the show remotely entertaining. Also, the pathetic jokes, futile attempts to make fun of someone are an absolute cringe.
So, while I tune into Indian Idol, I do it on SonyLIV. You would be amazed to know that the music part of a music reality show is only 40 minutes. Rest of the time they are either running advertisements or making fool of themselves. So, I save an enormous time by making this switch. This is applicable to all TV shows you love and most of them are on OTT currently.
5. Automate Reminders:
Brain-space is a limited resource. So spending one’s time in rote learning and remembering the tasks is an utter waste of time. Especially in an era of technology, this should be outsourced to one of your devices. I use Alexa/Outlook for the same. For my work tasks, I put reminders on my calendar. For personal work, I put it on Alexa.
This helps me concentrate on the task in hand instead of focusing on thinking what I could have missed. Massive time and energy saving. I have so much to talk about, on automation, but that is a separate blogpost of it’s own.
Conclusion:
We are putting in hours of work to earn money. This time around, place the ‘hour’ aspect first. Money will definitely follow. In the end, it is all about realizing the intrinsic value of time. You are running behind money which is unlimited in supply. So, you may never be able to put a real value to it. However, your time on earth is limited, therefore, it is becoming even more valuable as you are spending it by growing up.
So? Do you also perceive time a little different than rest of the world?
Got questions? Want to take it to the next level? Reach out to me using your preferred platform from the links below
Until next time..
