Your Time Is So Precious - Save It!

byiainclarke

712 followers

8 years ago

'Stop the world I want To get off' How often do you feel like saying that?

We live in a crazy world where time flies by. One day we'll be getting back into bed before we get up!

So how can we manage our time better?

If you Google 'Time Management' you will be presented with a plethora of learned posts giving you all kinds of erudite suggestions. Here is a taste of what I found....

• Plan your day
• Factor in time for interruptions
• Don't be distracted
• Batch similar tasks together
• Let the phone keep ringing
• Set deadlines
• Delegate and outsource
• Prioritise activities
• Take a break
• Use those odd few minutes

All good advice but maybe a bit dry and impractical.

What if you flip the coin and look at saving time from a completely different angle?

What if you analyse the repetitive jobs you do throughout the day and see whether you can do them quicker using a completely different approach?

We all know that 'Content is King'. You can spend hours researching content but there are many ways of collecting content without wasting a load of time.

Collecting Content

1. Google Alerts Creating a Google alert is a great way of receiving content which is published in your niche. Just keep your keyword as specific as possible otherwise you will be inundated with articles/posts. https://www.google.com/alerts
2. List Future Blog Titles Everytime a future blog title comes into your head create a folder and label it with the title of the blog. When you come across useful material or ideas during the course of the day save it in the relevant folder. You will no longer be confronted with that blank sheet of paper when you come to write a post.
3. Follow Other Bloggers Follow other bloggers in your niche and put posts which may be useful in one of your blog folders.
4. Install Pocket Installing a 'Pocket Button' on your toolbar enables you to save useful articles and posts with a single click https://getpocket.com/

Managing emails

You can spend hours going through your emails and deleting a large proportion of them. It is difficult to give definitive advice about handling emails as every operating system has different characteristics, but here are a few tips.

1. Many email providers have a short tutorial on the best way to use their system. Take a look, as you may find useful features which will save you time. One of the most popular email systems is Google's gmail. Here is a useful tutorial on gmail https://www.lynda.com/Gmail-training-tutorials/218...
2. Keep on top of your emails. Make a habit of opting out or unsubscribing on a regular basis.
3. Spam is everyone's nightmare. If you did not sign up for an email and it is spam, just hit the 'this is spam' button.
4. With gmail you can filter emails containing specific words, so they never appear in your inbox
5. You can install anti spam software although there is a price to pay. Spam Fighter Pro has good reviews.

Browsers

Browsers have different features and operating methods, but here are a few simple rules which will save you time.

For rapid access put the sites you visit most frequently in the menu bar at the top of the screen. In order to cover more sites put related sites into a single folder.

1. You can drag tabs along the menu bar to reorder them
2. I use Google Chrome. Here is a YouTube tutorial on how to make it run faster. http://bit.ly/22bNOcP
3. There are also a wide range of extensions to Chrome which greatly enhance its functionality. Here is a link listing the top 15. http://bit.ly/1UHYMrw

Scheduling

There are many ways you can organise your online business, which will save you time

1. Use an online calendar. You can find one here http://www.calendarlabs.com/pdf-calendar.php
2. Schedule your posts using Hootsuite https://hootsuite.com/en-gb
3. Create a 'To Do' list using this app https://todoist.com/windows

I hope some of these tips will save you valuable time.