Category — Productivity

We all find ourselves at some point in time stressed for time. Often that is due to overloading your schedule, having too many priorities, or as is often the case.. wasting time on things that are not that important.

One of the things that I waste much of my time on is TV and Hulu. Even though I only have basic cable, Hulu more than makes up for all the shows I missed. I’m addicted to TV you might say. I just love the feeling of sitting on my couch, dinner in hand, and watching a show. That being said, I often go beyond what one would consider normal. I watch TV and watch TV and watch some more.. In the end I neglect the important priorities in my life such as sleep, school, exercise, and friendships, just by watching TV. It is a huge waste of time, and starting today, I’ve decided to remove TV and Hulu from my life for a month. It’s already hard and it hasn’t been a day. However, I believe I can do this, and I’m putting it out there to keep myself in check.

I hope to see more time to actually do things that have priority and a significant improvement in my exercise plan. I’ll keep updating on the status of this new adventure.

I admit it, I used to check my email constantly throughout the day. The little email notification would pop up at work or at home I would hit refresh on Gmail whenever I was on the computer. This all changed recently when I started getting inundated with email for a class where I was a teaching assistant. It got to the point where I was anxious anytime I saw email in the inbox. This was not healthy and I decided to make a change. Instead of checking email everytime I am on the computer, I now check it at specific intervals. So in the morning and afternoon I check my email when I get in at 9 AM, 11 AM, 1 PM, 3 PM, and 4:30 PM before I leave.  In the evening I check my email at 9 PM and that’s it! It gets harder with a BlackBerry around, but I try to stay committed and I don’t get down on myself if I slip up sometimes.
It is amazing how much this change has reduced the stress in my life. Much like automating my savings goals, it has reduced my anxiety and made me more efficient in the process.