Four ways to find an extra hour in every day

Tick Tick Tick 

Some days we would give our kingdom for just 60 more minutes to get one more hour of sleep. Enjoy the sunshine for a little bit longer. Put the laundry away. Finish reading that book. Get more work done so tomorrow isn’t so stressful.

When we stumbled across four surefire ways to be more efficient with our time, we had to share. See it they

work for you! 

Go to bed earlier at night 

Studies show that the chronically underslept (for some of us, that could mean getting six or fewer hours most nights of the week) don’t perform as well as the better rested among us. The reason you’re low on time could be because you get a slow start in the morning and are sluggish throughout the day. When we sleep more, we accomplish more and our perspective is often different too. If we feel physically better, we might be okay with not getting to everything on our to-do list in a day.

Coordinate your efforts 

Do you find yourself constantly criss-crossing town to get to all your errands? Instead of picking up one or two things after work each night and finishing the rest on the weekend, be strategic. Make a list of everything you need to do in a week and plan to get to it all at once rather than in drips and drabs. Take advantage of your Smartphone or GPS by mapping out a route that doesn’t see you double back so you can use your time most efficiently. Better yet: find a way to offload, er, delegate some of it.

Stop social networking

There is nothing more time sucking than Facebook, Twitter and other social networking sites. Have you ever been able to just “take a quick peek” without losing the better part of an hour? If you’re low on time but active online, you might have to reset your priorities and take a hiatus for awhile. People who take a break from their virtual life find that they don’t miss it as much as they thought they would and that their stress is actually reduced. Bonus: you will find yourself  with some extra time to unwind at the end of the day.

Meditate/exercise

It’s tough to be efficient when we lack focus. Taking as little as five minutes a day to meditate or just clear your head and breathe can help you shift your focus and spend time on what’s truly important without getting caught up in all those little time-wasters. Getting the heart pumping and endorphins flowing through exercise also clears the head and helps you concentrate on the task at hand, making it go more swiftly.