50 Ways to Be Productive While You’re Waiting

50 Ways to Be Productive While You’re Waiting

For type-A personalities, getting stuck in a situation where you’re waiting around can be endlessly frustrating. While boredom can play a factor, it’s mostly because you consider time your greatest asset. Well, that’s at least how I feel when I’m stuck waiting around! I often think long and hard about my day so I can cram strategically pair what I have to get done with where I'll be. I also brainstorm where I can afford to multi-task. Don’t get me wrong, I am not condoning texting and driving or anything like that, but there are opportunities where we can (safely) double up on tasks—like starting a load of laundry while cooking dinner.  

But there will be times (a bunch of times) when the day just doesn't go as planned and you, unfortunately, find yourself waiting around.This could be due to situations like getting a flat tire and waiting for AAA or your phone’s battery runs out, ensuring that Skype meeting you planned ain't gonna happen. Whatever the case may be, it happens—but that doesn’t mean you can kiss productivity goodbye.

So, before you waste time on Facebook, playing Clash of Clans or Candy Crush, here are 50 ways to be productive while you’re waiting around:  

1. Re-assess your week's goals
2. Delete useless pictures off your phone
3. Text two people you haven't talked to in a while
4. Start (or work on finishing) that book you haven't had time to get into
5. Reorganize your wallet
6. Throw away trash in your immediate area
7. Make a doctor's appointment
8. Read a helpful or fun blog
9. Write in a journal
10. Plan your next vacation
11. Repeat positive affirmations
12. Practice a foreign language
13. Think about an emergency preparedness plan
14. Break out your adult coloring book (or use an app)
15. Practice breathing exercises
16. Practice stretching
17. Clean out your car's trunk or back seat
18. Plan your next meal
19. Reconnect with a friend and plan to have them over for a meal
20. Draw or doodle
21. Play with your pet or kid
22. Write a thank you card/note/email
23. Take a power nap
24. Make a grocery-shopping list
25. Create a budget
26. Update your budget
27. Call a relative
28. Shop on your phone for a great deal for something on your wish list
29. Text your significant other a sincere note of love (or apology)
30. Plan your next day
31. Read a book (great if you have an E-reader or e-reader app)
32. Unsubscribe to e-mail lists you’re no longer interested in
33. Listen to a entertaining or educational podcast
34. Watch some kittens or puppies on YouTube
35. Schedule your next massage
36. Work through a Sudoku puzzle
37. Sing karaoke (if you are waiting alone…)
38. Think of something nice to do for a loved one
39. Take a long walk
40. Dance
41. Delete duplicate contacts in your phone or email
42. Look at shapes in the clouds
43. Write a haiku
44. Clear your desk
45. Clear out a place you haven't looked at in a while (you know what place)
46. Place needed household items in your online cart
47. Post something for sale online
48. Give yourself or get a manicure
49. Meditate/think deeply/pray  
50. Reconcile your checking account

The list doesn’t stop here. Any simple or quick task you can think of will work, too. No matter what you end up doing, try to use the time in a positive way and you’ll find the time spent waiting will fly right by.

If you need a little extra help with productivity planning, let me know. We can work together to find solutions that work best for you.

Who's On Your Team?

How do you feel about delegation? Most of us are brought up to think that hiring someone to do something that you could do yourself is lazy, decadent, or only for the wealthy and famous. Is that how you feel? A few decades ago that thought process might have held a lot more weight.

These days, however, we are inundated with more demands on our time and attention than ever before. Caring for our homes, vehicles, and whole-selves (including our physical, mental, emotional. and spiritual needs) are just basic things that require lots of time and attention.

On top of our basic care, we have goals and ambitions that make our lives and those around us better. For many this could mean going back to school or taking classes for work, juggling demanding careers, enjoying fulfilling but time-intensive hobbies or side-projects, participating in preventative care like going to the gym, getting a massage, taking fitness classes, or working towards weight and health management efforts. Then we are have to consider the needs of others. I’ve seen clients who are balancing caregiving roles for young children and aging parents simultaneously, all while trying to spend quality time with friends and family. It can all make us feel crazy busy.

In Dr. Edward Hallowell’s book Crazy Busy he mentions delegation is key number seven of the 10 key principles to managing modern life. He states: “Delegate what you don’t like to do or are not good at if you possibly can. Your goal should be to be not independent, but rather effectively interdependent...For children and adults alike, learning how to be effectively interdependent is a major life skill.” How humbling! No man is an island—we need others to effectively manage our own lives.

With modern technology we can have our own “team” to help us do to things that we don’t like to do or are not good at. This frees up time so we can work on the projects and tasks we like and/or allows us to better use our time to do the things that take us less time or bring us more fulfillment.  

If we are around people who make us feel like we are “too big for our britches,” when we hire or ask for help, then it’s time to find new friends (just kiddin'). But feel free to use this as a good humble response: “I’ve found that to care better for myself and family, I should focus on the things that I do well and that are important to me, and delegate the things that allow me to be a better [wife, mother, husband, father, business owner, daughter, son, friend, person].”

So, who’s on your team to help you be the best you? Below I’ve included a list of folks and some links that can get the ball rolling to increase your delegation efforts.

Here are a few suggestions of people to add to your “team”:

• Dog walker/pet care professional
• Personal trainer
• Professional organizer
• Doctors
• Chef/food prep service
• Home cleaning service
• Wardrobe consultant
• In-home massage therapist
• Laundry service
• Hair care professional
• Virtual assistant

Realizing the areas in which you can afford to do some delegation can help to improve your relationships, quality of life, health, and well-being. What’s not to love about that? Simply take a look at what you’ve currently got on your plate and determine the areas in which you can start to offload. Trust me, you can always make more money, but you can’t make more time. Time spent adding quality to your life and to those whom you love. Your whole-self will thank you!

I’d love to hear from you?  What are some things you delegate to someone else? How has it benefited you?

Andrea Hancock is a professional organizer & productivity student, blogger, speaker, and educator that assists and empowers busy professionals, business owners and those experiencing major life transitions to create and maintain organizational systems that work for them personally.  Andrea is also founder of Dexterous Organizing, a results-oriented professional organizing company.  Book a free 15-minute Discovery Call to begin your journey to better productivity and more organizational prowess. Also visit our website at www.DexterousOrganizing.com or give us a call at (703) 606-8968.

The Day I Deleted My Future

I don’t remember the exact day, but I do remember the tears. I even remember the moment in which I created my demise and it was hours before I realized I was in deep doo-doo.

Here’s the story: I was standing in line with my husband at Wegmans and, like most young modern women, I was putting something on my mobile calendar while waiting. I must have also been playing around with the features in my calendar because I vaguely remember clearing out what I thought was an archived to-do list. I don’t remember the prompt my phone gave me, but I do remember it saying something like, “Are you sure?” and I thought I was very sure so I hit okay and moved on.

Later that afternoon I got a call from my mom asking me if I was still attending a family event. I, (in my foolishly arrogant way) replied, “Yes, Ma, I said I was coming on the calendar invite, why would I suddenly change my mind?” My mom explained how she just talked to my aunt who said I declined the event. After reassuring my mom I would be there, I turned to my husband and related what happened. I probably also added some snarky comment about the futility of replying to a calendar invite when I was going to have to verbally reply as well. This was moments before I realized the chocolate had already hit the fan. That’s when my husband replied that he also noticed I had declined all of our appointments together as well. I stopped what I was doing, turned to my husband and said,  “What do you mean?”. Before he could answer, I rushed to my computer and looked at my calendar. It was blank. Like blank-blank.

My calendar normally looks like this

My mind raced as I tried to figure out when this horrible, terrible nightmare could have happened. That’s when I realized, while standing in line at the grocery store, I had erased all the events on my calendar past, present, and future spanning about 5 years. .. .

To give some context as to why this was so heartbreaking,  I LIVE by my calendar--it lets me know who to call, where to go, and how to plan my day. I even have bedtime events and reminders on my calendar (Hey, a girl needs her rest!).

After my "power play," my calendar looked like this

I use my calendar for every doctor’s appointment, client meeting, wedding, and even funerals. I set it and forget it. It is my proof of life, my personal assistant that keeps me on track with my day and to-do lists--my way of documenting my existence and how I keep track of all my future events.

All of it gone--with one button push while in line at the grocery store! Hours earlier as I was glancing at magazine tabloids about Kim Kardashian (because when isn’t she in the tabloids?) and recipes on the best dessert of the season while I single-fingeredly threw my life into cyberspace wasteland.

As the panic drained my face of color my dear husband sprang into action as he saw the tears rolling down my face.Together we began to look for a solution and came across a software called Spanning Undelete for Google Calendar (particularly the one in the Chrome Apps Marketplace). Here’s what to do if you ever (God-forbid) need to get your calendar back:  Install the app, and sign into your Google profile. The app will see all the calendars you have created so you can then go in and click all the calendar events you’d like to undelete. The only caveat is all your undeleted events will also have “undeleted” in the title (which, in my opinion is a small price to pay for getting everything back!).

My digital misstep happened sometime in the summer of 2015. But in November 2015, Google created a “trash” folder for Google Calendar. During the time of my catastrophe, once you deleted an event you were up a creek without a paddle. Now the trash folder for Google Calendar holds deleted messages for 30 days. This new feature is great for things that you need to add back within a few days (like an event that was cancelled but then is suddenly back on). But for calendar events that you want to resurrect prior to 30 days you can use Spanning.

So, if you’re ever standing in line at the grocery store and you push a button and it says “Are you sure?” Well, you better be, or you might just be deleting your future, too!

Andrea Hancock is a professional organizer & productivity student, blogger, speaker, and educator that assists and empowers busy professionals, business owners and those experiencing major life transitions to create and maintain organizational systems that work for them personally.  Andrea is also founder of Dexterous Organizing, a results-oriented professional organizing company.  Book a free 15-minute Discovery Call to begin your journey to better productivity and more organizational prowess. Also visit our website at www.DexterousOrganizing.com or give us a call at (703) 606-8968.

D-I-S-T-R-A-C-T-I-Oooo-something shiny!

I'll admit it, and people who know me know this.  At times, I get distracted. Like wildly distracted.  

In fact the reason I'm writing this blog right now is because I just got really distracted and thought it was a hoot and a tragedy all rolled into one. 

So what better way to further get distracted and write a blog post about it, right?

I was looking for something to eat.  I saw a box of Jello in the pantry and thought "hmmm.... I should make this tonight..."  So I take down the glass ramekins we have that I've used in the past to find that out of the five we have, we only have two lids.  

#!&$@  

I guess they get damaged, or accidentally thrown out...who knows?!

EBay popped into mind.  I head over to the computer and after about 5,10...15? minutes I find EXACTLY what I was looking for.  Who'd thought there would be someone selling 3 Pampered Chef glass ramekins lids this week...but there they were and I placed my bid.

Now...what about dish towels?  I search there but no reviews...what if I'm getting the best dishtowel for the best price?!?  I head over to Amazon.com to look at reviews but although they were great the ones the reviews were also saying something about shrinkage...after 5,10, 15? minutes of looking at reviews I suddenly realized I was spending WAAAAAAY too much time and energy on looking up dishtowels.  I realized this when one of the reviewers for these particular dishtowels went on a two paragraph rampage and in part said this:

"Here's the deal. They're towels. They are just kitchen hand towels. Yet when I ordered these, I got a treatise from Amazon on how to properly care for my brand new kitchen towels, including step-by-step instructions on washing, drying, and maintaining. This immediately turned me off to the point that I almost returned them because honestly, THEY ARE TOWELS. You should wash them. Dry them. Fold them. Use them. Repeat." 

And How!

Why am I sitting here wasting time worried about kitchen towels.  I'm over it....and I'm hungry. Because I was, for heaven's sake and albeit an hour ago just looking for something to freakin' eat!

It happens to the best of us.  We live in a world of distractions.  Our phones ding, our online shopping turns into a session on Facebook or Twitter.  We have a myriad of options and we want to make sure we are "getting the best deal" and not a penny over.  Meanwhile we're stressed out because we never have time.

Since becoming a professional organizer and productivity consultant, I've gotten a lot better at noticing when I'm distracted and staying on task and focused.  Obviously it's not a natural talent.

So here's a few ways I "auto-correct" from venturing down a rabbit-hole of distractions:

1. Set a timer for short periods of time.  (helps me stay focused for short periods and knowing I'm being timed keeps me aware that I can't afford to be distracted).

2. Stay away from people.  (I'm an introvert....people drain my energy and in the DISC assessment I'm an I/S which means I like to talk which means people distract me. It's a weird combination which ultimately means I work best alone on focus-driven tasks.)

3. Limit notifications on electronic devices.  I've turned off my email notifications.  I can check my email on my phone but it's on my terms.  I've never looked back.  It's great.  If you're scared you are going to miss an important email, set a reminder to check your email at certain intervals.

4. Let the phone ring.  That is what voicemail and caller ID is for...right?

5. Have a "totem".  If you've seen the movie Inception you know there was a visual reminder of reality. Maybe even a better movie reference is Somewhere In Time Yes, "Come back to me!". One thing I do is, when I'm about to venture off into a "secondary adventure" (aka a distraction), I'll write down my thoughts or what I was originally doing so I can get back on task and not have to think too hard about it when I'm ready to continue.

6. Talk to yourself.  Thoughts disappear like mist, by saying something you want to reminder out loud, it reinforces the thought and keeps it in the forefront.

7. Mindfully succumb to the distraction.  But I put a string around my mind to pull me back.  If you have, Siri, Cortana, or "Ok, Google", tell it to remind you in 5,10...15 minutes to (fill in the blank). It's like a bookmark for your thoughts.

Andrea Hancock is a professional organizer, blogger, and speaker that assists and empowers busy professionals and business owners create and maintain organizational systems that work for them personally.  Andrea is also founder of Dexterous Organizing, a results-oriented professional organizing company.  To receive free productivity and organizing tools, or to venture into a more organized home, office, and life, click "I'm ready to get started!" at www.DexterousOrganizing.com or by phone at (703) 606-8968.