Time-Saving Secret

Don’t miss any Bottom Line Secrets. Add our address, bottomlinesecrets@news.bottomlinepublishing.com, to your Address Book or Safe List. Learn how here. July 29, 2011 Old World Thinking Won’t Create Financial Security... But This Will Time Makeover: Free Up Hours You Didn’t Think You Had Marge Couldn't Remember Her Phone Number... But Now Her Brain Is 20 Years Younger... Social Isolation Forever Young Dear healthwellness82@gmail.com, Do you feel like you’re always short on time... and that there are never enough hours in the day for the things you really want to do? Here’s a way out of that trap from Laura Vanderkam, author of 168 Hours: You Have More Time Than You Think. She shares the time-saving secret that will help you find hours you never imagined you had. What to do with your newfound time? Get together with your friends—and live longer. Julianne Holt-Lunstad, PhD, associate professor of psychology at Brigham Young University, explains why having an active social life is profoundly good for your health—and she shares the research that proves it. All the best, Jessica Kent Editor BottomLineSecrets.com Old World Thinking Won’t Create Financial Security... But This Will "Get a good education and secure your future" use to be the way people achieved the American dream. Not anymore. Finding (or keeping) a good job or securing a successful career seems tougher than ever. Yet Colleges, Universities and Trade schools are now spending billions to promote that old world thinking. One man is challenging this approach and apparently the results speak for themselves. People who follow his advice are giving up the jobs they thought would bring them fulfillment, unchaining themselves from a life that revolves around work and becoming wealthy using his simple techniques. Now he’s launched a method that does it even faster BECAUSE of the economy... This Video Reveals Secret... Time Makeover: Free Up Hours You Didn’t Think You Had Laura Vanderkam Most of us have more free time than we realize. Even those who work 60 hours a week and sleep eight hours a night still have 52 additional hours each week. The problem is that we tend to burn many of those hours thoughtlessly on things that aren’t vital or particularly enjoyable, such as watching TV or browsing the Internet. Our lives would be more productive and fun if we consciously chose what to do with our time. Here’s an eight-step time-management makeover to do just that... Step 1: Log how you spend your time for a week. Record your activities in a notebook or on the free downloadable spreadsheet available on my Web site (www.My168hours.com, click "Your Time"). Be sure to include any breaks that you allow yourself in the middle of other tasks. If you think the week isn’t representative of a typical week, record another week. Step 2: Create your "List of 100 Dreams." There’s a reason most of us don’t spend much time pursuing the things we really want—we don’t know what we really want. Create a list of 100 things that you would like to accomplish—not just big, ambitious goals, but also smaller things that you suspect would make you excited or joyful... or that you might remember with fondness or pride when you look back on your life. Examples: Your list might include vacation destinations that you would like to visit... projects that you want to complete related to your career or a hobby... skills that you would like to acquire... even books that you would like to read. At least a few of the 100 dreams should be things that can be achieved in one day. These are likely to be checked off the list quickly, boosting your confidence in your ability to accomplish your more difficult dreams. Examples: Reading a children’s book you never got around to when you were a kid... attending a performance of your favorite opera... making an apple pie from scratch. Helpful: If you can’t come up with 100 dreams, try just 25 and proceed with the following steps anyway. Return to your list periodically until you get to 100. Step 3: Identify your core competencies. What do you do better than anyone else... and what are you better positioned to do than anyone else? Examples: Perhaps no one is as good as you at dreaming up new sales channels for your company’s products... or at teaching young children. We tend to feel most useful and happy when we devote time to tasks for which we see ourselves as irreplaceable. Examine your one-week time log. How much of your time are you devoting to your core competencies? You want to devote as much time to them as possible. Step 4: Clear the slate. Rethink your time commitments. There are 168 hours in each week, and how we spend those hours is for us alone to decide. Yes, we all need to eat and sleep, and most of us need to do something to earn money—but it’s empowering to start from scratch and rethink every time commitment, even those that seem inflexible. Examples: If you are willing to earn less, you could quit your job and find a less time-consuming career. If you are willing to eat simpler meals, you could save the time you spend cooking. Step 5: Print out a new, blank weekly log from my Web site... or take out a fresh piece of paper. Fill in your new schedule with your priorities and options in mind. Start by thinking in broad terms about when you would like to work... sleep... spend time with family and friends... and engage in specific, structured leisure activities. Example: If your goal is to spend more time with your young children or grandkids, you could leave the office at 4:00 twice a week, then make up that lost time by spending an hour or two responding to nonurgent work e-mails from home after the kids are in bed. Also, put your morning hours to better use. The morning is when we are most alert and energetic—yet most of us waste this time puttering around, checking our e-mails or sitting in rush-hour traffic. Make the morning your time to pursue your most important dream... or to get some exercise. If you currently have no free time on weekday mornings, go to bed an hour earlier and get up an hour earlier. Next, schedule your core-competency time. Block out specific work time and personal time to pursue whatever it is that you do better than everyone else. Finally, choose one or two entries from your "List of 100 Dreams," and write them into this week’s schedule wherever you find openings. Larger dreams should be broken into specific "actionable steps," which can be included on the schedule. Example: If the dream is "launch my own business," the first actionable step might be "speak with experienced business owners I know about how to get started." Step 6: Ignore, minimize or outsource things that you don’t enjoy, that aren’t very important or that others could do as well as you. What household tasks do you like least? Which chores absorb the most time? Answers might include mowing the lawn, doing the laundry or picking up clutter. Pay someone to do these things, or lower your standards—who says that you have to clean every week? Step 7: Fill free moments with small sources of joy. There are brief open blocks of time during even the busiest days. We tend not to take full advantage of this time because we are not properly prepared for it. Compile a list of things that give you joy that take 30 minutes or less... and another list of things that give you joy that take 10 minutes or less. Examples: Reading a few pages of a novel... doing yoga stretches... or working on a crossword puzzle. Step 8: Tune up your schedule each year. Does your life feel in balance? Are your major priorities being met? Are you making inroads on your 100 Dreams list? If not, again log your time for a week and search for time that could be put to better use. Eventually, creating a life in which you have it all will no longer seem so hard. Bottom Line/Personal interviewed interviewed Laura Vanderkam, a journalist based in New York City who writes frequently about how people spend their time. Her work has appeared in The Wall Street Journal and USA Today. She is author of 168 Hours: You Have More Time Than You Think (Portfolio). www.My168Hours.com Marge Couldn’t Remember Her Phone Number... But Now Her Brain Is 20 Years Younger... "I used to have a great memory," Marge told Dr. Ray Sahelian. "All my life I’ve worked with numbers," this former bookkeeper explained... "But now I can’t remember simple phone numbers... it’s so frustrating!" She’d lose things right after she put them down—it was demoralizing. She was only 71, but she felt like a useless antique. Other doctors might have shrugged and said, "Sorry Marge, you’re getting old... " But Dr. Ray Sahelian reversed her frightening decline with a handful of natural nutrients. Soon Marge’s memory picked up dramatically, and she was focused all day. Marge now says she hasn’t thought so clearly in 20 years... Learn more... Social Isolation Julianne Holt-Lunstad, PhD Social isolation can be as harmful to health as smoking and alcoholism... and is worse for health than obesity or lack of exercise. In a review of 148 studies, people with strong social ties had a 50% higher chance of survival than people with weak social connections. Self-defense: Seek out company as much as possible—especially if you live alone. Bottom Line/Personal interviewed Julianne Holt-Lunstad, PhD, associate professor of psychology, Brigham Young University, Provo, Utah, and lead author of an analysis of 148 studies, including 308,849 participants, published in PLoS Medicine. Forever Young Getting old can be awful. Aches... pains... illness... constant bouncing from doctor to doctor. We all dread it. You can’t stop the clock, but you can banish the miseries that sometimes come with it. Bulging belly Cholesterol-choked arteries Brain failure and fatigue Weakness and impotence Frozen joints or back pain Spotted, decrepit skin Tumors taking over your body Parkinson’s tremors Menopausal miseries Fading, cloudy vision And all other indignities of aging! Read on... Important: Help your friends get much more out of life -- forward this E-letter to them. Better: Send it to many friends and your whole family. 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