Alok Jain
Create Your
Own Time – How To Work 48
Hours In a Day
Is a book about Personal Time Management: Using time effectively and
efficiently in personal life, to achieve more. The book illustrates,
through simple real life examples, how you can increase your efficiency by more
than 200 %. This book is for anyone who wants to take advantage of the
opportunities provided by life by controlling the time and thus creating ample time
for oneself.
This book explains the strategies and
techniques you can use to save time in order to make an optimum use of time. The
book also explains the importance of organizing and planning in personal time
management. It illustrates the correlation between your self-control and time
saving. The book depicts how you can control time by controlling your behavior.
It also introduces you to basic concepts of time management and provides you
with insight into how people waste time.
The book contains hundreds of tips on how
you can save time in daily chores and around the house. It deals with the time
savings using computers, internet and technology. Some of the older books
published a decade ago will fail to give you insight of how to use the
technology to your advantage.
Later chapters of this book give you some
tips organized by the role of a person. Some roles discussed are moms,
homemaker, working women, couples, teenagers and students. It also familiarizes
you with some interesting ways in which you can utilize your time when you are
waiting or traveling.
Included in appendix are some sample
check lists and other templates like ‘To DO’ lists, travel checklist, party
checklist and goals template.
Alok has worked in different areas in Project
Management and Planning. He is a PMI certified Project Management Professional
and he takes pride in time management. For last few years he has been working
as a computer consultant. His successful implementation of
Time Management Principles at work and in personal life was a major
factor in motivating him to write this book.
He is a family person with two children - one
toddler and one infant. Apart from writing, the author has numerous other time consuming
hobbies like golf, wood carving, photography, coin collecting and many more. After
his second child was born, his schedule got totally upset. Devoting time to
hobbies, work place and family had become a real challenge for him during this
period. During the next few months he slowly got his life back by applying some
of the time management techniques to his personal life. A number of time
management tips in his book are based on his personal experience.
If you lose
money, you can always earn it again; at least you have the possibility of
earning it back. If you don’t use your time effectively, you have lost that
time forever.
...
Maintain A Schedule
You would say: “I am not doing a million
dollar project, why should I maintain a schedule?” What you are missing out is
that we humans have a natural tendency to plan; only we don’t apply it so
often. If you have to go to the post office and the movie theatre, you would
think: “I will finish off this work at post office by 2:00 p.m. and then join
my friends for the movie at 2:30 p.m.”
Well, congratulations! You do plan after all.
All you have to do is extend it further.
If you don’t plan for small
things like going to the movies, you can get away with it because any goof ups
can be mended easily. However, if the tasks are bigger and have interdependencies,
you are doomed …
...
Using The Internet
In these days of advanced technology you can
do plenty of things on the internet or ‘online’. Given below are things I could
think of. I am sure you can add a lot more to this list:
|
Paying Bills Online
Pay bills online or pay them in advance. Pay whatever
bills you can online. If you can’t pay the bill online, consider paying some
small value bills in advance up to six months or more. For example, I used to
get this cable bill for $13 every month. I paid for 6 months in advance. Next
5 months I didn’t have to write checks for that utility. I saved some money
on postage too.
Buying Online
Order online. Ordering online consumes less time,
especially, if these are single items for which you would have to go to a
store otherwise.
Surveying Online
Survey online! If you don’t know a product well, go survey
the alternatives or get full details, including reviews. It could save you
time in the future.
Looking For Deals
Online
Look for deals online instead of browsing through the
catalogues. Additionally, you can search through the online catalogues and,
if required, compare it with other alternatives.
Browse Classifieds
Online
Browse the classifieds online. You can even search through
them. Some newspapers will even let you set rules or let you create search
agents which will email you the list of matching classifieds or job listings.
There are some websites which deal only with classifieds.
|
...
The Art Of Shopping (Fast)
Shopping is one area which none of us can
avoid. Some of us lucky ones shop for pleasure, but for most of us it is a
necessity and part of daily or weekly routine. Shopping consumes a large part
of our daily time. That is why it becomes essential to look into this area in
detail and see how we can save time. Here are a few tips on how you can reduce
time spent in shopping:
|
Avoiding Rush Hours
Avoid rush hours for shopping. If required, go to a store
which is open extended hours.
Shopping Quickly
Shop quickly. A handy shopping list will be most helpful.
Don’t get stuck weighing too many options. Keep track of time and expedite
other family members if you feel they are taking too much time. Divide the
list between you and your partner and do the shopping faster.
Knowing your Stores
Do your shopping or grocery in the stores you know well.
If you are a regular visitor, you already know where to find an item and
don’t have to waste time looking for it. If you can’t find an item, ask the
staff to assist you. If you do your major shopping at your regular store, you
can cut down the shopping time to less than half.
Planning your Route
Plan your route. Do as much as possible in one trip. On an
average you spend 45 minutes in visiting a store, including travel time. So
if you can avoid an exclusive visit to a store, you will save time. Plan your
trip so that you don’t have to take extra turns or you don’t have to park too
often. If two stores are walk-able distance, park in one place and walk to
other store.
|
