Making the Most of Your Day

Control your email

 Have you ever wondered where the time went over the last week or two?  Do you remember when the year was just in its first month, and here we are staring at Labor Day and back to school.  Do you realize that half of all things you were looking forward to during the year have come and gone?  Winter to me is like Mondays to most people.  It’s my least favorite season (weather-wise), and it comes around way too fast.

The alternative which is for time to stop is not an option, however, there may be a way to slow down your day, so you can accomplish more.  Here is a quick and short list of just some of the culprits for your time loss every day: 

• Email overload: Manage your email inbox and divert nonessential correspondence using mail filters, smart mailboxes and folders. Establish email rules to stop spam, automatically reroute incoming items to specific folders, and flag important senders.  My attitude about unsolicited mail is that 85% or more of it is after your money, and not necessarily by giving you anything in exchange.  Whenever I see unsolicited sales discounts of up to 60% I rationalize that I can save100% by not even opening the email (same applies to junk US Mail).  I decided a long time ago that a savings is only a savings if it coincides with something I was needing or wanting.
• Set goals: If your workday begins with a cup of coffee and a few minutes browsing your favorite sites, you've rewarded yourself before you've accomplished anything. Instead, set small goals and hold off on treating yourself until those tasks are done. Setting goals and deadlines will boost your productivity and prevent you from wasting time first thing in the morning.  If you are not careful you can get in front of your computer, and find that you have just spent two or three hours before you realize it.  Browsing the internet is fine as long as you have a goal.  Set a timer on your smart phone if you have to, to remind you when one hour has gone by.  Prioritize your favorite sites so you don’t go from one interest to the next and the next.  If internet has a strength it is that it is addictive, and loaded with plenty of sites of interest. 
• Limit social media:  Once you go on Facebook, you know what happens. Stop checking social media constantly. Instead, restrict your viewing time to no more than 5 minutes, three times a day -- morning, midday and evening. You'll still stay on top of things but you won't get sucked into games, sharing memes or lolcats, and you'll regain a good chunk of your day.  Life is interesting, but Facebook is to present time what day-time soap operas where to anyone that stayed at home in earlier years.  Unless you have figured out how to make a living from Facebook or the internet, you shouldn’t let it control your life.  Some of the material in this post came from MSN Living

There are many more ways to regain some of your quickly disappearing time, the above items are only some of the more problematic, and addictive ways to lose control of your very valuable time (day or night).  The best is yet to come….