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Alex Fortin

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hiring a maid and 4 other tips to get more time in your life.

February 17, 2015 By Alex Fortin Leave a Comment

Did you knew that you can find more time so you can do the other things you really want to do. If you are like me and try to do more everyday with the time you have, then keep reading! I will tell you what I am using today to get more time out of my life and get more things done.

how to find more time

It is a proccess

For me, It started about 4 years ago when I was tired of working as an electrician. I was still an apprentice just starting out but I knew I would top the salary potential in a few years and it would stay like that for the rest of my life. This wasn’t too appealing….  I was working 8+hours a day and I needed more times to educate myself in business and find opportunities. I started to do things differently and create new habits for myself like waking up at 4am every morning to squeeze out some reading time. Since then, I never stopped trying to optimize my time.

business is a sport that is 24/7/365 -Mark Cuban

So we all have 24 hours in a day but how are we using it? I found that there is 2 main ways to find more time:

  1. Delegation. By delegating things you would have done yourself
  2. Concentration. By doing more in the time available.

Delegation

1. Get a Maid

One perks of living where I live is that the cost of living is fairly cheap. You can hire people for a fraction of the cost you would have pay in Canada or United States. That means that you can hire a part-time maid to take care of grocery shopping, cooking and cleaning for a very low cost. 30$/week to be exact. That’s how much I pay for a maid that comes 6 days a week to do the grocery, prepare the food, clean the house and do the laundry. Every day.

I time myself and it would take me about 1 hour each day to go get some fresh vegetable and some meat, come back to my place and prepare myself a salad. That doesnt count in the time to clean the dishes, do the laundry, clean the floor, etc…

So I am saving myself 2 hours a day but the biggest benefits i found is that I can keep my workflow going. Because I’m on a low carb diet, I drink a bullet proof coffee with a protein shake every morning, I usually get hungry for lunch around 1pm-2pm. Before I would have to stop and go to the grocery,  get fresh veggies and meats and come back home to prepare it. This was breaking my work flow, I would start something but would have to stop in the middle to take 1 hour and a half lunch time… not optimal.

Now, I can keep working until later in the evening when I feel like taking a break, not because I am hungry or need to clean the house. This is so much better and I have seen a huge increase in my productivity.

Another beneficial side effect is that I don’t have to use mental juice anymore to fight my way in the grocery. Usually when going to the grocery, I would have to use a lot of willpower to not buy all the high carbs unhealthy food which makes up to more than 80% of any grocery.
Now I keep my self discipline juice to focus on what really matters to me. Eating high-carbs diabetes inducing food isn’t one of them.

Concentration

The second way that I “find more time” for myself is by completing faster the task im on. If I finish somthing in 45 mins that would have normally took me 1 hour, I just free myslef 15 mins! Add them up over a day and you can get a few extra hours! Here is the main things I do to get myself in the “zone”.

2.Track Your Time

Since I started using a software called time doctor (I use the free version) I started being more conscious of where I spend my time. I hit the start button and time doctor start recording the amount of time and the name of the task i’m performing. Everytime i leave my laptop, it automatically stop and when I am back it ask me if I was working. This really made me realise that in 1 hour, because of toilet, food, other breaks you are really not working all that time. It really got me to focus and be on a 9 out of 10 mental state level when i’m actually doing work. Another similar apps to time doctor is toggl.com which is a browser based software.

3. Mental Focus

Another way to get more time is to be in a high level mental state and get more stuff done. I found out that by simply having a smile on my face while I work really helped me keep my head clear and focus more efficiently. If I realize that I’m in a low energy state like a 5 out of 10, I simply sit straight, pump my chest and smile. I automatically get a boost of energy and a clearer view of what works need to be done.

4. Kill the Feed

Facebook can be a killer. That’t why I use a chrome extension called “kill news feed”. It simply disabled your news feed on facebook. You still can access other peoples profile and use messages but you cannot be distracted any more by the infinite Facebook newsfeed. If I really want to catch up with my friends, I still can go on my phone not my laptop.

5. No More Myth Buster

Another obvious one is TV. I stopped watching T.V. completely about 4 years ago and that was one of the biggest game changer. Unless you work for a special effect company in hollywood, there’s no reason why you should watch all the mythbusters show. By tunring off the TV, I was able to find a lot more time, so much time actually that I read over 100 books in about 2 and a half year and listen to over 100 audio books. knowing that the average american watch in average 5 hours of T.V per day, http://www.nydailynews.com/life-style/average-american-watches-5-hours-tv-day-article-1.1711954 If you haven’t turn that thing off, this is the first place to start.

 

So here you go. If you already dont watch tv and dont spend time on facebook, getting a part time maid will be the very best investment you can make. My next improvement will be to move in an apartment where there is a gym so I don’t have to drive out there which is time consuming and inconvenient.

And If you think that you cannot afford it, go here: http://www.numbeo.com/cost-of-living/compare_countries.jsp then find a place that is cheap enough for you to afford it. The world is flat now, you don’t have to live all your life where you are born. This will give you the runway necessary to launch your business or increase your income enough so you can move wherever you please after. Maybe I’ll see you soon here in Ho Chi Minh City!

Let me know below what apps or technique you use to find more time!

To your success!

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