hey everyone and welcome to top think today we're going to learn about twelve smart habits that
will save you time now let's begin number one Parkinson's Law way back in the 1950s an author
and historian named Cyril Parkinson developed a theory that changed the way we manage time
his idea which he called Parkinson's law affected all kinds of administrative operations around the
world his law basically states that work expands to fill the amount of time available let's say you
have to write a few emails normally this would only take half an hour but what if that's all
you have to do today well Parkinson's law tells us that a small amount of work can take far more
time than it's supposed to as long as that extra time is available since Parkinson published this
idea several other theorists have added to his work one observed that your responsibilities
don't just expand they also contract when time is limited another explained that extra time
delays productivity by giving you an excuse to fall further behind over the years studies
have both validated and invalidated Parkinson's law it's become a sort of controversial subject
however this research has revealed some important facts about the nature of efficiency for example
you can increase productivity by reducing the total number of hours that you spend working
each week when working around 40 hours over five days people find an efficient balance between
time and production but as their hours increase their efficiency starts to plummet the same work
will take longer because they have more space to fill by getting in the habit of putting a cap on
your work week you can save yourself from wasting hours of your time every day number two forgetful
housing how many mornings do you spend frantically looking for your phone or your keys not only is
this a frustrating way to start off the day but it's also a surprisingly large waste of
time luckily there's an easy fix you just start by creating or setting a site of place in your home
you might pick a drawer a countertop or a box on your coffee table it doesn't really matter what it
is as long as it's memorable so from now on that place will hold all the important items that you
need when walking out the door in the morning anytime you want your keys wallet glasses or
phone you can find them right there just think of it like a house for your belongings yeah as
long as your items are inside their little home you know exactly where to look that means less
stress and less wasting time just make sure you're consistently putting your items back in their home
at the end of the day otherwise you're going to start losing things even more often but if you
can incorporate this trick into your daily routine you can swing by grab everything you need and be
on your way in just a few seconds number three tracking your chores the next time you're doing
chores or going through your to-do list just track exactly how much time it takes to do each activity
this won't actually save you time at first but it's a simple and effective way to win the war
against procrastination well let's say you're taking out the trash it's an annoying chore that
you have to do pretty regularly even though you know deep down that it doesn't take very long you
put it off anyway you stall by watching videos or scrolling through social media you're essentially
wasting time just to save yourself from something that you're going to have to do either way so what
should you do instead when you take out the trash time yourself it might only take you 90 seconds
to remove the bag take it outside and put in a new one that's 90 seconds out of the 16 hours that you
spend awake and active every single day by Framing it in this context it becomes a lot harder to
justify procrastination what that means is less time spent putting off your responsibilities as
an added bonus you'll notice yourself paying more attention to how much time you're wasting
on those little things throughout the day number four dissolving clutter clutter isn't just messy
to look at it's actually a major distractor when you're trying to be productive it distracts you by
creating neural competition which naturally grabs your attention this is especially problematic for
people who have trouble focusing the presence of clutter pulls their attention away from
their work and it just ruins their concentration it'll take you significantly longer to get the
same job done because your brain is distracted by unnecessary stimuli just try spending a few
minutes at the end of the day organizing your room or your desk and that way when you sit down
to work you can be as productive and efficient as possible number five morning hurdles when's
the best time to tackle your most important tasks for the day many successful people overcome that
hurdle first thing in the morning this habit was actually popularized by Ernest Hemingway
who used to write as soon as he woke up this change to your morning routine will spare you
from hours of procrastination later in the day it also increases the pace of your work because you
know your most challenging task is already behind you number six consistent follow ups anytime you
delegate a task to someone else get in the habit of following up whether it's an email or a phone
call just take some time to confirm whatever it is you just talked about consistently following up is
what's called a preventative time-saver you spend a little bit of time now to save yourself a lot
of time in the future imagine you just met with someone about a project that you're working on
you ask them to turn their section in on Monday but they thought you said Friday so when Monday
rolls around the work isn't even close to finished suddenly you have to dedicate a huge chunk of your
time to this part of the project all because of a simple misunderstanding to spare yourself from
future stress just dedicate a few minutes after every meeting to send a follow-up number seven
internet restrictions everyone knows that the Internet can be a massive time waster but not
just because it's entertaining the Internet makes it surprisingly difficult for people
to keep track of time you're so focused on the thousands of interesting stimuli on the screen
that you forget to pay attention to the clock your brain is just jumping from one short-term reward
to the next you know if you're not careful hours can fly by in the blink of an eye so to keep this
distractor from taking over your day just make a habit of limiting your internet usage number
eight tackling immediate issues if something's going to take less than 15 minutes just do it
right away don't bother putting it off or writing it on your to-do list these tiny responsibilities
while they just aren't worth scheduling they're just going to clutter your day with random busy
work so as soon as someone asks you for something just get it done whether it's sending an email or
forwarding some documents immediate action is almost always the most efficient strategy
that way you have one less thing to worry about as the day goes on number 9 dead time have you
ever noticed how many small pockets of time just pop up throughout the day well let's say you have
an hour-long meeting at noon then an important phone call at 1:15 so what do you do with that
15-minute gap in between well most people will let it go to waste which is why these tiny increments
are often called dead time on its own dead time doesn't seem that important but each 5 10 or 20
minute break really does add up at the end of the day you might have spent hours just waiting
around doing nothing you can easily fix this by choosing how you'll spend your dead time at
the beginning of the day you'll be amazed at how much you can get done in the space between your
normal responsibilities number ten embracing predictability you don't need to be creative
or spontaneous with every single thing you do some things are better left predetermined
especially when it's something that you do all the time eating breakfast that's a good example
you can save time by eating the same healthy meal every morning it'll always taste great and give
you energy so like a good thing it takes much more time to change your routine than it does to repeat
it so don't be afraid of a little predictability number eleven social meals instead of watching TV
while you eat use your meals as an opportunity to socialize social interactions are something you
should do almost every day and not just because they're enjoyable but also because it's good for
your mental health eating happens to be a great excuse to bond with the people around you so you
can maximize the efficiency of your meals by eating and socializing at the same time number
12 batches of errands you can save yourself quite a bit of time and money by doing your
errands in batches well let's say for example that you need to run to the store buy some new
shoes and get some money from the bank what's the most efficient way to get these errands
out of the way well a lot of people decide to do them one by one they drive to the store and then
they drive home a couple hours later they go pick out some shoes and then head home again and they
do the same thing with the bank and without realizing it you manage to make three small
errands take up an entire day instead cluster your errands together find an area where you
can do all three so you can knock them out in one sitting this strategy takes significantly
less time and will free up the rest of your day to do something more productive hey thank you
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