How to Save Time

By Lev Novak

It was daylight’s savings time on Sunday and we all went ahead an hour. That gives us more sunlight but we simply lost an hour. This, given some of our Saturday nights, was a difficult thing to come to terms with, but it gave me a good idea. How can we, as a people, earn that hour back?

It’s a fair question. But together we can save more time.

1. Commit

I’m not telling you to put a ring on things, but I am telling you that dragging your heels through something is always a longer way to do something than just finishing it straight-up.

Consider, for a moment, how you get up in the morning. Do you lounge in bed for forty minutes after your alarm, hitting snooze? Actually sleep for twenty-five more minutes and you save fifteen. Don’t fool yourself. If you need more sleep, commit to more sleep, because taking the long route there- resting, hitting snooze- are all going to take more time in the long run than committing to what you need.

2. Cut Time Wasters

Be wary of the internet, eater of time. It can wrap you up- whatever spare time you have will go into its maw if you aren’t careful.

Cutting time wasters out is impossible because man wasn’t meant to be working all the time. But if you find yourself feeling under-productive, making a schedule can be a great way to cut time wasters. If you have tons of things to do- from writing an essay to buying shoes- go over all those things before you sit at your laptop. Are you too exhausted to do any of those things? Treat yourself. But if you’re simply aimless and bored, you might actually feel better to be productive.

Cut time wasters by cutting boredom and finding new errands to do and you’ll feel much more productive. It’s like getting extra time.

3. Keep It Moving

Momentum is the best way to save time. If you’re being active, time moves slower. That’s the theory of relativity in a nutshell (kind of) and it’s worth applying here.

If you keep your day moving and productive time is going to feel longer. Your day is going to feel longer and better if you have the gym in it. Did you call home? The more you accomplish in a day, the fuller it feels in a good way. Make the most of your hours by doing during them- even silly, small things will give you the momentum and energy to do more.

The more you do in those hours, the more valuable each hour is.

4. Don’t Stay Up Late Doing Nothing

Either work, party, hang, or go to sleep. Quite a lot of things qualify as at least one of those three things, but if you’re staying up late for no reason, you’ll sleep late for no reason. And while sleeping late is fine, every hour you spend on Reddit that you don’t really need as a break or a distraction from a boring class is an hour you aren’t using to the max.

Go to sleep when you’re out of stuff to do. Start tomorrow. Put that time in the bank.

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