Steve the Owl's Blog

For some time, I have been interested in the world of personal development and time management. I have also been interested in the nature of success, and one of the things that I have heard over and over again is how important reading is to our success. So, with that in mind, I’ve come to realize one thing that will help with both things, and help out in other ways as well.

The Simple Solution

If you live in an area that has public transportation, use public transportation for the occasional commute. I found this side effect out this past fall when I went to my temporary job in Center City. For those of you not familiar with Philadelphia, we do not have an area that we call “downtown,” but our closest equivalent is Center City. Trying to drive in Center City is an absolute nightmare. Because it is older than a lot of other parts of Philadelphia, its streets are very narrow, it is very difficult to find a parking meter, and even if you do, it is ridiculously expensive. For that reason, unless there is a drop-off or a pick-up, a lot of people decide to take public transportation instead.

So, when I went to my job this past fall, I decided to take a book with me and read while I was on my way to and from work. When I did this, I found out that I gave myself a lot of extra time because I was bunching my time. (In my previous post on The Other 8 Hours, I outlined the principle of bunching, namely that someone can multitask by doing a head activity and a body activity at the same time. One of these examples involves doing paperwork while doing laundry.) If you take the bus or the train, you have reduced travel to a strictly body activity except for the extent that you have to make sure that you get off at the correct stop. For this reason, if you bring a book to read, you can devote time that you would not normally have to this purpose.

The Results

I decided to try to do this when going to school as well after my wife and I decided to simplify our life by going from a two-vehicle family to a one-vehicle family. Going to and from class using public transportation takes about an hour to an hour and a half, depending on how long I have to wait for the bus or for a transfer. Because I have learned speed reading techniques (although these are somewhat interrupted by being sure to listen for the stop announcement), I can easily read as much as 40-80 pages on my daily commute. If I’m reading a 200-300 page book while using public transportation, that means that I can read it in 3-8 days. Considering that I use public transportation for school 3-4 days a week, 30 weeks a year, this is an extra 4-10 books that I have read by year’s end, and that is just when I use it to go to class.

There is also the added bonus of using public transportation being more environmentally-friendly than driving a car, even one with good gas mileage. In a city my size, there are a lot of times when I drive that I have to drive for several minutes extra just to find a parking space. Because I don’t have that to worry about anymore, I also save time depending on where I am going and its proximity to public transportation. I realize that there are times when public transportation is not helpful for those seeking to manage their time because of the infrequency of the route, and the distance from the route. However, if you look, you can find simple solutions that will give you a lot of extra time.

What simple solutions do you use for your time management?

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One of the most important things that we can do in life is find something that we love to do, and do that for the of our lives. My friend Michael Stead recently realized that he was in the wrong industry, and he decided to go into a different industry, even though he was still enjoying success in his current industry. Rodney Dangerfield attempted to make a career as a young stand-up on the Catskills circuit, but he felt that he was a failure, so he started an aluminum siding business and settled down with a family. After nine years of failure, and thirteen years after running the aluminum siding business, he went back into stand-up and became a legend.

The Element in Common

One of the things that these two people have in common was that they realized that, even though they were doing well in something, it was not their passion. I understand that there are definitely times when we find ourselves in conditions where someone has to do something that no one else wants to do, or else no one can function, but we have to do what we can in order to find out what our true passion is. After all, we spend roughly half of our waking hours either at work or on our way to work. If we are doing that, shouldn’t we be doing something that we love?

If You Are Stuck in a Rut

Some of you reading this may be saying, “That’s a nice theory, Steve, but I don’t really have the money to invest in order to get started doing something that I really love to do.” You might not have time right now, but I would offer a piece of advice from The Other 8 Hours that I think will help someone who finds him/herself stuck in such a Catch-22: keep doing the job that you’re in now, and use your free time to grow your capital and grow your dream. When you do that, you will make it a lot easier in order to get things done and continue to meet your obligations. If this seems like a long time to you, remind yourself that, with a 40-hour work week, and 56 hours of sleep a week, that leaves 72 hours in order to make your life the kind of life you want to live. The time is there, so do what you can to make yours a life where you love what you do.

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Have you ever known people who seem to have energy that you can only dream of? Have you ever wondered why some people are able to be much more productive than others? One of the best books that I have read that sums up everything about the need to make the best use of our time in order to live the life we want is The Other 8 Hours: Maximize your Free Time to Create new Wealth & Purpose by Robert Pagliarini.

How Much Time Do You Need?

A lot of people in the world of network marketing keep their day jobs. This is something that Pagliarini advocates in his book. In this case, you may be arguing that you are totally exhausted by your day job and you can really do is just unwind at the end of the day and relax. If you are exactly where you want to be, this is just fine. However, if you want something else, the time do that is the time between work and sleep. Pagliarini argues that devoting more time to things that build us up is the only way to have the life we want.

There are several ideas that I think are very interesting in the book to get people started. One of them is something that he calls “boosting,” or finding a job with little-to-no effort required where someone is present. For college students, sitting at the sign-in desk at the dorms or a computer center is an option. For others, working as a clerk at a low-traffic hotel or at a fitness center where you can use the time sitting there to read. This is something that I think is valuable for someone who wants to get involved in business, but is looking for seed money.

A Great Time-Management Tip

My favorite piece of advice in this book is the concept of “bunching.” Bunching is a smarter way to multitask. The concept of bunching is different because it divides activities into two groups: head activities and body activities. The idea is to do one while you are doing the other whenever possible. One example is listening to something educational while driving. When doing this, it gives you more time to spend with your loved ones, and isn’t that what personal development and time management are all about?

Are You a Cre8or?

The most important elements of building a personal income through business is to make money doing what you love. Creating something of value or doing something you have always wanted to do can only be done in your other eight hours. The book has an inventory of some of the key moments in life, and the question of whether these occurred at work, school, or in the other eight hours. I think that most of us will admit that it is the other eight hours. If you have always wanted to learn a foreign language, this is how you do it. If you have wanted to learn a new skill, this is how. If you wanted to write a book, this is how. Robert Pagiarini has a term for people like this: Cre8ors. So, are you a Cre8or?