Becoming Efficient

Well, I’m not doing very well on my new year’s resolution to update this weekly, am I? Can I blame too much wine? No. Lack of inspiration? No. Not enough time? No.

Truth is, I don’t’ really have an excuse. I will say that I have been out and about learning and living, which is a good thing. As I continue on my lifelong quest for knowledge, I just finished and excellent book called The 4-Hour Workweek by Timothy Ferriss. As an entrepreneur myself, I found it really inspiring and it really got my creative juices flowing again, which feels great. While it touched me as an entrepreneur, I also think it is a great book for those of you working 9-to-5. I like the way this guy thinks. It is completely out-of-the-box thinking that makes complete sense to me. To summarize, it basically comes down to making time to do what is important (live your life, fulfill your dreams, travel, spend more time with your family, learn a new skill) by streamlining your processes and the way you go about doing things. Basically he encourages you to work smarter, not harder.

While there are many ideas and things I plan to implement from the book, the one jumping out at me now is the idea of only checking your email twice a day. Brilliant! I waste way too much time on email. Do I get urgent email? Never. If something is urgent enough that can’t wait 5 hours for an email reply then people can call me. There you have it; I think this is going to add 2 hours to my day. I seriously think that is how much time I waste on email. The more efficient I can be, the more time I will have to do the things I enjoy and the more time I will have to spend with the people I enjoy. Those of you used to my instantaneous reply to emails will now have to wait. I am going to check emails once in the a.m. and once in the p.m. Wish me luck!

Next book in my reading pile (the pile is big) that I’m going to tackle: The Mayo Clinic Diet. I keep hearing about it and it sounds like it is a good motivator to make some life changes for a healthier lifestyle.