JoeBailey.ORG

Yes, we’ve all heard the 80/20 rule. In this case, we’ll approach email. The approach, only check email at 11AM and 4PM. Results, I’ve saved a ton of time. Granted, it’s extremely hard to do, it’s like an addiction. Here are some tips on how to save time with your email:

• Set an auto-reminder letting people know you only respond at certain times. If they really need to reach you, have them call. Chances are they won’t call.
• Delete all spam and miscellaneous emails without even looking at them.
• Clean your inbox every time you go in there. This eliminates the excuse to go into your email and check a task… then checking for new emails.
• If you have a task based on an email, put that task in your to do list categorized by the Covey Quadrant. Chances are the task from that email is not important an can be handled at another time.
• Turn off the bell for Outlook, or close Outlook until the right times.
• Hide the BlackBerry. Just keeping it in front of me was still too tempting. Put it in the desk drawer and out of site.
• Calculate the amount of time you save. I guarantee you’ll save at least an hour.

As a consultant I often find it a hassle to carry around my laptop. Not only did it add extra time and baggage to every trip, it also added risk. For example, when working out in the gym, I was concerned someone would take it, or it would get wet in the rain. After a lot of thought… but a lot of delay, I looked into a way to keep my laptop at home when I could work on someone else’s computer or while on vacation.

After some online checking, I found most companies would charge for this service. Then I found LogMeIn which is FREE if you do not use all of the functions. Granted, when I say not all functions, you can’t copy back and forth easily. But, I’m able to log onto my computer, check and send email, write documents, etc. I’ve been using it for over a year. Not bad.

www.logmein.com

At least once a week for the past couple of months, I’ll work while listening to one of 2 Randy Pausch lectures found on his home page found here: http://download.srv.cs.cmu.edu/~pausch/. Also, for those of you who have not heard of Randy Pausch, he’s a professor diagnosed with cancer and these speeches are messages to his family and children on how to live life. If you have an hour, it is well worth your time… What would you do if you knew your days were numbered? Would you sit around and watch tv? Guess what, all of our days our numbered.

Anyway, getting back on topic…

One phrase stuck with me I didn’t catch the first time. He mentioned making phone calls while riding his bike for an hour would not take away from his family time. All of a sudden it dawned on me, he was accomplishing two things at once. Ok, it sounds obvious. But, as a father, I try to stay in shape, but in order to do so, I’ve been away from the family while working out, and not accomplishing anything else at the same time. For weeks now, I’ve been trying to figure out a way to spend time with family and work out, AND accomplish something else at the same time. Let’s face it, when working out (I love running) you don’t accomplish anything else.

After time, I figured out a way to do both. My solution was to give the kids a bath and have a circuit training workout while they played in the bath.

Here are some ideas to consider when trying to maximize your workout time:

• Give your kids a bath and workout while they play
• Listen to some educational audio while you lift, run, etc.
• Make phone calls while working out. This may be best on a bike or running since it allows for working out for extended amount of time. If you were lifting weights or doing a circuit workout, it may ruin your workout.
• Run while your kids ride their bike with you.
• Just walk with your family.
• Work in the yard with your family. It’s amazing how much kids love working and helping out. Learning with the attention is a huge accomplishment.
• Let your kids workout with you!

If you have some ideas to share, please do so!

It’s been 3 days since I stopped watching television, well almost. I found myself sneaking down after working at night for about an hour’s worth of tv. It satisfied my cravings, and I’ve found that it’s actually pretty easy. Overall though, I’m saving a ton of time and accomplishing a lot. Each night I watch less and less tv.

Tips:

• Reward yourself by working at night. Have a beer, do something fun while working, realize what you’ve accomplished
• Look at your tasks and realize how quickly they’re going away
• Realize that because you’re working, you’re eliminating stress that would otherwise occur when you did something the last minute
• Notice that the tasks you accomplish while watching tv go quicker than you thought.

If you want some inspiration, read a couple of these definitions. They tend to sound a little familiar.

• Procrastination - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Procrastination - Find some reasons behind procrastination.
• Time management- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Time_management - Is it really time management that’s lacking or is it also task management?
• Parkinson’s Law - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parkinsons_law - Managing tasks may eliminate the ability to always have more work. Something that dawned on me was that I will always have tasks, might as well tackle them now and have fresh tasks than worry about the ones I have.

  Best!
  

After finding out how much television I was watching (10-15 hours a week), I had to break the habit. Even though I knew it was a bad habit, I would fight it every night. I found myself struggling with the idea of relaxing to tv or working. Working again after a full day just didn’t sound like fun. In addition to watching tv, I picked up the habit of snacking on foods. So, this was a double edged habit. Once I broke the tv habit, the snacking habit disappeared as well. Not sure how much weight I’ll lose because of it.

How did I break the habit? Well, I had to distance myself from the tv. I chose a room in the house without a television and created a mini office. This is day 2 in my “man pit,” and I must say, I’m starting to enjoy it. It’s perfectly quiet and I have nothing else to do in this room but work. So, I found tv abstinence to be the best policy.

Other techniques I’ve heard of, good and bad:
-Put the tv’s away. This I found almost impossible with a family. A lot of push back there.
-Turn the tv’s off and read a book. This was actually actually a lot easier than I thought. Now, the kids like to sit down and read a book.
-Fake that the cable is out. I tried this, it doesn’t go over well with the family. I ended up becoming the roadblock or issue in fixing the tv.

Best

The average person watches 20-26 hours of tv a week. It’s a staggering number. So, avoid television. If you would spend just half of that time working on something else you would be that much further along in your goals.

So, if you live to were to do this for 40 years, you would have spent 4.8 years watching television. Imagine taking back 4.8 years of your life. What would you have accomplished or done?