Making the Most of Time

I'm always complaining about time, or more specifically, lack of time. But one thing can be said of time... it's fair. Every day we get 24 hours. It's up to us to use it in the most efficient way possible.

This week, two of my fellow bloggers referenced Laura Vanderkam and her book, What the Most Successful People Do Before Breakfast. Both Michelle Rafter and Mikaela at La Belle Dame de Merci discussed Vanderkam's thoughts on time management.

One thing I know about myself... I'm most efficient in the beginning of any day. As each hour passes, more distractions and unexpected issues arise. The more things I can accomplish before the emails start dinging and the phone starts ringing, the better.

But, similar to Mikaela's musings, I am not always at my wittiest and most inspired first thing in the morning.

What to do. What to do.

In her post What Successful Writers Do Before Breakfast, Michelle Rafter took it a step farther and interviewed successful writers to find out what they try to accomplish before breakfast. I found the answers further inspired me to buy Vanderkam's book and consider a new morning routine.

I just downloaded the book to my Kindle. As soon as I read it, I will write a post on my thoughts and share my new morning routine.

Do you ever get to the point where you know what you ARE doing isn't working, but you aren't sure what to change to make real improvements? I'm there. But I usually make things worse by trying too many new things at once.

My new focus, thanks to some excellent advice by my wonderful ROW80 friend, Kim Switzer, is to take things in small chunks. As small as ten minute increments. I hope to combine this concept with Vanderkam's morning ideas. Wish me luck.

What do you accomplish before breakfast?

For some quick guidelines from Vanderkam's book, please visit her post on Fast Company: What the Most Successful People Do Before Breakfast .