I was talking to someone recently and the topic of our conversation ended up about how efficient we are in our day to day activities. It is a very interesting subject matter. I have heard numerous theories about this. Here are a few tips that I think could be valuable:
1. Make lists.
If you make to do lists and employ other kinds of organizational tools, you surely will benefit from higher efficiency levels of your life. Time management is one of the most important parts of improving anybody’s efficiency.
2. Outsource.
This might be a controversial view, but outsourcing all of the things you do on daily basis, can be a great way to free up time and do things more efficiently. For example if it takes you 4 hours a week to shop for food, you can find a service that delivers, and use those 4 hours for something much more productive – for example, spending it with your family.
3. Learn how to be healthy.
Not everyone would think that health could be an important factor when it comes to improving the efficiency of our daily life, but it really does make a difference. Just ask yourself if you could be very productive if your health would prevent you from doing what you have to do every day.
4. Automate your life.
One of the greatest concepts in internet marketing is automation. Set as many tasks as you can to execute automatically. This might be a little different in real life, but worth trying. Our example about grocery shopping can be considered automation. How many hours does it take you to get groceries every week? What if you would get a service that would bring groceries to your doorstep every week?
5. Leverage whenever you can.
Leverage is a concept that is very familiar in business milieu. It does however also apply to our regular activities as well. Do you think it would be helpful to you if you would be able to achieve more with less effort? Leverage through people — get other people to help you do the things it takes you a long time to complete alone. Leverage through systems – employ systems. An example of that could be dividing responsibilities in cooking and cleaning duties in a household. One person cooks, the other does dishes. It is simple yet very powerful efficiency tool.
6. Plan everything.
It is a lot easier to accomplish anything if you know what it is you are trying to accomplish. If we don’t plan, we tend to jump from one activity to another, and waste a lot of time. Write out a clear map of what you are trying to do and follow it. By the way a plan should never be set in stone. It should evolve and mutate to best suit your needs as time progresses.
7. Do all of your banking on the internet.
One of the biggest time wasters is dealing with banks. I have noticed that those establishments eat at least 1-2 hours of our time every time you go there. I have done majority of my banking online for several years now and I would say that it saved me at least a hundred of hours of unnecessary waste of time.
8. Allow yourself to waste 1 hour per day.
We are bound to get distracted! Most often it happens over and over again, so we actually end up losing quite a bit of real productive time due to distractions. We also probably tend to get more distracted when we get tired, so over-scheduling can be a real bad thing. My suggestion is to plan when and for how long you are going to waste time. If you do, you might start noticing that your attention span actually increases and you are getting less distracted as the time passes by. 9. Create a flow.
Create a flow of incoming and outgoing items. Make a place where you would hold all incoming documents and mail. Put everything that will require you immediate attention in that place. Alternatively put things that need to go out, such as mail or something you will need to accomplish during the day, in your path. By that I mean put them in a place you bound to go to on your way out – I often put those things beside my shoes. This way there isn’t a chance that you are going to forget to do it – you won’t leave without your shoes on, so there is a good chance of you seeing those things you need to take with you.
10. Set a time for “No Fly Zone”
This is probably one of the most valuable tips I can give. You will increase your efficiency exponentially if you will put a conscious effort into turning off your phone, internet, locking yourself in a room where no one will disturb you, while you are working. If you manage to isolate yourself from distractions, you will produce more work.
All these tips are simple and common sense. We just have to implement them into our life, and the results we are seeking will start showing themselves.
About the Author:
Copyright 2007 www.BurstCreativity.com Alexander Tretjakov Unconventional Thinking University Author of MiWay Time Management System Get this e-book FREE at: click here to download now
Article Source: ArticlesBase.com – 10 Steps to Better Efficiency in Your Day to Day Life