Five Reasons You Should Reflect on How You Spend Your Time

I have over 15 years of consistent daily journaling. Last year in August, I have decided to take on the task of reviewing every single day of each journal. I have just finished this past week as it has taken nearly a year to do so. It is has been exciting to see how I have grown and also to see how many different journaling methods I have employed over this time. In a very similar manner, we should reflect on how we spend our time. Just like we would review a financial budget on regular basis (usually monthly), we should also review how we spend our time. This goes back to the time budget that I have discussed in previous posts in addition to tracking our time regularly so we actually know where it is going. It doesn’t have to be for a very long time or everything we do, you can just focus on a few activities at a time. For example, how much time did we spend on social media each day for a week, and what the total for that week is. Or you can take my approach and track every minute of the day and do it continuously. I have been time budgeting since 2012. There is plenty of room in between as well that will work perfect for you. No matter which methods you choose, here are five reasons you should regularly take time to reflect on how you spend your time. These apply no matter what method you decide on.

1. You have an idea of where you time is going. You may think you have an idea where your time is going, but you won’t know until you actually track it. You may be surprised how much time you spend on some things, or how little you do on other things. This happens especially when we look at it over a month and a year.
2. There is guidance. When you see time going to things in higher quantities than you want to, you realize where and how you can improve. You are then able to find time for the things we are really trying to do and accomplish.
3. There is personal accountabilty. It is always good to have someone keep you accountable for a goal you want to achieve. Even better is to have a way to keep yourself accountable. When you keep track of how you spend your time and it is being measured, that is a very good thing because you are accountable to yourself. Also, knowing that your time is being tracked will keep you accountable during the process.
4. You know how to make adjustments to your schedule. You may find that your schedule is unreasonable as it was set up and you will realize that you will have to cut things out to make it reasonable. If you don’t have enough scheduled you have free time (less common), you will then realize you can schedule more time for your goal.
5. There is motivation to keep going. When your time is being tracked and you are regularly reviewing how you spent your time, there is motivation to better for the next time you review your time. It creates a healthy competition against yourself the earlier period and motivation to reach a new goal each time you review.

I can’t say enough how important it is to recognize the need for reviewing how you spend your time. It has helped me tremendously. I regularly review my time and how it is spent regularly and I consistently make improvements. This is how I am able to find time to write a blog like this and will continue to grow Time is Me. Thank you again for all for taking time to read this blog and I look forward to continue to serve you later.

My Top Five Strategies for Maximizing Efficiency

If you have been reading my blog for some time now, this is going to be sort of a recap to summarize the top strategies that I use and in the order that I use them for maximum efficiency. As you may or may not have yet seen from this blog, the goal is to list strategies that help readers maximize their use of their time in order to find the time to do the things they really want to do.

1. Determine the Purpose. You need to know what purpose you are making time for. Determine a goal that you are working towards and figure out how much time is needed to make it a reality. When you have that part figured out, the next steps will help you achieve it.
2. Making a Time Budget. The very first step is to make an actual time budget. It can be detailed and all inclusive like mine is or can be just a few categories as a time. It can be an amount of time you want to do something or something you want to limit, or both. It can be annual, monthly, weekly, or even daily. Pick whatever works best for you.
3. Detailed Schedule. Having a detailed schedule is very essential to budgeting your time and the execution of the time budget. With a detailed schedule, you can actually see how much time you actually have because you are taking everything you have to do into account. Tracking every minute is effective just like tracking every penny is in a financial budget is. The best app I have found for having a detailed schedule is TimeTune, I have been using it for over a year now, but right now it is only available for Android users. If you are an iOS user, there are several apps of a similar nature and if you do not prefer to use an app at all, there are programs on the desktop, as well as simply using a paper planner can be very effective as well.
4. Analysis and Reflection. Taking time to regularly review how you spend your time is essential to understanding where you are strong and where you are weak in terms of your productivity. By this, you can determine where your time sucks are and how to eliminate. The very best method to having a good analysis is to track your time as detailed as possible. By doing this, you will be able to see the actual time spent vs the time budgeted. I use aTimeLogger to track every minute of every day and use the reports to observe where the time goes.
5. Continue On. Do not give up on what you are trying to achieve. The amount of time may not be the only issue that can be stopping progress, so be sure to check out all reasons on what may be slowing you down. I wish only the best for whatever goal you are trying to achieve.

This is a summary of what the core of Time is Me is about. This gives you the understanding of finding time for what you really want to do and the methods on actually achieving it. I am welcoming any suggestions on further topics. Please also take note that the Time is Me podcast is in the works as well. I look forward to any feedback.

Narrowing Down to the Essentials

    It is important to stick to the essentials in your life. There is a value into picking a focus and sticking to that. Just like they say “the riches are in the niches”, this is also true for how we spend our time. There are countless things we can do with our time, and many of them are good and fulfilling things. However, we need to determine which is most important for where we really want to go in our lives. This requires employing the aspects you may have encountered already if you have been following this blog. If you are a new reader, feel free to explore the other posts to get a better idea. It is important to understand the need to focus on what you are doing and what you need to do. Here are just a few ways this can benefit you

1. Only focusing on the essentials makes you the most productive. When you focus merely on the essentials, your focus is much more stronger and you will be the most productive. It is like growing a large pumpkin, if you take out all of the little pumpkins, you get one large one.
2. The more intrinsic value of what you are doing. You will feel better about what you are doing when you are doing the one thing you really want to do.
3. The more on track with your goals. The more your goals are focused, and the more you are focused on them, the more on track you will be. This is especially the case when you are focused on only a few big goals. This is better than focusing on 20 goals at once, then you will often end up only accomplishing one or a few, or none at all.
4. The closer you are to your purpose. Part of finding time for purpose is narrowing it down to what your purpose really is. While we all have many different purposes, there is really one main purpose that we should be focusing on at a time. We have plenty of opportunities to be off track and distracted, but this is why we need to focus on our purpose.

We all have essential things in our lives that we should be focused on doing. We do not need to be caught up in all of these distractions and things that are unnecessary. I find that it is best to work on a focused and essential life that does not include too many distractions, rabbit trails, and non-essential activities. In these times I find the greatest fulfillment, and you will too.

Taking Action

This will be a shorter post than usual. I am currently at Podcast Movement in Philadelphia and I have been busy networking and discussing future plans for Time is Me. The next step will be a podcast. I plan to release episodes once a week and will be around 15-20 minutes in length. I look forward to taking this to the next level.

Have you ever procrastinated on something for seemingly forever and don’t just around to doing something that you know you should be doing?

This is something that we do to some extent at some point in our life. We realize that we have been putting something off for a long time for whatever reason

Common excuses are

• I am not ready
• I am not the right person for this
• I am not sure if this is something I really want to do
• I don’t understand what I need to do
• I don’t really feel like doing this

That is just to name a few of the possibilities

I have a lot of this in my own life as well.

For example, I have wanted to start a podcast for Time is Me for a long time. For some reason, I have waited several years to do this. I could have been done this earlier, and beleive that I have waited longer than I need to do. It is good in a way because I am now more ready than ever; however, in a situation like this, it is possible to miss opportunities because time passes as we do not do this. We can miss opportunities if we don’t act quickly enough. It is important to remember the importance of taking action and taking action.

Please let me know your thoughts. I look forward to any and all feedback.

The Dangers of Distracting Others

Do you know anyone who is always interrupting you?

It could be a boss who is always adding to your list of things to do before you can even get through the current tasks

Maybe it’s that person who won’t stop interrupting you when you are speaking

Is it someone who keeps talking when you need to focus on what you are doing?

Maybe this is you.

If you are the one who is distracting others, here are some points to consider.

1. Distracting others will decrease productivity. If you are trying to get your subordinates to get more done, distracting them will only slow them down. While there are times when it is necessary to interrupt someone, it should limited to only emergencies and urgent situations. If an emergency or urgent sitatuion is every day or multiple times of day, it is time to reevaluate your priorities.
2. Distracting others can make them annoyed with you. More often than not we get annoyed when we are interrupted and distracted from what we are focusing on. This is especially the case if this happens frequently. Do your best to be aware of when you are interrupting or distracting someone
3. Distracting others can make you look bad. If you distract others and interrupt people enough, you will get the reputation of the person who interrupts everyone.
4. Distracting others can become a bad habit. Like any other bad habit, if you do something often enough, you will fall into a habit. The longer you have a habit, the harder it is to break. It is best to quit in the early phases.

It is also important to note that interruptions and distractions are not only just interrupting someone when they are speaking or throwing a task on someone’s plate when they are already busy.

Other examples include:

• Adding ideas or options when there are already too many - like trying to decide what or where to eat
• Giving unsolicited advice
• Talking oversome else who is already helping you - like giving someone directions when they are already using a GPS

We can all distract people in different ways sometimes. It is just a part of life that things come up that are urgent or maybe we just want to have fun and do something out of the ordinary. You just want to make sure that you are not doing this in excess. It is also Important to take note that some people hate being interrupted more than others.

Vacation and Productivity

We all need a vacation from time to time. As stated in earlier posts, it is important to take breaks and to have fun. It is important that we don’t overwork ourselves so that we can be refreshed and ready to work when we get back. There are wrong and right ways to do a vacation so that you can come back and be refreshed.

What Not To Do on Vacation

1. Go crazy and try to do too many things.Vacation should be about rest and relaxation. While it is good to go sightseeing and visit places you never have been before. Cramming too many activities into one trip can make it more stressful than you regular life. You can come back from vacation needing a vacation from the vacation.
2. Consuming too much. While your diet may go out the window during vacation, it doesn’t have to. It’s OK to splurge a bit on different foods and have a few extra snacks, but it’s best not to go overboard on your intake because not only will you probably not feel too good for a diet that is much different. If so it will hard to get back to the way you were before.
3. Stay conncted to work or non-vacation problems. Emails may come in at all times of the day and night, any day of the week, and on holidays. You may need to make a conscious choice to ignore the emails and any other communications that are not related to your vacation. Depending on your work situation, you may or may not need to communicate to your boss and/or subordinates that you are on vacation and that is it.
4. Worry about everything you have to do when you get back. It is difficult to clear your head these days, especially since we are always connected. Worrying about what is on your to do list isn’t going to get it done. It will just cause your vacation to be less enjoyable and those items will still on the list anyway.

What To Do on Vacation

1. Have Fun. You are on vacation to have fun and do things you don’t normally do. Take advantage of this time because we normally are only on vacation for a small part of the year. This is the time to make the most of your time and create some of the greatest memories in your life.
2. Still stay as close to your routine as possible. Keep your body and mind on a schedule still. If you eat three meals a day, still eat three meals a day. If you brush your teeth, then your hair, and shave, continue to do so in that order. At least this is what works for me. This will avoid unnecessarily anxiety of being out of your routine and also save time deciding what to do.
3. Plan ahead. Plan activities ahead of time, or at least at the beginning of the vacation. This will save time of trying to figure out the same day, and will also ensure that you will get to do what you really want to do, especially in the case where you are booking something that can be sold out. Speaking for myself, I am much more comfortable when I know what I am going to be doing, this may not be the case for everyone as many people are more spontaneous.
4. Be Spontanteous. While this counters the last two points, while on vacation it is important to be spontaneous as well and not have a rigid schedule. Like anything else, there needs to be a balance also to have the best time possible. This is the “life” part of work-life balance, which needs to be balanced as well for the maximum benefit and so you as refreshed as possible and much more productive when you get back to work.

Everyone needs a vacation and summer time is a very popular time to take a vacation, small trips, day trips, long weekends, etc. Just like every aspect of our life, maximizing our vacation time and getting the most out of it will have the largest benefit for the rest of our life. I love having time off and going places that I enjoy and having the opportunity to do something that I don’t normally do. It is great to be able to push the reset button and be refreshed. I hope that wherever you are headed this summer, whether it’s a long vacation or a short trip, or a few short trips like I am taking. Thanks again for your support in this blog and I hope you all are having an excellent summer.

Time is Me Turns 1!

    This is going to be a very different post. The Time is Me blog turns one this week! I want to take time to thank everyone who has been reading this blog over the past year and wanted to celebrate by pulling out some of the best content of the blog over the past year.

"What are you passionate about? Are you so bogged down with work, school, family and other commitments that you just can't carve out the time to do these things? Are you living someone else's life and are on other people's agendas? If these questions are intriguing to you, then it is a fair bet that you do feel this way. In a nutshell, you just can’t get to the things you are passionate about."

This is the very first paragraph of the first post. This is ultimately the heart of what Time is Me is intended to do. The goal here is to help people who are too busy with obligations and tasks to find the time for the things they really want to do. The strategies listed in the past year of blog posts can help that.

https://www.timeisme.com/blog/2017/7/3/finding-time-for-what-you-really-want-to-do

"We have all heard of a budget for our money. This can also be done with our time. There are many ways to go about this, but first let me explain to you the benefits that a time budget can offer. One benefit of a time budget is that you can limit activities that you feel are taking too much of your time.”

I am still a firm believer of time budgets. My personal use of a time budget has changed since I wrote this post; however, the concept is still very similar. I have shifted from monitoring every activity on an annual basis to a more general category on a weekly and monthly basis. This takes less time to actually to monitor and still does the job well.

https://www.timeisme.com/blog/2017/7/17/make-a-time-budget

"There is clutter for our time too! Just as our living and work spaces can get cluttered, so can our schedules. This can happen if we don’t follow our schedules.”

Cutting clutter has been a recurring theme in the recent years for me and I have been making strides in this area little by little. The less clutter around, the better it is.

https://www.timeisme.com/blog/2017/7/24/cutting-the-clutter

“That 20 minute task may become a 30 minute task just by the one two minute distraction.”

https://www.timeisme.com/blog/2017/8/21/the-drawbacks-of-distraction

“I remember a time when I was playing a podcast, listening to music, having a webstream on, talking on the phone and on top of that doing records and studying. All I remember about that was nothing actually got accomplished.”

https://www.timeisme.com/blog/2017/9/18/the-myth-of-multi-tasking

"Have you ever been around someone who is quite a jerk because of being too busy?They are able to find many ways to tell you that they don’t have time at the moment. Sometimes it’s in a friendly way and other times it’s not so much.”

https://www.timeisme.com/blog/2017/12/4/how-to-be-busy-without-being-a-jerk

"You are most focused when properly rested. I know that when I don’t sleep enough, I am scattered brained and constantly losing focus.”

https://www.timeisme.com/blog/2017/12/18/the-importance-of-sleep-for-productivity

"Having a consistent routine creates a pattern in your life where you don’t have to think about it. Any opportunity to automate in your life will make your life more productive”

https://www.timeisme.com/blog/2017/12/25/why-keeping-a-consistent-schedule-is-productive

“Set your mind to being on time. If you don’t think it’s important to be on time, you won’t make it a priority to be on time. Don’t say you will try to be on time, say you will.”

https://www.timeisme.com/blog/2018/1/7/why-being-on-time-makes-you-more-productive

"Take care of a few unrelated small tasks first. This could be anything that will get you moving such as going through a few emails, a quick chore like taking out the trash, or anything else that is 5 minutes or less. Do a few of these quick tasks first to make you feel productive and get a momentum going.”

https://www.timeisme.com/blog/2018/3/12/how-to-get-big-things-done-the-small-way

"Regulate the timing of the spurts of productivity. While this may not always be possible, it is best when we can plan on times when were are the most productive so we can schedule our focused work time then, and avoid things like meetings or breaks during those times.”

https://www.timeisme.com/blog/2018/4/1/how-to-take-advantage-of-spurts-of-productivity

“Getting your physical space cleaned and organized will make a huge difference on your mindset and productivity.”

https://www.timeisme.com/blog/2018/4/16/its-time-for-digital-spring-cleaning

"Narrow your tasks down. If the to do list for the day is over 100 items or some other amount that you know is unsustainable, then it is time to pick out the most important tasks of the day. “

https://www.timeisme.com/blog/2018/5/7/how-to-recover-from-being-behind-on-your-to-do-list

"A very effective productivity strategy that I believe in is batching. One way to effectively execute this strategy is to include all tasks of one type at one time.”

https://www.timeisme.com/blog/2018/5/14/the-benefits-of-batching

"It will save you a lot of frustration. Since life has so many changes, might as well skip the frustration and expect changes and be flexible.”

https://www.timeisme.com/blog/2018/6/11/why-it-is-important-to-be-flexible

“There are many reasons someone procrastinates. More often than not it is because we avoid doing something we don’t want to be doing.”

https://www.timeisme.com/blog/2018/6/24/5-methods-on-conquering-procrastination

There is much more ahead for Time is Me including many new topics, discussions, a podcast, products, and services. Now this is where you come in. I am seeking all and any feedback on what you want to see from Time is Me going forward. I look forward to your feedback and once again, thank you!

5 Methods on Conquering Procrastination

     Procrastination is one of the largest killer of productivity. We have all procrastinated on something before. There are many reasons someone procrastinates. More often than not it is because we avoid doing something we don’t want to be doing. There are many reasons we want to procrastinate. Regardless of the reasons, there are several ways to remedy our procrastination. Here are five ways to help us avoid procrastination a bit better.

1. Take a break. Sometimes we are procrastinating to do something and we really don’t feel like doing it because it’s just that. We don’t feel like doing it at the moment and that is when it is good to switch to something else and then return later. The only time we don’t have this luxury is when we up against the deadline.
2. Find the best time of day to do the task you are trying to accomplish. Not all times of the day are the best for everything. Determine when you are generally best at what you are trying to accomplish and focus on it then. You will generally procrastinate the least when you are doing the right thing at the right time
3. Limit Distractions. Distractions will take you away from doing what you are supposed to be doing anyway and make it easier to procrastinate, whether you like the task you are doing or not. Do your best to avoid distractions as much possible
4. Spice up the task you are doing. Whatever you need to get done and you are procrastinating on is probably not the most fun task. There are ways to make a task more fun, even if it is not something you enjoy. A personal example I have is I keep a target for amount of time to complete or personal bests if it is something I do regularly. In a team, you can add some humor to the mix to make something mundane at least something we can laugh about. You ask to have something done in a funny way and still seriously get the point across.
5. Quit doing what you are doing. While this will rarely be the case that you can quit what you are doing immediately. However, if you find yourself constantly procrastinating to do something and especially when it is happening over a long period of time marks an indication that this is something you probably should not be doing. The best thing is to take whatever steps necessary to do something else.

Procrastination happens to the best of us. Everyone faces it sometimes or maybe almost all the time. These were some strategies that I use that work well, but there are definitely more. What strategies work best for you. Feel free to leave a comment in the comments section.

5 Ways to Use Parkinson's Law For Your Advantage

Parkinson’s Law is defined by the concept that tasks expand to the time allotted to them. It is a very interesting concept actually. Have you ever had a deadline the next day and accomplished something that you never thought could get done but somehow made it happen. All of a sudden there is a rush of focus, drive, and motivation to get the task done. Whether it was put off because of procrastination or some kind of last minute demand from someone, the result can be the same (of course also with a whole lot of frustration). Just like pretty much anything else, each situation is different. There are countless tasks that really can’t be done any quicker, so adding unrealistic deadlines and expectations for completion time will only stress you or whoever you are delegating the tasks out and is counterproductive. However, there are also many times when just adding structure and deadlines as well as giving yourself and/or your team a boost can increase productivity and actually get tasks done quicker and more effectively by not scheduling too much time for them. Here are five ways you can do this effectively.

1. Cut large projects into small pieces and each piece a deadline. Constantly having a deadline to deliver on as part of the project will allow you to stay focused and on track with the deadline in mind rather than seeing the whole task and getting overwhelmed.

2. Evaluate your schedule regularly. Whenever you think you can do something quicker and you don’t need the amount of time to do a particular task, you are probably right. It is much more natural to underestimate time something will take rather than overestimate, so any inkling of an overestimation of time is probably right.

3. Track the amount of time activities take. As you may have gathered from previous posts, I am a huge proponent of logging time. This way you can find the reality of how long tasks actually take, and you won’t be over or under-scheduling them. The more data that you have the more of a consistency that you can find.

4. Make a Time Budget. Having a guide to follow is very helpful as well. While It is best practice to trend towards overestimating time so that there is margin in your budget; however, do not go too crazy as well. Scheduling too much time to do each task will waste more time, as tasks will expand to the time allotted.

5. Find a good balance. Constantly pressuring yourself and your team to accomplish 12 hours of work in 8 hours days every day is unreasonable and will stress and wear everyone else. However, accomplishing 4 hours of work in 8 hours is a complete waste of time and unnecessary as well. It is worth taking the time to evaluate the task management and adjust accordingly.

Parkinson’s Law is a very useful productivity concept that serves as reminder that there does need to be a balance in your efficiency. It is best to avoid ditches on both ends. It is like going bowling, you want to get as close to the middle as possible with the greatest impact, and avoid the gutters on both ends!

Why it is Important to be Flexible

    I am a huge proponent of detailed schedules, to do lists, and time budgets. I have used various methods throughout my life including paper planners/datebooks and all kinds of programs to help me make excellent schedules. I have over 15 years of different types of schedules. The earlier ones were much more rigid and less flexible, which more often than not did not work as well. This of course also depends on your life and what is going on. When I was 16 when I was less flexible, there were also far less variables. Nevertheless, life has so many moving parts and changes, it is very important to be flexible. It is possible to have a detailed schedule and yet still be flexible. I have been able to do this using a very valuable

resource that allows me to keep a detailed schedule and yet easily adjust as things in life happen - TimeTune (I have included a link at the bottom of the post, right now only available on Android phones but they are expanding). Here are just a few reasons why you should be flexible

1. It will save you a lot of frustration. Since life has so many changes, might as well skip the frustration and expect changes and be flexible.

2. It will make you more efficient. Learning how to adapt to different situations and still stay on task when life throws you curve balls is an excellent way to be more efficient rather than getting flustered when the schedule changes.

3. It will annoy others less. When I was less flexible, I have had a lot of complaints from others about being too inflexible. The more flexible you are, the less issues you will have with that regard.

4. It will allow you more freedom. You will feel more free and be able to adjust things as needed much more easily. It is helpful to be able to adjust course as needed and stay on track. Things may not take as long as you expect or more likely they will take longer. Also, a more flexible schedule will make it easier to focus in on what you need to be doing at the time.

    Flexibility is as much a skill as keeping a detailed schedule and actually following it. They are both skills that take practice to improve. Some people are better at the first and others the latter. The best schedules are strong in both. Although, it may take a while to become really effective at this, with enough time, determination, and effort, it can be done.

TimeTune

https://timetune.center/