The Simple Manifesto #18 – Free up time
This is part of our series on The Simple Living Manifesto. We invite you to join us on the journey.
The 18th idea in the manifesto is:
Free up time. Find ways to free up time for the important stuff. That means eliminating the stuff you don’t like, cutting back on time wasters, and making room for what you want to do.
It’s easy to get caught up in so much these days — and if you’re not careful you get caught up in things you don’t like as well.
A few things I’m doing to free up more time…
- Consolidate trips. Not only does this help the environment and save you gas, but it also cuts time on your time spent driving to and from places. I try to avoid making single destination trips as often as possible. While this isn’t always the case — you can save lots of time by just planning out your day and your trips a little in advance.
- Catch up on the news during your commute. I tend to be news junkie (I think that’s some of the former journalist in me). I’ve been getting much of my news from three sources: NPR, Twitter and RSS. However, those 200+ news related RSS feeds and Twitter streams don’t just read themselves (although I’d love a Blackberry app that will do that for me). So instead of doubling up on the news, I’ve cut back on my feeds and left my news gathering time primarily to my daily commute with NPR. I get the news I need — in a timely manner and I don’t waste more time at the computer.
- Cut down on Twitter feeds. Can anyone really keep up with more than a couple hundred feeds? Everett Bogue says Dunbar’s Law applies to Twitter too. I’m starting to agree. As of a week ago I was following nearly 500 people. I’ve since dropped that number down to 387… with plans on purging again soon.
- Cut down on RSS feeds. I started out by cutting out the stuff I tend to skip over anyways. Next came the stuff that I don’t really connect with. In less than a month’s time I’m down from 350+ to 183. Now when I open my reader I’m not as scared to see the unread items count — even if it’s been a day or two since I checked in on my feeds.
- Watch less TV. Most people can save several hours in your day just by cutting back on your TV consumption.
What about you? How are you freeing up more of your time?
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