dreadedmonkeygod . net

I'm running out of time in the day. Partly, the TV has been sucking it up. In the last couple of months, I've watched a season of Dexter, two of Weeds, two of House, and an assortment of other stuff like The Alaska Experiment, So You Think You Can Dance?, Mythbusters, and plenty of movies. That's a lot of time spent in front of the tube.

Now, I've gotten plenty of other stuff done too. I've kept up my Krav Maga & Brazilian Jiu Jistu training, ridden my bikes, and even done a little hiking. Bugs have been fixed, friends seen, bikes tuned, meals cooked and eaten. Life is good, but I still hit the end of the day feeling harried.

Usually, when I feel like there aren't enough hours in the day, it's because I'm trying to do too much. Once I start letting the unimportant stuff slide, or just being more efficient, I get less stressed.

But right now, there are simply a lot of things that are important to me, and I'm not willing to write any of them off. So it's time to put a plan together to make myself more efficient.

I'm taking Prof. Pausch's advice and trying to trade money for time. I spend two to three hours each week doing laundry. So I'm looking for a laundry service with pickup/delivery, and when the time comes, I'll look for an apartment with in-unit washer and dryer.

I'm making coffee in the morning at home, and taking breakfast with me to work. Skipping Starbucks saves time and money, and I eat better.

I'm really tempted to start taking my bikes to the shop for maintenance. But I like working on my bikes. It's relaxing. So I'll keep doing it.

I need storage space in my apartment. I need shelves & drawers for clothes. I need a rack for my Krav gear.

I'm going to try audiobooks. I think listening while I'm doing housework, driving, etc. could add an hour of reading time to my day. That's huge.

I'm very close to retiring one of my computers, which is great. I'm cannibalizing the hard drives-- I'll use them for backups.

And at that, I think I've hit the point of diminishing returns. I'll check back in when I've either done all this, or crossed a few things off as impractical.

And I have to remind myself that I'm not looking to maximize daily productivity. I'm looking to have more idle time. That's time with friends, time to read, time to ride, time to daydream.