Last Updated Sunday March 9, 2008, EDT 10:17 AM
Normally, on the morning after the spring daylight saving time switch, I wake up late and blame my post-brunch indigestion on the hour I lost. I continue to grumble throughout the day to my friends and family, and then to my co-workers the next day.[Image courtesy of jimenapulse.wordpress.com]
This year, I was determined to get that hour back.
My secret weapon: advice from Cresskill native Kerul Kassel, author of "Productive Procrastination" and "Stop Procrastinating Now -- Five Radical Procrastination Strategies to Set You Free."
Not only would I save that lost hour, but I might end up using some actual time management in my everyday life.
Don't get me wrong: I usually get my errands done around my work schedule. I even have time for a hobby, digital photography. But after I get home from work and eat dinner, I spend an embarrassing amount of time watching TV and DVD rentals -- often instead of exercising. Weekly tasks such as laundry and cleaning languish while I waste time in front of the tube.
Even in the morning, when I wake up, I spend time watching videos on the Internet. I roll over, slap the alarm clock and flop onto my stomach to use my laptop, which rests on the bedside table. And if I get started checking my e-mail, forget about it -- it can be an hour before I get up to face the day.
As they say with many forms of recovery: The first step is to recognize that you have a problem.
In "Productive Procrastination," Kassel offers a worksheet for figuring how time is distributed during your daily and weekly routine. This is followed by a second chart, filled in with the ideal distribution.
"A lot of this is about awareness," she explained. In fact, the key to better time management is to become hyper aware of time: Kassel suggested using timers -- egg timers, cellphone alarms, even friends who don't mind calling -- whenever you are involved in a task that leads easily to distraction.
Time black holes
For me, socializing on the Internet may be the biggest time black hole. One Internet sitting can branch off and self-perpetuate infinitely. E-mails lead to links, Facebook applications, online videos or even errands. Never mind that most of the time I'm also often monitoring my instant messages.
That's a no-no, according to Kassel. "They've done research on people who are multitasking," she said. "And what they've found is that there's a lot lost, because their focus is too distracted. ... So they're bouncing back and forth between things, and they don't have the kind of concentration and focus that leads to good results."
On the other hand, there's serial tasking: doing tasks in bite-sized pieces and alternating between them. For example, explained Kassel, you might take a break from an e-mail to find a pertinent piece of information, then remember a phone call you needed to make. You might stop reading a blog online to make dinner, or exercise during the commercial breaks of your TV program.
As long as you come back to your original tasks and finish them, serial tasking can be productive, said Kassel.
What isn't productive is watching TV. According to a 2006 Television Bureau of Advertising survey, the average woman spent five hours and 17 minutes in front of the TV daily, and the average man spent four hours and 35 minutes.
"If you can halve your TV watching, you save so much time a week!" Kassel said.
Skip TV commercials
But if you're not ready for dramatic cuts, the easiest way to save a few minutes every night would be to get a DVR (digital video recorder). Skipping commercials could make leisure time more efficient. For those without the technology, Kassel suggests little must-do tasks, such as laundry, exercise, cleaning or even phone calls.
"Have this stuff right next to the TV, so that as soon as the commercials come on, boom! You're doing it," she said.
Instead of sitting limp on the couch for a full hour of prime time, surfing other channels during commercials, I recorded my show. I set my laundry to finish by the time I could start watching the show, and folded whenever things got boring.
I realized afterward that I was multitasking. The folding took the full 45 minutes of the commercial-free show, as opposed to the 20 or 30 minutes it might usually take me. But I had effectively saved the commercial time -- and the extra time that I would have needed for laundry, had I done nothing during the show. The next day, I tried doing exercises during TV time, knocking out 20 minutes of arm lifts and lunges.
I also tried to become more aware of my computer time using Nakedalarmclock.com. I set the Web site, an unadorned online alarm clock, to prod me at 20-minute increments. The 20-minute limit nipped the branching of my Web activity, so that if I got a link to Facebook in my e-mail, I'd ignore it until later.
If the e-mail involved errands like paying bills or writing a longer letter, I would concentrate the 20 minutes on that one task.
Did I get my hour back? Between cutting commercials and double-tasking during my TV time, I think I may have earned most of those 60 minutes. The time saved from more conscious Internet usage is harder to quantify; but over time, I'm hoping it adds up.
I may not have followed Kassel's advice to a tee, and I'll admit to being a work in progress. But when autumn standard time comes around, don't wake me. By then, I think I'll have earned the right and time to sleep in.
E-mail: shih@northjersey.com
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