I feel pretty confident that the single biggest thing people can do to be more productive, or to have more time, is to dump their TV.
Following this is the trifecta of: exercise, eating well, and sleeping enough.
Following this is the trifecta of: exercise, eating well, and sleeping enough.
Sometimes it might be possible to combine commuting and exercising, but at the moment it's not worth it, since commuting and meditation, as well as commuting and reading, are possible with public transport.
One thing I can recommend is to get a cross-trainer or exercise bike and watch some interesting stuff while exercising. Recently I've been reviewing open courseware, Clojure webcasts etc. Saves time.
I would say working less for money is the single biggest thing people can do to be more productive, or to have more time.
moving closer to work has similar effects on your free time without cutting in to your free money.
but yeah, I agree. It's hard to have time to work on your stuff if you work 40 hours a week, especially if you need some family or social time. working part time helps a lot, if you can pull it off. Again, though, be mindful of the commute and reduce the number of days a week you work rather than reducing the number of hours a day you work.
But really, commuting is impossible to avoid if you work in consulting, where your customer changes from time to time. You can't expect to move as often. My work used to be only 10 minute walk away ...
Depends on house prices. I remember a study about those prices around London, and they found a nice relation between duration of commute vs house price. (I did some calculations, and assuming a reasonable hourly wage and interest rate (to convert the house price into a rent): each minute was bought at less than what you'd get for working that minute.)
07:15-08 Wakeup, shower and breakfast
08-09 Commute+reading
09-19 At work, includes lunch and snack
19-20 Exercise
20-20:30 Grocery shopping
20:30-21:30 Commute+reading
21:30-22 Dinner
22-23:30 Hacking
23:30 To sleep (slightly late)
How does that work out for you?
Now, I don't exercise but I spend 2x30 minutes bicycling to and from work.
2) grocery shopping every day? Order it online or do it once a week (or both) - another daily half hour gained.
3) daily exercise is laudable, but maybe you don't need a whole hour every day. Half hour after waking up should be more than enough - unless you're doing weight lifting for muscle gain, in which case you should only go 3 times a week.
That's a couple of hours a day recovered there.
4 x 10 might be nice to have a longer weekend. Have to think about it since now 5 days are mostly spent working, exercising, eating and sleeping :)
2) Well that was an example day. Instead of the shopping it might be cleaning, cooking or other housework that takes half an hour to an hour. I shop two or three times a week. I also don't cook every day but cook for two or three days at a time.
I don't own a car, bike or skis because the maintenance would take time :)
3) I keep a rest day once a week and on weekends I might do two kinds of exercise in a day. Still 6-7 times a week is fine counting the occasional extra walk back from shop. That totals it to 6-10 hours a week on physical activity.
I don't spend any time going to exercise since all the equipment is either at work (gym, pool), at home (cross-trainer, weights) or I go running.
8:30 Wakeup, shower, breakfast
9:00-9:50 Browse the net, email
9:50-10:00 Walk to work
10:00-18:00 Work
18:00-20:00 Buy groceries, cook, eat, do dishes
20:00-21:30 Relax in some way. May include tv, movies, exercise. Sometimes extra hacking.
21:30-01:00 Hack (may include leftover work)Three years ago I had exactly the same 10 minute walk to work and then I did have more time available. However have to consider that:
1) Consultant usually works at client's location and client may change often, though I'm a counter-example of that myself. Moving often is not worth it. I consider my current location pretty optimal. A more central location creates more stress and costs way too much. I would believe it's more effective to just decide to work less hours every week for reduced pay but I'm not yet strong enough to commit to it :)
2) I do not spend any time travelling to shop, to exercise location or to do fun stuff. My travel time maximum is 2 hours every day - the shops, bars, movies, etc. are along the same route and do not increase time spent travelling in a day at all.
3) Car would not improve the situation. In fact it would be slower due to traffic. Or I would have to leave at 06 from home, way too early. And the tradeoff of money to time is ridiculous with so few other uses for a car. And there's the maintenance.
Thanks for the example. Maybe somebody else can chime in too.
I guess I should add long commutes to my list of productivity hacks.
In the winter I mostly slept/meditated in the bus but now I have enough energy to read. I found out that coding is practically impossible in the bus because of the sun.
I wish they listened.
http://www.miller-mccune.com/health/dogs-offer-clues-to-self...