3 Tips to Optimize Your Time
I was reading a post today from Yaro Starak on his great blog Entrepreneur’s Journey. The post was 4 Tips For Becoming A More Productive Entrepreneur. The tips are pretty simple, but it’s with simple things that we make big changes. Here are the 4 tips that he suggests:
- Don’t Watch Television
- Hire A House Cleaner
- Don’t Eat Processed Sugar
- Don’t Respond To Email
I’d like to take these tips and break them down a little bit into some other general ideas for you. I would break his 4 tips into 3 main categories:
- Don’t waste time with meaningless activities
- Spend your time doing the most important activities
- Take care of your health
Don’t Waste Time With Meaningless Activities
Watching TV and a ton of other activities are in essence a waste of time. Does that mean that they don’t have their place in life? I’m sure they do, but make sure that you’re putting first things first. Too many people these days make the excuse that they “don’t have enough time” to build a business or any other worth-while activity, and yet they wouldn’t miss American Idol for anything. It’s a matter of priorities.
Spend Your Time Doing the Most Important Activities
Emails can take up a ton of your time. Set up spam filters and anything else you can to limit spam and pointless emails. Also, only respond to those email that necessitate a response. There are other “busy work” activities that can take up your whole day if you like them. Sure they’re important, but prioritize your time to do the most important activities before doing the busy work stuff.
Take Care of Your Health
What good would it be to become a wealthy individual and not have the health to enjoy it? Not only that, but when you’re healthy you work better. You feel better and can work harder when you feel better physically, and also when you feel better about yourself. So take care of yourself!
I know these are simple points, but I think that a lot of us forget these simple things. Check your life and see if you need to make some adjustments somewhere.
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“3. Don’t Eat Processed Sugar”.
That’s a good one. It’s the food equivalent of amphetamine; a quick boost, then depression, with long term ‘rot’ with continued use.
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I could not agree more. As i’ve weened myself off TV i have become so much more productive. most TV really does nothing to improve your life.
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dingmo Ed,
We just moved into a new place that doesn’t have the cable hooked up, and honestly I’m in no rush for them to do it!
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Thanks for the tips. they are really good tips. liked the post.
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Life all boils down to the basics, which this post covers. If you can eat, sleep, and stay healthy right, things just come into place naturally. TV is such a waste of time, so I actually don’t have one. Notice the rising cable bill vs. the falling internet bill…
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Hey, Great Posts, Highly useful advice!
I will try and remember these when I feel I am “Alt+Tabbing” through my life as Joel
Comm puts it.
Thanks again,
Fabien
Small Fish Big Money
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Somthing I found very useful and time-saving is closin outlook / Thunderbird / whatever while working. I open the little box 3 times a day and that’s more than enuogh
but it does save me at least 1/2 - 1h a day.
dave
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Tv is probably the biggest distraction ever made, it dumbs down people
When i was growing up our parents decided not to have a tv, at the time we thought they were crazy
but I have friends who still watch 5-8 hrs or tv a day, total waste of life
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I can really get sidetracked with meaningless activities — especially with the allure of the Internet at my fingertips.
One thing that I’ve heard that really helps (if you work at home) and I plan on doing soon, is building an office space at home. Designating some area as your work area only, with bright lights, comfortable chair, clean and motivating. This one thing alone will really skyrocket your productivity.
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Tv is not my problem, sugar is. It’s bringing my energylevels down. And the emails…I just shut my email client down, because it’s a major distraction.
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Hmmm… interesting… i think i’m agree with you.. sometimes when i watch tv it consumes my time so much and doing nothing so good by getting lazy then… grrr.. nice info.
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Though it’s been out nearly a decade, I just finished reading a book that amplifies and reinforces what Dan said. The book is Richard Koch’s THE 80/20 PRINCIPLE, which I highly recommend. It’s easy to understand and important.
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Yes I had stopped watching TV from many years because I consider it to be my first enemy in my path to success. Of course I would consider the other points too.
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Ha ha ha! very nice. love it. You are a genius.
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Simple activity has a better result.i like very much.I don’t think like this.Thanks for shearing.
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On the television end, I watch a lot but as a window in the corner of my monitor so it’s more equivalent to listening to the radio, putting stuff like CNN or MSNBC so I don’t have to closely pay attention. Great advice.
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Great tips. thanks.
They will be really helpful for me.
Bye now.
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TV is a waste of time but how will you know what goes on in the world around you?…The internet? Well in my opinion it can also be a waste of time! Most people use it to surf the web and waste time. I think an hour or two of television or the internet can be good for a human being.
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Anything can be a waste of time, but I guess if you are enjoying it, it can be worth something to you. I agree that health is the most critical thing in life that anyone should look after first. Without good health, you are limited in abilities, and in most cases time.
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Sounds so simple - but like most things is easy to forget about. I printed these tips and pasted them to the bottom of my computer. good job mate.
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I’m a firm believer in the take care of your health concept. I have always found I am more successful in my business when I am healthier.
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Among the three that you’ve mentioned, I think health is the most important. It’s one of the main thing to make sure that your time is fully utilized and not get wasted.
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Great post and also nice tips.You obviously genius.I enjoyed the post.Thanks
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I agree with the first 3 but not with the 4th one… I can’t
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I think part of life is enjoying it and not always worrying about getting to some goal in life. What I do is work on my websites in the morning when my mind is fresh and relax in the late afternoon and evenings with T.V or other things.
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I stopped watching T.V about 3 years ago. It’s amazing what happened. All of a sudden there was lots of time for the little things I was always putting on the shelf. Organizing photo’s, editing home videos, reading and work all got more time when I switched of the television.
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LOlzzzzzz this is awesome, i would like to share my personal list of constraints which waste my time in great deal
and im happy that i have manage to avoid these to some great extent except for the last one haha
1. Addicted to chat on MSN/yahoo
2. Addicted to news on both TV and web including repeat telecasts (lol)
3. Addicted to FaceBook - A real time killer (haha)
4. Addicted to loooooong phone conversations with My GF
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Great Post…Besides the email. there are so many distractions now on the internet, you search for something and the next thing you know, you surfed yourself dizzy and have a million open windows! Definitely gotta keep it to the most important stuff!
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The TV is the killer….. I’ve been trying to ween myself off of it, but it’s a battle….
Just to have the noise and activity in the background is the hard part of killing it.
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This is a great post, it really hammers home what the priorities should be when trying to start a business and get somewhere in life - if you don’t invest the time now, you’ll never reap the benefits down the line.
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Thanks for the great tips. I think you are right to write this article as it is of great importance to manage your time. Thanks for the clear overview.
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I totally agree with the no television. If you go without tv for one week, you will have so much free time, you won’t know what to do with yourself
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I think the no tv thing is a great. There is always an excuse to not be productive, but if you take away all the wasted time on tv, you’ll have time to get things done, like work out and take care of your health! Thanks for the tips.
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Thanks for time management tips
Have a great day!
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lol… don’t surf myspace or facebook
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Dan Reply:
October 28th, 2008 at 5:32 am
haha, yeah, that’s a great waste of time!
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[...] I wrote another post about this topic a long time ago (3 Tops to Optimize Your Time) which was more about not wasting time, but today I want to approach it from a different [...]
Thanks for taking the time to discuss this, I feel strongly about it and love learning more on this topic. If possible, as you gain expertise, would you mind updating your blog with more information? It is extremely helpful and beneficial to your readers
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I guess it’s all about the 80/20 rule. It can be used in most places
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I have tried the “don’t read emails while working” a number of times - It’s tough - kind of addictive.
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That is true. I have sold my television. And now I have plenty of time
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Thank you for sharing with us these useful information. Frankly speaking, I often feel my time is not so enough, especially in weekends. I planned so many things to do. Whereas just a small number of them can be done. Watching television is a main factor. I have to change my ideas now.
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this sounds so simple but like most things is easy to forget about. I printed these tips and pasted them to the bottom of my computer.
Good work.
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Resources like the one you mentioned here will be very useful to me, thanks
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Thanks for the tips. they are really good tips. liked the post.
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This is a great post - I agree with the no television. I sold mine and now I have plenty of time
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I guess it’s all about the 80/20 rule. It can be used in most places
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I can’t not reply to email really, but I have managed to cut down on my TV watching of late, but that’s only because there’s nothing on I want to watch =P
- Leo
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Thanks for the tips.thanks again
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