Find An Extra Hour Everyday

If you’re like most people, you’ve told yourself a million times that you could do so much more in life if you only had more hours in a day. The bad news is that we all have the same number of hours everyday and that won’t change. The good news is that you can literally find an extra hour everyday if you master some simple skills.

1. Touch any piece of paper only once

When you open a bill at home or a report at work, look at it, put it aside, see it again later, put it into your in-tray, pick it up when you sit down to do work, put it back because you don’t feel like dealing with it just then, come across it again later… you have handled that piece of paper about half a dozen times. Multiply this by the amount of paper that comes into your life and you’ll suddenly see where all your hours are going. Whenever you touch a piece of paper, do one of the following:

a. Trash it

This should be your preferred option at all times. It applies to any advertisement, brochure, or document not addressed or copied directly to you. The hit rate for such direct mailers is about 2%. You don’t need to be part of the 2% of people who are successfully tempted by advertisers into spending money you never intended to spend. And if you’re not planning to spend your money on stuff you didn’t even know existed, then why bother even reading the adverts in the first place?

b. File it

This is the second most preferred option. A lot of paperwork that comes your way is going to be for information or reference. These include bank statements, newsletters and so on. The information they contain is seldom time-critical, and even if you read it now you’ll forget most of it when it matters. So save the reading time now, and just refer to it if you need to later. Have a good filing system so you can file it in the right category for easy retrieval.

c. Do it

A common mistake people make is to open mail (including email) when they get it, and then come back to it later when they have time to take action. You should handle your mail ONLY when you intend to sit down for an hour or so to deal with it. Then, if you can’t simply trash it or file it, do it immediately. Write that cheque, read that report, amend that draft, scribble that instruction, make that call. Once action has been taken, trash it or file it.

2. Set a time limit for each task

Have you noticed that you most productive week in the whole year is the week before you go on vacation? The mind becomes very efficient when it knows that it has a limited time to do the job. When you draft a proposal, conduct a meeting, clear your email, or cook dinner, give yourself a target completion time. For example, my target for writing this post is one hour, and thirty minutes have passed, so I know I should be halfway through and can pace myself accordingly.

It’s far better to finish a task in 50 minutes followed by a 10 minute break, than spend 60 minutes on the same task. That 10 minute break is vital for your mind to rest and rejuvenate itself for the next task. You’ll also feel a sense of accomplishment for every task or group of tasks completed because your brain has 10 minutes to register that work has been done. Conversely, you’ll feel burnt out if you just slogged through one task after another without any rest in between.

The 10 minute breaks throughout the day can be used to call your family to say hello, check in on a colleague to see how she’s doing, walk round the floor to stretch your legs, have a coffee, or even take a power nap. You’ll end the day feeling like you’ve achieved balance and accomplished a lot of things besides just work.

3. Start work early

Be at your workplace half an hour earlier, when no one else is around and the phone is still quiet. This early 30 minutes is as good as an hour later in the day when you have to deal with interruptions (more on this later). You’ll be amazed how much you can get done before the workday has even officially begun. You may even be able to leave for home an hour earlier at the end of the day.

The added bonus to accomplishing more work in a shorter period is the time you’ll save in traffic. When you go to work and go home before most other people, you can save anything from 15 minutes to over an hour just on commuting time. The other bonus, of course, is the intangible feeling of smugness you have inside just knowing that you’re ahead of the pack.

4. Reject interruptions

Learn to say no without saying ‘no’. When somebody interrupts what you’re doing, tell them politely that you’re in the middle of an urgent task (and all your tasks are urgent because you’ve set a target completion time, remember?) and will drop by their workstation when you’re ready to discuss whatever it is they wanted to discuss.

Put the phone on silent or message mode, and allocate an hour later in the day to listen to and return your calls. Most calls aren’t urgent, and as long as you return the call before the end of the day, few people will fault you. There are very few calls that truly do require immediate attention. You can set the ringing tone for such calls, usually from only a handful of numbers, to be different so that you recognise it and make an exception.

5. Eat less at lunchtime

We all know how hard it is to concentrate in the afternoon after a heavy lunch. The bloodflow to the brain literally slows down because so much is being re-channeled to your stomach to digest the big meal you just had. Research shows that most people eat far more than their bodies actually need. So eat a half-portion at lunch, or just a salad or fruits. You’ll not only get more work done in the afternoon, you’ll also be healthier, look thinner, and perhaps live longer.

Since you’re eating less, you’ll take less time to eat as well. Instead of an hour’s lunch break, you could take just half an hour to eat, and free up the other half hour. You could start work earlier, read a book, walk around the block for some fresh air and exercise, or just close your eyes and meditate for a while. All these will give you a second wind for the afternoon, help you work more efficiently, and thus free up even more time for yourself.

Any one of the practices above will save you time spent on unnecessary distractions. If you combine several of them, or make a habit to practise all of them, you’ll find enough time in a day to do more than you ever thought possible.



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Posted by Daphne | September 6, 2008 | in Work Hard


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2 Responses to “Find An Extra Hour Everyday”

  1. Alpha Student - Accomplish anything in one hour per day
    October 25th, 2008 @ 3:05 pm

    [...] Find An Extra Hour Everyday – tips are aimed slightly more at workers than students, but you can apply a lot of them (starting early, saying “no” to interruptions) to academic work too. [...]

  2. Three Key Steps If You Want To Be Happy… « Our Christian Friendship Journal
    November 14th, 2009 @ 3:38 am

    [...] a great deal to being happy, since work – life balance is key to loving both work and life. Finding time to do the things that are most important to me made a huge [...]

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  • Comments by Readers

  • B @ logos coaching: What a great list. I am especially drawn to number 2 as I am incorporating more silence and quiet time into my life at present....
  • Kit: I’ve found that real change and lasting weight loss happens slowly, and is VERY frugal. 25lbs over the last 6 mos may be slow, but...
  • Beaulotus: Hi Daphne, it’s precisely that – that they didn’t have anything better to do with their time and lives. Those few mums...
  • Beaulotus: Daphne, it was interesting reading this wonderful post. As you may know, I socialise alot in our expat community and we have mothers...
  • Paul Maurice Martin: “Declining to play” has been an important one for me – I think of it as letting go of the egoism of others....
  • Self Improvement Minded: “Keep the company of the wise” that’s how we always said 4 when I was young.
  • Lana-{Daring Clarity}: Those were great points Daphne, thank you. And I so loved how you started that the reason you “keep blogging is that...
  • nudgeme: Great pointers on maintaining personal integrity Daphne, and always lovely to log on and see a post from you! Identifying your...
  • Self-esteem Building: I agree that our thinking gives positive or negative meaning to a certain event, person etc. Nature is neutral. It’s...
  • Hilary: Hi Daphne .. good points .. adopt a hero – yourself – ensure you smile, be kind, be open, be friendly .. Draw the boundaries is...
  • J.D. Meier: Beautiful distillations … heroes, boundaries, and buddies are the way to go. It takes less energy to be yourself than be somebody...
  • Lance: Hi Daphne, Number 4 is an important one for me. It’s so easy for other people’s attitudes to filter over into our own –...
  • Mazhar Nawaz: Dear Daphne enjoyed reading every word. I appreciate your honest views on Live Like You’ll Die Tomorrow.
  • Walter: Yes, I believe with what you have written here. In fact, I’m applying most of them into my life. There are lot of ways to be happy,...
  • Lindsey Petersen: I am a die hard optimist who leads a happy life even when I should be sad…an anomaly, I guess! Lindsey Petersen...
  • Hilda: Hi Daphne, I’ve read ALOT on the subject of happiness over the years, and have transformed myself from a miserable pessimist to a...
  • macy_c: I used to trust my instinct a bit more, but overtime, self doubt and life in general erode the trust. I just wrote an account of when I...
  • Evelyn Lim: I have found more meaning in my life when I started contributing my assistance and service to others. In the process, I become happier...
  • James Gray: When you say that good and bad aren’t “out there,” it isn’t clear what that means. I don’t know if anyone...
  • nudgeme: Hi Daphne Lovely to see a post on Joyful days in my Google Reader this morning – and such an uplifting one at that! I concur with...