Getting Rid of Time Sinks

By Rebeldad Brian Reid

The chief challenge in balance, on a personal level, is making time for all of the stuff that needs to be packed into a day. And while there are now about a hundred thousand books out there that will teach you to do more, faster, it seems like the best way to extend a 24-hour day is to ruthlessly eliminate those time sinks that steal hours or minutes and give little in return.

I've identified a number of time sinks in my own life, three of which I have made progress toward eliminating:

TV: Once upon a time, before kids, I followed a huge number of TV shows. I was conversant in ER, NYPD Blue, the X-Files, all those now-defunct Thursday comedies and a handful of other shows I probably would not admit to watching if confronted. At the same time, I was working 10-hour days and training for a marathon. I haven't eliminated television, but watching has dropped off dramatically. I'm in bed earlier, and my evenings are suddenly free.

Newspaper: I canceled my subscription to the paper a little while ago. While I still have nightmares about my journalism-school dean showing up at my house to lecture me, I find that I still get the important news online. But I no longer find that a half-hour chunk of my life have disappeared into a half-completed Sudoku and a two-dozen comic strips plotlines. (I do miss the occasional dose of Stuever, though.)

Commuting: As I've mentioned, getting rid of the commute has been a net positive, as much of a sanctuary as the car was. There's a lot to be said for living closer to where you work.

There are three that still vex me, though:

Internet: I waste far less time on the Internet than I used to (mostly due to the magic of RSS and Google Reader), but it is still staggeringly easy to get sucked down rabbit holes and lose five or 10 minutes at a time to learning something of dubious immediate value.

Dinner: I cannot, for the life of me, figure out why preparing dinner seems to take so long, no matter how simple the recipe. I enjoy cooking, but spending an hour a day - from opening the cookbook to sitting down at the dinner table - seems like a tragic waste. I get the attraction of Let's Dish and Rachel Ray, but I'm still not sure how willing I am to pay premium prices to buy pre-chopped broccoli.

E-mail: We have reached a point where e-mail overload is such a problem for so many people that there are entire books and philosophies built around how best to keep messages managed, and I've yet to find a perfect solution. I'm enamored by the check-rarely approach but have no idea how that meshes with a corporate mandate of super-responsiveness to client needs.

I'd love to hear about your time sinks and how you've managed (or not managed) to address them.

Brian Reid writes about parenting and work-family balance. You can read his blog at rebeldad.com.

By Brian Reid |  August 9, 2007; 8:00 AM ET  | Category:  Dads , Guest Blogs , Tips
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