Tag Archives: maximizing time

Maximizing Time While Changing Car Oil

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Blue Truck

Truck

Well, it’s been 5 months and it’s time to change the oil in my car.

I remember as a teenager and later as a cash poor college student changing the oil myself.  It’s not really a hard task, but I still hate to waste the time doing it especially during finals week…  As a senior in college, I decided that I didn’t have the time and took my care to a Jiffy Lube.  Of course, I took my Operating Systems book so I could read and prepare for an upcoming test while I waited.

Flash forward to today, right now I’m sitting at the much cheaper Walmarts Auto Department again waiting for my car to have the oil changed.  Of course, I’m not just sitting in the sitting room waiting, I’m doing the following during this particular visit:

  1. I’m typing this blog post!
  2. I’m eating a salad at the same time
  3. I hope to read a book after I get 90% of this post done.
  4. I’m dumping off my oil from my lawnmower and snow thrower.
  5. If I have time I’m going to go shopping for some cheap but nutricional food for my diet.
  6. Enjoying a mediocre cup of free coffee from Walmart (lol).

Since I’m not wasting time while I get my oil changed, this experience is actually kind of relaxing and pleasant.  The entire Walmart oil process cost my $30, but that’s not too bad considering I’m getting so much done.

One of my favorite thing to do anymore is maximize my time so I get easy stuff done at the same time, or maybe one complex task grouped with mindless tasks such as eating or waiting for something.

The only way it could be better would be if it were snowing or raining during the change.  In the summer, I don’t mind changing oil as much because the weather is great.

Well, the Walmart employee just pulled my car in the garage to start working on it, and this blog post is done.  Now onto the book that I brought!

Cheers,

MR

Using Wasted Time To Your Advantage

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Lately, I’ve learned to take greater advantage of dead or wasted time periods!

Such “time periods” are when you are driving to work, waiting in a fast food line (or really any line), walking out to your car, waiting for the kid’s current sport practices to finish, waiting in the doctor’s office, and so on…

For most of these tasks, I try to find a book to read that isn’t to the point where I would have to take notes or need to think really deeply (so most of the books out there…).  I’m sure I look a bit odd reading my “book of the moment” as I walk through the halls on the way to my car to leave.  Or when I’m in the elevator reading a few sentences or two.  But it’s really a great way to go, walking/waiting/driving time would be wasted time for me.  Of course while walking and reading, I have excellent vision and know the terrain very well!!!  If I didn’t know where I was walking (or if I were going up or down stairs) I definitely wouldn’t be reading and walking at the same time.

For those times when I’m driving, listening to audiobooks is my favorite way to make use of that time!  It use to be listening to music, but with audio-books I learn stuff, which is great!  In fact, there is nothing better than listening to an exciting story while driving on a trip for vacation!  It helps keep me up while driving through the night!

Lately, I’ve been trying to think of blog topics while driving.  Surprisingly, it’s not as easy as it sounds, at least not for me.  Either it’s in the morning when I’m still groggy or traffic is too busy, so I’m constantly keeping my focus on my surroundings.  Definitely not the easiest was to concentrate.  But still, I get general ideas, and write them on the back of an junk mail envelope.

Do you know of any additional ways to use wasted time periods more efficiently?

Bests,

MR

 

 

Making More Money By Working Two Jobs At The Same Time

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Apple iPhone

Smart Phones make it possible

It’s 6:00 am on a Saturday morning !  You might be thinking, “That guy sure is an early morning riser“, but that’s not so!  Normally, I’d be blissfully sleeping away in my comfy bed without a care in the world.  But this fine early Saturday morning, I’m working two jobs at the same time!  What I’m about to describe is a great way to get rich or at least make more money in a given day!

Which two jobs do I have going on?

  • First, I’m part of a team installing software for a big release for work (I’m telecommuting in to do the work).  We are currently waiting for a large SQL script to complete.
  • Secondly, I’m also typing this blog article for next Tuesday!  If I get this post done before the software is installed, I’ll do other tasks that need done related to this blog.

Why do two jobs at once?

Because it’s a great way to maximize both time and money!   If you can do the work for two jobs during the time of just one, you have the potential of making more money and saving time to do other things later in the day.  Using such a technique, you should effectively increase your rate of pay per hour!  Even small increases are better than no increase…

This is what I call a “maximizing working time“!

I know this is obvious, but I watch people who work such jobs that could be take advantage of in the way that I describe, but typically, I don’t see them doing it.

So which jobs have the potential to allow you to work another job at the same time?

  • Information booth worker(especially if there isn’t a lot of people asking questions)
  • Desk Security guard (again, especially if human traffic isn’t common)
  • Customer support (sitting by the phones waiting)
  • Gift wrappers
  • Ticket takers
  • Firefighters/EMS
  • Smaller store retail clerks/sale rep.
  • Auto Salesmen
  • and the list goes on and on…

Of course, the work mix can vary with each job!  So perhaps the information booth worker’s time is 30% her primary job, but 70% her side-job, while the opposite may be true for a gift wrapping position.

I know of a lady that works at an airline information booth, that also quilts (and takes orders for quilts) during that time she’s at work.  I asked if she constantly has to put the quilting projects down to help people.  She said not really, and especially when it gets later in the evening.  While I don’t know the exact amount of money she makes from selling her quilts; I do know that the money that she does make from selling the quilts pay for the big vacations that both she and her husband go on (the last one being a cruise in the Bahamas) every year.

Why haven’t people done this all along?

I believe that they just didn’t have the resources to do so in the past, but with advancements in technology, doing so is more feasible.

I just scratched the surface with this article!  It might even be possible to do 3 or more jobs at once… But I’m happy just doing 2 jobs today…

Do you personally know people who are able to perform two jobs at the same time?  Do you think it’s possible to overlap jobs so that you could work three or more jobs during a day, and not become burnt out?

-MR

Maximizing Time By MultiTasking Tasks More Wisely

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not me, lol

I remember when I first tried to do multitasking, I got overwhelmed.

I think I was trying I update two different computer applications by inputting data in parallel; I was switching back and forth like a madman inputting data between them.  You see, back then it took a while for changes to happen to a document so after each saving; it would take a few seconds for the save to complete, giving me time to do a similar process on the other application.  I eventually got it done after a few boggled up sessions, and fixes…  I’ve learned from experience, that this isn’t the best type of multi-taking!!!

However, as I’m typing this, I’m actually doing two things at the same time!  I’m waiting in my car in the middle school parking lot for my son to get out of school on his first day back to school, and obviously, I’m also typing this post!

Yep, I’m multi-tasking the correct way!  Multitasking more than one task primarily works best when you have one or more task that don’t require much thinking, paired with only one task that requires you to focus on it a higher degree of attention.

So now that you know my belief around an optimal multitasking system…  You may also be wondering what other ways do I maximize time by multitasking more wisely?

Following are my favorite ways to multitask:

Listening to audio books while driving to work.  This enables me to optimize my driving time which previously would have been wasted time taken out of my life to drive to my place of employment!  My total commute time, both to and from work per day, averages about 1 hour and 15 minutes (on a normal day).  So that adds up to 6 hours & 15 minutes I was wasting per week doing nothing but driving mindlessly to work!

At first I tested the waters by listening to a CD I borrowed from the library while driving to work.  This worked out great!  Next I progressed to Stephen King novels, again this was successful!  Then I started listening to classic audio books that I would never listen to, famous novels like “Animal Farm” and “1984”.  I even listened to classics that I’ve never heard of before, such an example would be the Ray Bradbury book, “Fahrenheit 451”.

Listening to audio books while driving on vacation trips.  Now you may be wondering what the difference is between this and “Listening to audio books while driving to work”?  The difference is that listening to such books while driving on vacation trips keeps me awake and delays drowsiness! I’ve only listen to audio books that are very entertaining and exciting enough to keep me awake!

After my recent vacation, I used this technique to drive home at night.  Listening to “Insomnia”  (ironic huh) by Stephen King, kept me awake.  It was a real driving aid, because prior to listening to audio books on vacation trips, I would start to fall asleep after a few hours.  Plus I hated driving!

Now, with the help of a good audio book, I can honestly say that I enjoy the driving part of the trip too!  This was a huge win-win for me!!!

Reading books while waiting in offices.  Hate waiting for the doctor or dentist in the waiting room?  Read a book while waiting in the office!  I find good biographies (examples like Benjamin Franklin or Warren Buffett) really fill this void!  With a biography, the story is a bit drying and anticlimactic, and you can pick up the book weeks later and not miss a beat.

These are some of the ways that I maximize my time by multitasking…

What are your favorite example of tasks that you like to pair together when you multitask?

-MR