Ryanware

My mother is amazing. I was home last night and I watched her cook eggs, bacon, waffles, oatmeal, toast, and set the table. All in 15 minutes. I did help with the toast and bacon, but still… it might have taken her 18 minutes without my help.

Today, a coworker got up off his computer, proclaiming “I’m going to go make toast.” He returned 30 minutes later, having made toast and eating it. 30 minutes. He was nice enough to make toast for me and another guy, but still… 30 minutes.

If I could somehow package and sell my mother’s super powers (without depriving her of them, of course) I’d become a billionaire in no time at all.

I’ve read numerous articles about how cutting back on your e-mail usage can save you loads of time. It was one of those things I believed, but was reluctant to do because frankly, it’s easy to check my e-mail. It’s also easy to visit a forum or two and waste some time. So today I closed Thunderbird, deleted shortcuts from the desktop and quick launch toolbar leaving only the shortcut in the start menu. Then, everytime I wanted to check my e-mail or read a forum I put a mark down on a piece of paper. In a short amount of time I had 10 marks on the paper. 5 for e-mail, 5 for the forums. With my average time spent doing e-mail and reading forums I figure I saved at least 2 hours. Maybe more. Wow! It does work. I’m making this permanent. Marking a paper will probably not stay permanent, but cutting back will!

Efficient Email, by Steve Pavlina.

When Google does something they usually do it very well. Sometime within the last week I tried out Google Maps. My first thought was “oh great, another map thing”, but after using it for a few seconds I became extremely impressed. I played around with it for a long time. I love the real time map dragging. I was able to “drive” to a friend’s house just by dragging. So cool. Check it out if you haven’t already.

So why did I take so long to post about this? The normal excuse of course! I’ve been too busy. Seriously though, between working three jobs, swing dancing, and procrastination I’ve managed to become way too busy. I recently bought Time Management from the Inside Out by Julie Morgenstern (audio download) from amazon.com/audible. I never would have read the book had I just ordered a real copy. I’ve already listened to it 1 1/2 times with it on CD. I drive way too much. I’ve spent over $80 in gas so far this month, and the month isn’t even half over! Anyway, I’ve really been enjoying the book. The problem with listening while driving though is that it’s very hard to write notes, so I don’t. I’ll probably listen to it over and over again until it sticks, or until I get a new book to listen to. I really like books on tape/cd.

Anyway, I hope to be able to take control of my time and have time for all the important things I need to get done! If anyone actually reads what I write here, what do you do? What have you done to take control of your time? Please comment.