There aren’t enough hours in the day already. What with your deadlines looming, work and social commitments and the latest Netflix box set to watch.
Don’t worry, we’re about to save you hours in your day. Here’s some time-wasting habits you should kick right now.
Stop hitting snooze
Ever woken up feeling perky, but then decided to snuggle down and snooze for 10 (or 20, or 30) minutes, only to wake up feeling even more tired than you were before? You might think you need a little bit more time to rest before getting up, but it actually slows down the waking up process for the end of the day. Plus, think what you could do with all that extra time.
Don’t skip your workout
Yes, you could use that extra time you saved to hit the gym. It may be the last thing you feel like doing on a cold morning before college or work, but did you know that exercise can actually help you get more sleep? Aside from tiring you out, exercise helps you get more work done and do your work better throughout the day by increasing your concentration, energy levels and mood.
Choose sleep, not work
Finally! Some advice that we can get on board with. Now you’ve done all that exercising, you can take advantage of those extra 45 minutes of sleep a night (which studies by Sleep.com have attributed to exercise). Getting enough sleep has a profound effect on your brain function – it improves your ability to learn information, solve problems, make decisions and be more productive. Next time you find yourself burning the midnight oil to meet a deadline, go to bed and wake up early to do it instead. You’ll thank yourself (and us) in the morning – just don’t hit snooze.
Stop compromising on your diet
Feed your body to feed your mind. It may seem obvious, but lots of us are guilty of neglecting our diet when we’re stressed or busy. Do you skip breakfast? Don’t. You need it to re-stock your blood sugar levels after not eating all night. Without it, you’ll be less able to concentrate throughout the day and will feel tired and irritable. Thinking about reaching for comfort food round about lunchtime? Put that sausage roll down. Foods high in fat and sugar are the opposite of what your body needs to maintain your energy levels for the rest of the day. Choose high-protein, moderate-carb options instead.
Stop multitasking and start prioritising
The way you work can be easily changed to fit more in your day. For instance, multitasking actually decreases your attention span. Do one thing at a time and you’ll save yourself a lot of time. A lot of people also make the mistake of doing all their easy tasks first and leaving the bigger, more important tasks until later in the day – this doesn’t work, as your concentration and attention span decrease as time goes on. Prioritise things in this order: 1. Most important things 2. Most urgent things 3. Emails. You can sacrifice missing a deadline for something that is more important and emails are a huge time waster when you check them constantly throughout the day.
Limit your web browsing time
If you’ve got deadlines to meet, don’t get stuck in a bottomless internet hole of cat videos, celebrity feuds and Game of Thrones fan theories. You know who you are.