Sleep seems to be more of a luxury than a commodity these days. With corporations demanding heightened levels of productivity from their employees, and the lines between our personal and professional lives intersecting more than ever, it is vital to have an intentional focus on how you budget your time. I have a demanding finance job, I am developing a mobile wellness application, I have a wonderful girlfriend, a focused fitness routine and an active social life. This requires deliberate planning around how I budget the time in each day, down to 30 minute intervals. Below I include five tips that help me manage the daily chaos and prioritize my life in a way that allows me to be mentally present at all times.
The 2 Minute Rule: If something that I need done can be completed in 2 minutes or less, I do it immediately. Whether its dishes, an email response, a Thank You card, or a dinner reservation, if it can be done it 2 minutes and I need it done, I do it immediately. Procrastinating menial tasks is a corrosive habit. Apply this rule and you will find yourself with a clearer mind and a clearer schedule. This tactic alone will help strengthen your personal will power and discipline.
Say No: Everyone loves a people-pleaser and we are all naturally conditioned to avoid conflict. This can be both a blessing and a curse. Learn to say no to events, to banquets, to catch-up dinners and to innocuous meetings. This will free up immense amounts of capacity. Always be polite when rejecting invitations, but reject them often. This will free your schedule and your mental capacity to be present in situations that you actually want to be in. Sometimes it is good to be missed.
Rise Early: Begin waking up earlier. If you typically wake up at 6, get up at 5. If you wake up at 7, get up at 6. The morning is the point in the day in which you have zero demands on your time, and the earlier that you rise the truer this is. Use this time to catch up on your thoughts, on your emails and correspondence, and to have a healthy breakfast to prepare you for your day. Sleep is important, so do not sacrifice hours of sleep in order to wake up earlier. However, I challenge you to evaluate how you are spending the minutes in your day after the hours of 10:00 pm. You will find that going to bed earlier and waking up earlier will lead to more focused, quality time with yourself that allows you to plan and evaluate the day ahead.
Make Use of Your In-Between Time: If your commute is over 15 minutes in the morning, make use of this valuable time. There are dozens of great podcasts offered for free each morning that can help prepare you for the day without having to watch the morning news or CNBC. My favorite business podcasts are Wall Street Journal This Morning and Wall Street Journal Tech News Briefing. Other great options that cover broader subjects are Freakonomics Radio from the authors of the bestselling books Freakonomics and SuperFreakonomics, and Point of Inquiry which examines topics in science, religion, philosophy and politics. Another great service is Audible, which has over 100,000 titles of digitally downloaded books on tape. Subscriptions are $15 per month for unlimited usage.
Live Healthy: The studies speak for themselves. Eating healthy and maintaining an active lifestyle leads to higher levels of happiness and productivity. Whether its running in the morning or doing night time Tai Chi at your local gym, find a fitness routine that works for you and stick to it. The benefits of eating healthy cannot be overlooked either. For me, carving out 45 minutes to an hour each night to cook a healthy meal is not always realistic. A solution to this is buying food for the entire week on Sundays and preparing a variety of protein-based meals that can be refrigerated and eaten for the next five days. My go-to option is Trader Joe’s frozen chicken with marinade sauce and varied vegetables. Finally, drink lots of water. Try to drink at least 60 ounces of water every day and monitor this by keeping a 12 or 16 ounce water bottle with you throughout the day that you can refill.
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