The 25.5 Hour Day: How to Get More Done in Less Time

When you’re complaining about not having time for things, remember, you and @TheRock have the same 24 hours in a day. #getafterit
— Jordan (@cavejordans) September 9, 2015

We can’t change the amount of time we have in a day; however, we can change how we use that time to be more efficient. In this article, we’re going to outline 5 adjustments you can make to your daily routine to free up 90 minutes of free time.

1.Stop Hitting Snooze (time saved: 9 minutes)

The extra sleep you get from hitting the snooze button actually doesn’t help you feel more rested. Dr. Robert Rosenberg says hitting the snooze button affects you negatively in two ways. First, you’re fragmenting your already little amount of sleep – so it’s considered a poor quality sleep. Second, you’re starting a new sleep cycle, which obviously you cannot finish – this can lead to you feeling groggy throughout the day.

An easy way to make smashing the snooze button no longer part of your morning routine is to move your alarm clock across your room. This will force you to physically get out of bed and turn off your alarm clock.

*A little trick to make sure you don’t run back to bed: get in the habit of immediately turning on the light before going over to your alarm clock. This makes it much harder to crawl back into bed.

2. Cut Your Shower Time in Half (time saved: 4 minutes)

The average American spends 8.2 minutes in the shower each morning. This can easily be cut in half with one simple trick. If you’re like me, you listen to music as you get ready in the morning. A great way to cut down your shower time is to limit your time to one song. The average song length is 3:30 minutes, so it times out pretty perfectly with how much time you should be in the shower for.

Also, you’ll be saving a serious amount of water, the average shower uses 18 gallons of water. So coincidentally, you can feel good about your contribution to water conservation, and save time in the process.

3. Stop Checking Email So Much (time saved: 36 minutes)

I personally despise email, in mass use that is. It’s a tool, but it can easily become something that allows for other people to dictate how you use your time. The average American spends 13 hours checking and responding to emails weekly. This means email is eating up 32% of your work day.

So how do you knock 36 minutes off of this total daily?

Set up four times throughout the day that you will make responding to emails a priority. I suggest from 8:00am-8:30am, 11:00am-11:30am, 2:00pm-2:30pm, and wrap up the day from 5:00pm-5:30pm.

4. Let One TV Show Go (time saved: 30 minutes)

Though Netflix is great, it’s the enemy of productivity. Americans spend on average 2.8 hours daily watching television. Cutting this down by one television show daily (though I’d recommend cutting much more) will save you 30 minutes a day.

5. Pick Out Your Clothing the Night Before (time saved: 12 minutes)

You may not believe it, but you’re spending on average, 12 minutes daily picking out your wardrobe. Mashable wrote on why successful people wear the same thing everyday. Their view, found through case-studies, finds that successful people wear the same thing every day because they don’t want to spend decision-making power on something menial like clothing. Now obviously, most people don’t have the luxury of wearing the same thing every day, as people in the office may take notice. So, putting clothing out the night before kills two birds with one stone, (i) it doesn’t take any decision-making power in the morning, and (ii) it saves 12 minutes in time daily.

Now, at first glance, it would seem that you’re just shuffling 12 minutes from the morning to the evening. But this isn’t the case. Instead, have a part of your closet which is designated for work clothes, the majority of people rotate through the same 5-7 outfits for work anyways. Lay these out by day of the week, and then it will simply make it a grab and go effort in the morning.

So what do I do with the 90 minutes?

The goal is to create more time to do things you’re passionate about. Whether it’s fitness, writing or a side-project you’ve been working on. Whatever it is, make sure it’s something you can look forward to on a daily basis.

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