24 hours is just not enough !
Do you differ...? I bet u don't (atleast the lazy ones out there woudn't). Every week I plan and notedown things that I need to do during the week. The issue is that almost always I can only accomplish less than 50% of the tasks I need to complete, this is outside work that I am talking. At work I am pretty much on track and doing good. It's my off work time that is becoming dreadfully difficult to plan and handle. I have had some unfinished tasks lying around in my mini desktop note for more than 2 months and of course I set realistic targets. For example, I should have finished reading a book last month, I am only 60% done. Today I sat down to figure out things that take up most of my time. Typically in a 24X7 setup, nearly 35% goes in sleeping. Remaining is 109 hours, roughly 9 hours spent during weekdays at work including the commute time. That leaves me with (109 - 5 * 9) 64 hours. Regular house chores on a average takes 2 hours a day, that leaves me with (64 - 2 * 7) 50 hours.
Now, I watch a TV show regularly during the weekdays that means 5 hours off the free time and I am left with 45 hours. Workout time 7 hours a week, time on phone/chat on average for a week ~7 hours and internet browsing(emails/news etc.) 10 hours a week. so I have 21 hours left. On an average 6 hours is spent in watching movies every week, Misc. actvities 3 hours. Now, what is left is 12 hours a week that can be put to some constructive use. I read atleast for 2 hour during the weekends, also read when I commute to work. That means I have nearly 10 hours completely to myself a week which I can put to real good use.
Unfortunately, time is not something we can store and use in future. But, we can certainly compact free time by re-arraging the order in which we get work done. This 10 hour surplus is predominantly from the weekends(already compacted in a sense). When I think about it I feel there are far to many interruptions/distractions rendering my precious time useless. In order to provide undivided attention, I thought I should first identify the interruptions and see how I can avoid them:
1. The Phone
2. Instant Messengers
3. Someone at the door
4. Cooking
5. T.V. Programmes (Vijay TV of late)
6. Roommate (of late...yeah I know the cooking time is a little inflated :-) )
This is the action plan; I am going to switch off the phone and logout of my instant msg.'rs whenever I feel I should not be disturbed. These quiet periods will be for about an hour to begin with. "Someone at the door" doesn't seem to be that big an issue, nothing much can be done with "Cooking". "T.V. programmes"...damn this is something that I haven't been able to avoid since childhood. I don't want to also, keeps me sane, and keeps me going.... especially the funny ones :-). "Roommate" I am working on this one. Plan comes to effect from this week onwards, reviews/changes will be done incrementally and results will be posted periodically (incrementally & periodically....hmmm starting to sound like our chennai "vaanilai arikkai" now.). Any suggestions whatsoever will be conveniently ignored :-)
