Wednesday, July 16, 2008

How Can I Waste Time? Let Me Count Thee Ways

My dear high school friend, Elizabeth over at My So Called Crazy Life, posted about time yesterday. She said that there never seemed to be enough hours in a day. Boy, don't we all feel that way, sometimes?!?!

I just finished Donna Otto's book, Get More Done In Less Time. In it, she too, talks about how women constantly tell her at her seminars how they feel that there isn't enough hours in a day to get done everything that needs gettin' done. She suggests that we actually waste more time than we realize. She offers up the following challenge:

Record everything you do for an entire week and add up the hours.

I am going to take this challenge and challenge all my readers to do the same. (I'm not sure how many of you there are, but I get an average of five ladies who regularly post - or at least read - my blog. I'm talking to the five of you. If more of you are lurking (that's okay, chances are, I'm lurking your blog, too, take this challenge as well).

Starting Sunday night (because for some reason the week starts on a Sunday, although in my mind it starts on a Monday), I want you to keep track (as best you can) of what you do every waking minute of the day for seven days.

That means if you watch two of your favorite reality TV shows every night for a week (let's assume you TiVo'd them and you have a lot of catching up to do), you will have spent 14 of your 168 hours watching TV. Did I really spend fourteen hours watching the Boob Tube? Yes, you did. Own up to it.

The idea in this exercise is to see how much time we actually waste doing fruitless activties and once we know them, we can work on making the most of our day.

I will post stats at the end of my blog posts each day next week so y'all can keep up with me. I can tell you right now that most of my time will be spent on this infernal machine. (I've grown quite addicted to blogging). For you, it might be watching TV. Or sewing. Or reading. Whatever it is, I would love it if you'd share with me how you spend the most of your days.

Maybe, together, we can tighten up our ship and start accomplishing some of goals that 'we never have enough time to do'. I suspect we have plenty of time to do them, we just choose to get side tracked with other distractions - computer, TV, reading, etc.

I'll be adding a button to my side bar. Take it and link to this post. (If you don't know how, I'll walk you through it. I won't be able to do it all awesome-like because I don't know java script...but I'll try to make it as cool as I can make it).

You've got a couple of days to really think about this and decide if you want to take on this challenge. You might as well try it. What's the most that can happen? You realize how much time you really waste?

13 comments:

  1. Sounds like a great idea! I will try, but, you know there just aren't enough hours in the day....

    J/K I have been wanting to do this for awhile and I know most of my time is spent on this thing. But, where is the other time spent?

    So, yep, I'm in.

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  2. Fabulous! I'll create a 'time card' and upload it for anyone and everyone to use to keep track of their time.

    I'm very excited!

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  3. LOL. I don't have to take the test, as I already know how much time I waste. LOLOLOLOL-Blessings my dear friend.

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  4. Well, the professor didn't give me a funny look today, so I guess I'm in the clear. I kinda wrote my notes in scribbles and shorthand, but hopefully there was enough ink on the page that I didn't look like a complete idiot.

    Yes, I dream a lot (I guess we all do, but I remember mine a lot). Stress triggers it, I think, and the spring and summer months are also big for dreaming. I actually got quoted in the Washington Post a few months ago because of a dream about Barack Obama I mentioned in my blog!

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  5. I'm going somewhere with this, Linda. I am. But if you don't want to come on the journey, that's fine. LOL

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  6. This is a neat idea. I've done it before with a couple of small groups that I've been involved with through the years. It's as great way to reevaluate how I use my time. I won't be participating this go-around because I'm flat out TIRED right now, and I will be even more so next week. Spending 4 1/2 hours in class and 5 hours a day at work (not to mention how much time I study each day!) wears me out! I'll probably want to do this again back when I'm on a "normal" schedule!

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  7. Actually, if this goes well, I might just do this annually...so who knows. Lord knows, I don't *think* I'm going anywhere...which means I'll be here whenever you are.

    :)

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  8. Im in girl. It will be neat to see how it all turns out.

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  9. Now, girly,I didn't say I wasn't going too, LOLOL. Blessings..♥

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  10. Oh, Linda...you just GOTTA. The more the merrier :)

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  11. Yikes. I think that I would be scared to see how much time I waste. I am sure that it is a lot.

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  12. That goes triple for me, too. But I figure with school starting, hopefully a full time work scheduling starting...nows as good of a time as any to just start making things happen. For me at least. I whine too much. Time to set things in motion.

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  13. Interesting challenge. I know I waste tons of time and it's pretty much all on my computer doing nothing of importance.

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Thank you for taking the time to comment. I know how precious your time is and I appreciate you spending a few seconds with me.