Time Management

Let’s say you have a typical life and try to live it in the healthiest way. You might allocate your 24-hour weekday this way:

Sleep: 8 hours
Exercise: 1 hour
Work: 8 hours
Eating: 2 hours (leisurely)
Hygiene: 1 hour
Travel: 1 (Commute, errands)

That leaves you three hours for family time, sex, shopping, food preparation, chores, household repair, volunteering in the school, and so on. If you have a dentist appointment, or your talkative relative calls, or American Idol has a two-hour special, you’re tapped out.

It’s a challenge to live a happy life if you aren’t giving enough attention to all of those categories, yet doing so is nearly impossible.

One time management strategy is to be independently wealthy, freeing up eight hours a day. But that option isn’t available to many. And apparently it isn’t fulfilling because most rich people continue to work full schedules.

Another strategy is to ignore the fact that you are slowly killing yourself by not sleeping and exercising enough. That frees up several hours a day. The only downside is that you get fat and die.

A third path is to work less than you could, live economically, enjoy each day as it comes, and try not to think about living on cat food when you retire.

Which strategy have you picked?

Comments

[Anonymous]

I did not had the patience/time to read thru all posts ... but whatever i read ... i wondered how come nobody had any time allocated to 'prayer' or 'church' or 'meditation' ..It is said that it makes you a more 'accepting' person ... and you are more satisfied with what you have ... maybe a half hour allocated to prayer or meditation or self reflection will make us all more appreciative of what we have...

[MC]

In NY the 9-5 work day is a pure myth. You're lucky escaping after 10-12 hours and not having to work on the weekends. I opt for the 12 hour work day with no lunch break, 2 hours of exercise to un-do 12 hours sitting in a cubicle, 3 hour commute because I can not afford to live in Manhattan and must live in Brooklyn. Luckily, I live with my parents reducing my will to live . . . That gives me about 5 hours of sleep, a half hour to masterbate (given my lack of social time, a necessity) and a half hour to clease and repeat with one hour of time left over to sit depressed and cry.

[Listo Cómics]

I really spend a lot of time thinking about time management.
I finally ended up working in a high school. It's slowly killing myself, but I have a lot of free time to go to the cinema, read, rest, so sport and draw silly comics. I'm quite proud of my choice.

[Dan Jolt]

Note that at least in Europe you can have a job with 30 days of paid vacation. Add the 104 days of weekend plus a handful of holidays you get a lot of extra 8 hours to get stuff done.

If that's not enough, combine exercise + commute by riding your bicycle to work.

[Eduardo Burgos]

I pick option #2 hands down, having hopes on the scientists to hopefully remove the need to sleep soon.

[Karen]

I personally would move to France, then at least you have one extra hour per day. And who needs that much sleep?

[rocky]

Canned, moist or dried cat food?

Gourmet or generic?

Can I wash the bowl between meals, or do I have to just use the same bowl for months at a time so the little dried fish and cow intestine parts fuse to the plastic? That's what I always did with my cats. You save time not washing between meals, but in the end it takes longer to chip the dried stuff off. The new food sort of sticks to the old food and grows, like those crystal growing kits. Maybe I could just buy a new bowl every few months. Do I have to factor in the cost of a new cat food bowl and work more? I don't understand how I can answer this without more data.

[Josh Delcore]

Option number two for me... but I do hope they keep improving cat food in case we have to fall back on option number 3! LOL

Josh Delcore

[Tara]

I've chosen option 4: I'm working two jobs: job #1 is a normal 9-5 with a decent wage. Job #2 is sex work.

I save everything I make from job #1, max out my retirement accounts, live cushy, and have lots of fun.

Of course, this only works for women, but it's a great life.

[MIke]

I have chosen Option Two, i.e. I am killing myself with lack of proper rest and exercise. This is what we men do: get plenty of insurance and die as a result of work-related stress-caused illnesses, preferably at a time when we are just about ready to pass on the wisdom we have garnered from our (albeit horribly truncated, exhausted and depressed) lives to our children. It was good enough for my Dad, good enough for his Dad, and good enough for me. Our responsibility as providers and role models demanded it. If I do my job right, my son will realize what a farging fool I am and use me as a negative example, and move to a Caribbean island as soon as he's able.

[MIke]

I have chosen Option Two, i.e. I am killing myself with lack of proper rest and exercise. This is what we men do: get plenty of insurance and die as a result of work-related stress-caused illnesses, preferably at a time when we are just about ready to pass on the wisdom we have garnered from our (albeit horribly truncated, exhausted and depressed) lives to our children. It was good enough for my Dad, good enough for his Dad, and good enough for me. Our responsibility as providers and role models demanded it. If I do my job right, my son will realize what a farging fool I am and use me as a negative example, and move to a Caribbean island as soon as he's able.

[Bob Smith]

Great posts, will come in useful in the future.

[G H Diel]

I'm 84 and have been living quite comfortably on the human equivalent of cat food for the past twenty years, thank you. GHD

[adora]

Most people cope by doing personal things at work. i.e. shopping online, emailing, chatting, facebooking... etc.

[RuRu]

Perhaps, I really couldn't say that how I live is best enough for me. Well, it turns out that I live unhappily, unhealthily, etc. True enough, major change.

[Mike Johnston]

I work online. The most time per day I can spend working is about three hours, my commute is approximately 20 feet (the distance from my bed to the computer), and I went through the months of January and February on one (10-gal.) tank of gas for the car.

The downside is that I don't have enough money. But that might actually be an upside, because it means I don't waste time shopping, don't eat much meat, and don't have the responsibility of warehousing lots of frivolous belongings in an overly large house.

It's not the life for everybody, I acknowledge. But I like it.

Blue Mikey

[Tanya G]

How did that guy have 4 girlfriends? I don't have any bfs and I still have no time.. and I only sleep 6 hours!

http://lostandloster.blogspot.com/

[eli]

I live economically and hope some day my comic strip will be as big as Dilbert ;) at which time I will get health insurance...

[Barb]

You are correct that path 1 is not available for many unless you can hook up with a rock star or professional athlete, or was born with a silver spoon in your mouth. I tried path 2 until I found my self saying, "this job is going to kill me!" day and night, and gave up relationships. This was compounded by the fact that as I aged I found I was not able to multi-task as well. So I choose path 3. Cat food will be a reality only if I don't find some other kind of work that doesn't seem like work. Until then, train for a marathon and lead a "virtual" life and budget (the horror!)

[Dwight Schrute]

Enjoy life while you can. No one wants to live forever, just be healthy enough to do what you want until about 60, then retire and really start to die. You want to optimize your joy in life vs time working/taking care of yourself. 80 shitty years of life may be less fulfilling than 70 good years, plus one year of being in a hospital. Most of us will die of cancer anyway, so not smoking and wearing sunscreen are easy ways to live longer with no down side.

[David Sickmiller]

I realize I'm joining the conversation late, but I looked through all the comments and saw relatively little discussion about how additional options can be created through "time-shifting." Assuming that most people do not have the option of dramatically increasing their productivity per hour, they still have the ability to choose a job that redistributes their work hours:
- Flextime adjusts work hours within a 1-2 week period.
- Seasonal jobs have long hours for part of the year but fewer or no hours in other parts of the years.
- It's also possible to work more some years and less other years.

Alaskan king crab fisherman are an extreme example of seasonal work, but work in hospitality or construction are also good examples. Many people work longer hours when they're young and scale back when they marry and raise children.

If people feel trapped by the original three options, they should realize that there are other possibilities. However, living with dramatic changes in cashflow does require more self-control than collecting a regular paycheck.

[cliffski]

My strategy is awesome. I wrote a video game about life time management strategies:
http://www.kudosgame.com
And am using it towards becoming independently wealthy enough to get those extra 8 hours.
I win!

[Lyn]

I'm with Jeff. What's up with the dilbert.com revamp? I know, most people grumble about change even if it is good. In this case, it's not. Or at least, not yet. Scrolling through to look at past strips is a little painful.

[Steve]

I've chosen the "ignore sleep to the point that I feel like I'm going to pass out all the time." My schedule is something like...

12 to 15 hours - All work-related activities (get up, morning hygiene, 9 to 12 hours at work with only 30 minutes each for lunch and breakfast, 1 hour of commuting each way -- at least I set it up so I don't go at rush hour most days or else there would be more stress of traffic and rushing at work).

5 to 6 hours - sleep (10 to 12 on weekends, from being exhausted)

So that leaves 3 to 7 hours to myself for other things (unfortunately during busy times at work, it's down to 3, which means things like "clean the house" are being ignored). I'm salaried, so doctor's appointments and such aren't too much of a problem, I just leave earlier or later.

I generally eat at my computer, or work when I eat.

[Arnab]

The fourth strategy; have a long line of Indian ancestors who survived on fish and rice so you have a really fast metabolism, so you don't exercise, and only work temp jobs every other month (you'd be surprised how much people would pay for temps)thereby getting maximum efficiency out of life.