Recently I have worked about 60 hours a week (minus when I am on vacation or sick of course) and when I looked into my planner today, I was getting the sense that that might not change any time soon. But there are so many other things and tasks I have or want to do besides work. Like my car still needs to be repaired, but so far I haven’t found the time to arrange it being towed. Or I like my hobbies – this month I’ve been good with blogging thanks to the #28daysofblogging challenge, but I have hardly found the time to read for fun. This Friday a friend from Germany is arriving for a two week visit and I obviously would like to spend some quality time with her, instead of asking her if she could walk (cause car is broken!) to the supermarket and buy wet cat food in order to avoid my personal CATmaggon here at home. Therefore I try to gain as much time as possible for myself. I am not in the position to decrease my working hours right now, but hopefully the workload will abate the closer we head to the end of the school year. As a side note, I never abstain from sleeping because I know that less sleep immediately puts me into a terrible mood.

1. Get up immediately without taking the phone into your hands.

2. Use the little time in between. Even if it is only five minutes to clean the kitchen surfaces.

3. Don’t put more than 3 big tasks per day on your list. This has been my experience that I just can’t concentrate on more, even when I write lists.

4. Rely on few news feeds. I always want to know what is going on in the world, but for this I do not have to follow ten different feeds. I like the New York Times summary, that I receive per e-mail every morning, and German news program Tagesschau, which is only 15 minutes long.

5. Get the help of smart devices. For example, I love Manfred, my robot vacuum because he just rolls around the apartment while I can do something else.

6. Give % 80. I am more of a perfectionist which is usually not extremely helpful. Most tasks are well fulfilled when I put a little less work into them.

7. Don’t do things at the last moment. Because there are always new tasks coming and they only mount up.

8. Combine two things if possible. Since I am mostly walking right now instead of driving, I go to the supermarket on the way home from work. Like this I get my groceries and also some exercise and fresh air.

9. Don’t look at your phone all the time. My phone actually takes up a lot of my time and not really for anything important. I still couldn’t convince myself to delete the few little games I have installed, but I am aware that they are a ridiculous waste of time.

10. Just take that break (or nap). Everything usually feels better when, coming home, I first take a nap and then start working again.

Do you have any more tips?

© janavar

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