The Dead Time Business

Do you commute on a train? Spend your lunch hour not knowing what to do with yourself or have spare time waiting for the children's swimming lessons to finish.

Have you considered setting up a little business? With the internet is is quite simple you just start. Whether it is developing mobile phone apps or selling stuff on ebay/etsy. If you have a couple hours spare just sit down and start doing it. 

The Key to a Dead Time business is having your business mobile. So you can have it with you so you can work on it any time, whether you are on the train, at a coffee shop or even in a car while waiting to pick someone up. If you can draw create artwork to sell, if you can write blog or write fiction to be published as an ebook. Laptops really open a world of possibilities if you are technically inclined but even if you are not there are still plenty of possibilities that only require you to be able to use ebay/etsy. 

Sure it won't initially be an overnight success but to be successful at something you actually have to be doing it :)

Convert that dead time into a dead time business.

Is It Worth Learning To Touch Type

If you spend more then a hour a day on a computer then the answer is definitely yes.

The speed you gain by using all ten fingers on the keyboard rather than just one or two is immense. If you use the same program every day in work or at home it is also well worth learning the keyboard short cuts for that programs.

Even when using an browser on the Internet just knowing the how to quickly perform a search or flip to a different tab can make you much more efficient. Just google your favourite application along with the term "keyboard shortcuts" to learn more.

Back to learning to touch type. If you want to use you computer in a productive way such as writing a blog, book or creating websites then learning to touch type is definitely be something on you list. You will  be spending a lot of time in front of you computer and touch typing is better for you posture and lets you work efficiently.

There is nothing worse than being in the flow of writing a blog post and you have to look down at the keyboard to find the b key.

Perhaps you can already type quite quickly and are thinking you wont benefit from actual touch typing. The is some merit of truth to that but if you learn to touch type you will be using your fingers more efficiently and be able to type faster. When I am in the flow of typing blog posts I often find the speed and accuracy of my typing is the thing that limits the speed at which I can write posts. I am sure others do too.

Why You Should Stop Reading The Daily News

I know many people who are avid consumers of news and I used to be one of them. I stopped following the news sometime ago for a number of reasons. I very occasionally dip into the news and big events get though to me either from talking to friends or I hear it on the radio at different places. The key thing is I make no attempt to follow it day by day.

The two reasons for stopping following the news.

1. It actually take a reasonable amount of time to follow the news and for what benefit? I can't actually change much of what is going on. Actually because it consumes my time I am much less likely to have a positive mark on the world by consuming it everyday
2. Most news is noise. News reports report facts but does not get deeply in the the whys. Why does this country not like this country and so on. At one point I realised I had been watching events take place in a country for a couple of months but still did not have a real clue as to why it was happening. I would have been much better off reading a book on the area and would have probably saved time.

Apart from saving time and removing clutter from the brain I have also found that when I chat to friends about news I find the conversation more interesting as much of the information is new and I have not already formed opinions.

Go on a news diet it is good for your productivity

Make Use Of Your Lunch Hour

It is a continuous surprise to me that people don't make more of their lunch hour. Most people seem to while away their time, reading news not really achieving much.

A lunch hour constitutes one twenty forth of your day. If you sleep for 8 hours each night then your lunch hour makes up 1 sixteenth of you waking hours. Don't waste it.

First bring your lunch to work so you don't have to queue to get food. That way you can quickly eat your lunch and then get onto other stuff. For Instance you could

1. Run errands. If possible run errands during your lunch hour rather than saving them up for the weekend. Weekend time is more important then lunch hours.
2. Learn something new, either via a book, audio or Internet. With Internet enabled phones you can watch video tutorials from YouTube. A new language or learning to draw are easily doable during you lunch hour. You may be surprised how fast you progress if you work on something everyday
3. Exercise, it is always hard to fit in enough exercise so use you lunch hour to get a little bit of exercise done. Whether it is a run or just walk in the park, taking exercise at lunch time it a great way to keep that fitness regime going
4. Take time to be on your own. Often in our busy life we forget how nice it is to be on our own. Whether you head out to a park to be lay in the sun or just sit quietly in a coffee shop. Being on your own is relaxing.
5. Work on your blog or other internet business. If work is fairly liberal in there views of internet usage you can type posts. Other take a note pad and work on drafts the old way using a pen and paper, even if it is to only brain storm ideas.

Obviously there is often a social part to the lunch hour and you don't want to become alienated from your peers. If you work in a place where this could happen then do alternate days of doing you own thing and socialising with your peers. It may also be an indication that you might want to consider a different job or career, see item 2 above :)

What Is Time Boxing

Time boxing is an idea that people use to be more productive. The idea is you "box" of a time period, say 1 hour, and only work on one task or project for that hour without any distractions.

No email, Internet or making a coffee!

At the end of each session you put stop what you are doing until your next time boxed session. You regularly box off time to work on a project and thus ensure progress on your task or project.

Time boxing works well because of the end effect. You know your time is running out on each boxed off time so you work hard to finish your task at hand. It also helps you stop burning out if you work continuously on a project with ever taking time to relax.

The time boxing approach to getting things done works well for two types of tasks

1. Small one off tasks like getting you emails sorted and replied to or sorting out that book shelf. You block of a time and race to get it finished.
2. Longer tasks or projects where you can loose motivation because the task/project is so big. Examples of this might be that book you are writing or the iPhone game you are making. Here time boxing lets you make regular progress without having to worry about the size of the overall project. It is important you have a long enough list of things to do so when you finish on small sub task you get straight onto the next one otherwise you can loose time.

Give time boxing a try as it is an effective way to get things done.