As a busy professional who travels every week, I joke that I live on United Airlines. Always on the go, I’ve been known to get frustrated because I can’t find time for myself. Small things like a daily 30 minute walk, time to read a good book, or how about a nice long soak in a tub. But just taking a little bit of time for myself to relax makes it easier to get back on that airplane.

If you feel like me, try these suggestions. I recently put four strategies into place to help get more free time into my busy schedule. If you have other ways to grab more time for yourself, please share them.

1. Stay focused. This is a big deal for me. I am the e-mail queen and have a hard time walking away from e-mail. Then I realized that it’s crazy—and distracting and inefficient–to constantly be online when I am trying to do something else. Now I check e-mail and voice mail only at specific times. By doing this, I have saved over one hour a day by not constantly looking out for e-mail—and I still get as much done as before.

2. Make good use of waiting time. Sitting in the doctor’s office? Don’t go there without taking something to read or do. Catch up on correspondence, go over paperwork, pay bills. This will free up time at the end of the day to do the things you want to do.

3. Write it down. Have a small tablet so you can jot down notes of important things you need to do. Don’t force yourself to rely on your memory. You’ll end up spending needless time wracking your brain for that important to-do item. It takes more time trying to remember than just writing it down in the first place.

4. Monitor time-sapping. According to a recent survey by the Bureau of Labor Statistics, in 2005 the average American watched 2.6 hours of television a day. Many of us use TV as relaxation. But if you took half the time and spent it in the bath tub, imagine how much better you will feel about life and time management!

To feel successful, we need to be aware that we too need a “time out” from the hectic pace all of us share.

This entry was posted on Monday, April 23rd, 2007 at 7:03 am and is filed under General Interests, Investing. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.