PART TWO: ONE THING

I recently reviewed some of the most popular methods recommended for saving time.  As part of that review, I actively followed instructions to the letter and took each piece of advice as far as I could.  The results of that review proved something I had suspected all along:  I cannot save time. 

Time is doomed.  No matter how much time I “save” I always run into situations where time has to be spent anyway.

Time-saving is largely an illusion created for those of us who live with the guilt of “not being able to do enough with our lives.”  A lifetime of swallowing the “life is short” dogma has programmed us to squeeze as many activities as we can into as little time as possible.

Almost as if we were given a budget.

 

Is time a currency?  It’s perpetually current, if you see what I did there, but is it supposed to be like money?  I mean, all that “time is gold” stuff won’t win you an argument when you run to the store and try to get a discount because you trotted instead of sauntered.  I do not know of any supermarket that lets me trade in my shaved seconds for coupons.

This is a good time to recall something the great Jerry Seinfeld said.  I am paraphrasing, but as he talked about “time-saving” devices – cars, coffee makers, airplanes – he posed the question:

“Where does all the time we’ve saved go?”

Are they in a jar somewhere that I can break?  With all this time I’ve saved, can I shake a few minutes out of the jar to make up for lost time when I am running late?

If it doesn’t work that way, what am I saving time for?

Here is an interesting study on how the average adult spends his time daily: 

Sleeping, 8 and a half hours.  (I use about six.)

Eating and/or drinking, 1 and a half hours.  (I use about three.)

Bathing and household preparations, 2 hours.  (Meh, twenty minutes.)

Working, 4 hours.  (I use about six.)

Combined travel (included going to and from work, ambulating to the restroom, strolling to the cafeteria, etc.), 2 hours.  (I mostly work from home, so maybe fifteen minutes on a regular day.)

Traffic variance, 30 mins.  (More like an hour and a half!)

Coffee and smoking breaks, 1 and a half hours.  (I do not do either.)

Leisure, 4 hours.  Of which up to 2 hours on average are spent on social networking.  (I use about eight!)

Since I define Leisure as “the stuff I really wanna do,” it seems sad that the average adult only allocates 16.67% of total time for the good stuff.

A life of 83% maintenance and 17% function.  This is not the life I want to live.

I propose we stop thinking of time as a finite currency we have to allocate for proper productive usage.  I propose we stop breaking it down based on what we want to (or should) use it for.

I propose that Time is for whatever you want to be doing at this moment. 

The Super Secret Law of The City Slicker:  The Secret of Life is THIS:  ONE THING.  Once you figure out what that one thing is, nothing can keep you from it. 

Curly, as played by the great Jack Palance, said it best:  “Just one thing. You stick to that and the rest don't mean s**t.” 

I’m being serious now, so let’s go back to Jerry Seinfeld to wrap this up.  He said the way to be a better comic was to create better jokes and the way to create better jokes was to write every day.  He talked about getting a big wall calendar and a big red magic marker.

For each day that he did a “writing task,” he would put a big red X over that day. Over several days, his calendar would show a chain of big red X’s.  His only job next was to not break the chain.

Use check marks instead of X's

That was his ONE THING, so that was all he needed to keep track of.  As long as he took care of that, he got to put another big red X on his chain.  His day would be complete, and his conscience would be clear. 

DO NOT BREAK THE CHAIN. 

To take this concept from macro to micro, I try to do only one thing at a time.  I make everything a series of present tense attempts.  You must understand that I mean no disrespect when I refill my ice cube trays before I call you on your birthday.  It is not a matter of priority or importance anymore, but simply a matter of sequence.  I simply do one thing, then the other.

Poker coach Tommy Angelo calls out multitasking as a lie.  I always suspected it myself.  Whenever my eyes swept across a room, it never actually “swept.”  It jumped – stopping periodically to take in one thing at a time in rapid succession.  When I think that I am doing several things at once, my mind is actually just quickly shifting from one task to another.

Now I am typing.  Now I am reading a chat message.  Now I am checking my email.  Now I am typing again.  Now I am having a drink of water.  Now I am seeing what all the ruckus on the TV is about.  Now I am... wait, what was I doing?

Oh yes, I was multitasking.

So here is the ultimate “time saving” tip – and probably the only tip you need to take from all of this: 

DO NOT MULTITASK. 

The Super Secret Law of The Perennial Multitasker:  Two things do not get done until you do one.

SINGLE-TASK.  Studies have shown that multitasking can waste up to 40% of your time and energy because of the need to refocus each time you switch tasks.

A friend of mine recently had this on his facebook status: 

“The one task I clearly set out to do today got pushed back by so many Ad Hoc and troubleshooting concerns that now that one task is what still remains to be done. Such is the nature of work.” 

Such is the nature of multitasking.  It makes us lose track of ONE THING. 

One of my favorite things ever written was a Spoken Word piece penned and set to music by Jamie Wilson:

Your currency is time
Your methods are defined
NOT by plans in hand
but by What You Understand! 

What is your ONE THING? 

You can create a list of everything you want to do, then measure each against the other – forcing yourself to choose one or the other – until only one item is left.  You may find – as I did – that there is one thing that is so overpowering, just knowing it clarifies your entire existence.

If you live in spontaneous chaos, your “ONE THING” is defined as “whatever is in front of me right now.”  That may change from moment to moment, but it will always be just one thing.  And as long as you are single tasking, I believe that these things will get done one after one other.

When things get done, people become happy.

And when people become really happy, time stops.

As Time Goes Bye...

As we miss the summer heat and drive home in flooded traffic, our minds wander to feelings of being ambushed by the sudden onset of typhoons, tuition fees and overpriced schoolbooks.

One question hangs over our heads like the storm clouds that follow them:  “Where did the summer go?  We thought we had more time!”

We are governed by the idea that time is somehow finite.  That if don’t use it, we will lose it.  That the train will leave with or without us.  That we need to act now.

We are also configured to quantify time by what we have done with it.  And since I basically just lay on the beach the last three months, my time can only be judged by the amount of fiction I have read, and the square inches of sunburn on my skin.

The adults have convened – a jury of my fears – and the verdict is in:  I am a time-waster.  I wasted precious time that might have been used to build bridges or move mountains.  Wasted, because it took six hours for my internet service provider to upload an image to my Facebook page.  Wasted, because I chose the wrong route and got stuck in traffic.  Wasted, because I have no bridges to show, and the mountains are still where I last saw them.

And now I am out of time.

I am terrified by the notion that I may be wasting time right now and I don’t even realize it.  Saying words that fall on deaf ears.  Walking slowly to get to places that don’t really matter.  I am probably wasting so much time, and am so out of it, that I have now crossed over to wasting yours.

Can we stop the waste?

To save time in the morning, do everything you need to do before you go to bed. 

Shower at night, instead of in the morning.  Lay tomorrow’s clothes out – no wait, wear them to bed!  Crack some eggs and prepare your breakfast already.  Brush your teeth, style your hair.  Prepare and pack your lunch while you are at it.  And when you are done, sleep in the car.  Do not recline the chair (that will ruin your ‘do)!  Start the engine and sleep sitting up with both hands on the wheel.  The moment you wake up, you will be ready to go.

I tried this a few times.  What they didn’t tell me was that by the time I successfully burn all my morning routines into my pre-bed task list, the clock would read 4am.  Result:  I did not save time, I merely spent it sooner.  The whole exercise was exciting, but ultimately made no difference. 

Have a regular place for things and put them back when you’re done with them. 

Because few things waste time like the words “Where my car keys at?”

Except maybe “Dude, where’s my car?”

Genius that I am, I tried to one-up this idea.  Not only do I now always put things back where they were, I put everything in one place.  EVERYTHING.  Keys, Toothbrush, comb, sandwich, wallet, TV remote.  They are all mashed together in one big bowl labelled “Stuff I Use.”  I call this my StuffBowl^TM 

I even applied this time-saving technique to my computer desktop.  I now call it my MashTop^TM.  I can save time by never having to click more than once ever again!  And my desk at work?  Two words.

“Fuck Drawers.”

Finally, I understand the impeccable logic behind the way women use their purses.

Except the time I saved is now spent frantically poring through the contents of my StuffBowl^TM.  And I can never find the recycle bin on my MashTop^TM anymore.

Ever seen a woman fishing through her purse for her apartment keys?  If she happened to be fleeing from an axe-murderer, how does that story end?  The StuffBowl^TM and the MashTop^TM are solid, marketable concepts, but bad ideas.  Trust me. 

Set up a recurring task list for activities that are part of your daily and weekly routines so that you can get moving on them without delay. 

...And then...?

In the spirit of efficiency I even went so far as map out my task-route to make my list chronological and completely detailed.  Thought was no longer necessary, I just moved through the list.  The first item on my list was “look at task list.”

Do not get carried away.  This will make every day play out almost exactly the same way.  To rectify this small drawback, I made the last item on my list “make a completely new task list.”  Again, exciting, but ultimately pointless. 

Carry floss with you. Flossing has been cited as being more important than brushing. 

Knowing this has revolutionized my life.  I have removed fifteen minutes of unimportant toothbrushing from my daily routine.  Instead, I floss wherever I go, anytime I want.  I can floss between meals!  I can floss on the train to work!  I can floss in the middle of a client presentation!  I floss in bed, and I finally understand why pajamas have a chest pocket! 

Keep a pen and paper in your jacket. You’ll be ready to capture ideas, tasks, and the like without fail. 

Uncontrolled amounts of time are wasted asking “What was that thing I thought of this morning?”  Apparently, we are in an era where everything needs to be noted and remembered – even the things that were so unimportant we forgot about them three seconds after we heard about them.

We cannot trust our own memory anymore.  Because of this, I have also taken to drawing the faces of the people I meet, so I remember them, in case they may happen to be important later.  Confession:  I don’t draw very well, so all the time I saved is spent staring at my drawings and wondering who it is supposed to be. 

While you're at it, use a multipen. 

You want to color-code your notes and task lists.  Not just so they look pretty, but so you can assign certain emotions to certain notes and tasks.  For instance, I use blue for tasks that make me sad (blue, get it?).

We all know it is a waste of time to shift between pens.  Having many pens in your pockets also makes you look like an ubernerd.  A multipen solves this problem.

Important note:  do not EVER lose your multipen!  You will not be able to easily replace it, and borrowing someone else’s boring old single-pen will just not do it for you anymore. 

Got one of these to spare?

Check your messages less. 

God knows how much time (and optimism) I’ve wasted checking the fridge every ten minutes.  Message-checking has the same dynamic.  So now I have set aside certain times of day when I handle all the things people throw at me over email, SMS, and instant messaging.  I call these times “poop time” - because that is exactly when this all happens, and that is mostly what I am dealing with anyway. 

Turn off notifications. Killing frivolous alerts saves time from diversions. 

First of all, I no longer need a ringing alert or a nice chiming sound to tell me when it is poop time.  So those notifications are out the window.  I also used to have an alert for when I had to unplug my charger.  In the spirit of my above-mentioned message-handling discipline, I decided I would just unplug it when I am damned good and ready.

I have taken this same approach with setting alarm clocks.  No matter what time it goes off, I am going to hit the snooze button anyway.  These days, I just randomly set my alarm to go off an hour after I lie down.  This way I get about forty snoozes (in nine-minute intervals) before I finally get out of bed.  I am Snooze-Champ: the most well-rested man on the planet. 

Treat a ringing phone as an alert, not as a command. 

Just as my snooze alarm says “Hey buddy, now is an okay time to get up if you like,” a ringing phone is supposed to say “Excuse me, somebody wants to talk to you when you are ready.”

Unfortunately for most of us, it still says “Stop!  Drop whatever you are doing right now and see what this fucker wants!”

I now live by this powerful concept:  Alarms are suggestions.  When I am in the middle of any task (read: video game) I just let the phone ring.  The amount of tasks (read: games) I finish increased dramatically!  If I added up the time I saved from the birthdays and wakes I missed, as well as the time I saved from having less friends... mind-blowing! 

Don’t send unnecessary replies.  Messages like “thank you” and “Ok” not only waste your time, they waste someone else’s. 

I don’t stop there.  These days, I don’t even reply to messages anymore.

Let’s say someone says “See you at six?”  I don’t bother to say “Yes.”  I just go.  I discovered that they don’t show up most of the time, and I just go back home.  So now, when someone says “Wanna meet up later?” I just outright ignore it.  Major time-saver! 

Wear headphones. 

I always just used headphones to give me an excuse to ignore people, but I never imagined I could actually save time with them.  Well they do!

It’s not like cars go faster because I wear headphones.  Nor does the dude who makes my milk-tea feel a greater sense of urgency.  But the headphones do shield me from all the unwanted noise that previously caused a plethora of unnecessary distractions that slowed me down.

I no longer let the sound of a honking horn and screeching tires stop me from crossing busy streets at my own brisk pace.  I can now work through a fire drill.  I am no longer confused or burdened by “suggestions” from “experts” or “instructions” from my “boss.”

Headphones mean “I get things done.”  Isn’t that what time is for? 

Use all-in-one shampoo and conditioner. 

I upped the ante on this one by using a liquid body wash that serves as a soap, shampoo and conditioner, as well as a lotion!  Lately I have taken to just skipping bathing altogether.  I put on a hat and spray a cloud of perfume over the doorway as I walk out of my apartment.  Done!
 

Which is better?

These are twelve of the more popular time-saving tips.  There are entire websites for how to do things a little differently to save a minute of time each day, like microwaving pop tarts instead of toasting them.

At some point you have to wonder what you are saving all this time for. 

Brian Regan’s Super Secret Law of Pop Tarts:  If you need to zap-fry your Pop Tarts before you head out the door, you might want to loosen up your schedule. 

I’ve said this before, and it needs to be said again:  To get more done, plan to do a lot less.