Archive for the ‘Audiobooks’ tag
Mind the Gaps: Get a Little Ahead Each Day
Be deliberately efficient or deliberately Zen. Never be arbitrarily inefficient.
I tweeted a version of that a few days ago and it pretty succinctly sums up my approach to "time management". In essence, it’s saying do what you do and be 100% there… and do so in a way that isn’t randomly wasting precious time in the present moment due to sloppy planning or weak preparation.
How much downtime did you have today if you counted up the minutes? 10 minutes, 60 minutes, more?
If your house is in order you can use every minute to your advantage, whatever that means to you at that time. You aren’t passing up the opportunity to use that time just because you don’t know what’s next or what you need to do – you can just seamlessly move from one thing to the next at a deliberate pace doing high-quality work or enjoying needed downtime.
Ultimately this approach goes back to having the right system for knowing what the open threads are in your life. Getting Things Done by David Allen is one such system, hugely popular and very common sensical and intuitive, but there are others. Assuming you’re already on your way to productivity black belt status and at any given moment can identify what you need in the moment, one of the best things you can do to act on this data is to start living in the gaps.
Gaps are those small 5-30 minute "in betweens" throughout the day that offer you some level of personal sanctity. They’re part of your daily rituals – your commute, an afternoon walk, a 20-minute wait in the doctor’s office, time between meetings, the 30 minutes your spouse or partner is watching the kids, and so on. They’re time periods in which you could choose to be productive or time you could use to disconnect and recharge. Ultimately it’s up to you how you use it.
My Day: The Way I Work, Rest, and Play
The other day I read a great article in Inc. about the workday of Paul English, the founder of Kayak. I love to read pieces like this that give me insight into the “best practices” of others, because I always learn a thing or two about managing my own life. My favorite part of the article was when Paul said “we work really hard for 40 to 45 hours a week.” Very few entrepreneurs can say (or do… or even admit to) that.
I thought it would be fun to write about “how I work” as well, and expand on it a little to include play. It’s a question I get asked a lot as a manager at Microsoft, and it certainly fits within my goal to make Refocuser more personal this year. Instead of just writing generic “how to” articles and checklists of stuff, every once in a while I’ll dig into something a little closer to home. This started in November with My Happiness Interview and continues here with this post.
I aspire to wake up at the same time each day, around 6:30am. The exact time is dependent on whether or not my daughter has a cold (like she does now) which makes it a little earlier – or later if she had me up during the night. I recently bought a wake-up lamp for Seattle winters which has made waking up much easier for me. I’ve always been a night person. But gradual increases in light coupled with soft chirping bird sounds is a much more pleasant way to rise than jumping out of bed from the sounds of a beeping alarm clock.
After showering, getting dressed, and quickly making the bed, I meditate in a quiet, dark room for 15 minutes. If I did this as soon as I woke up, I’d probably just fall right back asleep. This is time I need to start the day; getting myself into the right frame of mind. Once the 15 minutes are up, I prepare my daughter’s breakfast along with my own, which is usually a bowl of Kashi GOLEAN cereal with fresh blueberries and 32oz of water. I use breakfast time to quickly catch-up on email, Twitter, and RSS feeds. I try to power through my work inbox from the night before to bounce at zero before the day officially begins. Once we’re finished with breakfast, I spend some time playing with my daughter before she leaves for school. I always let her choose the activity.
My drive to work takes about a half hour, not including a stop at the local coffee shop for a short cappuccino. I know everyone who works there at this point, and it’s fun to see them everyday. They know more about me than a lot of the people I work with everyday. I use my car as a rolling classroom for both ends of my commute. Depending on my mood, I listen to either audiobooks or podcasts, and on rare occasion, some music if I want to relax my mind. Spoken word audio has really helped me to enjoy things I used to try to avoid… like shopping.
How to Read 3 or More Books a Month
Many people I know are frustrated that they don’t have the time to read more. Between a commute, a time-consuming job, family responsibilities, and other hobbies, there just isn’t enough time in the day to start, much less finish, the book sitting on your nightstand. I’m certainly no exception – far too often I start a book with good intentions, just to have it collect dust next to my bed until I just give up and put it back on the shelf.
Sometimes it’s natural – not all books are worth finishing, and if you feel like you’ve already received 99% of the value in 10% of the time, sometimes it’s best to just move on. But oftentimes it takes a while for a book to get interesting, and giving up too soon means you’ll never know. Yet if you stick with it and don’t actually make the time to read, it could take 2-3 months to actually make it through – which means you may get to read just 3-4 books in a year.
There’s a better way. Note that some of these tips are clearly for people who a) want and love to read, and b) are frustrated with the amount of reading they can do. If you enjoy taking your time reading through a novel, ignore this post – but if learning and self-improvement are your goals, these tips can work wonders. Most of the books I read are non-fiction: self-help, fitness, productivity, business profiles, motivation, and so on. With books like these, I’m not looking for an experience, I’m looking for tools and tactics. And the more quickly I can synthesize and incorporate the information into my life the better!
