How to Make the Most of 5:00-9:00 PM

Let’s forget about 9:00 to 5:00 for a minute. We spend lots of energy making sure that we are efficient and productive during the workday. But what about AFTER the workday? Do you find yourself keeping your nose to the grindstone and working diligently throughout the day only to have it all unravel when you step through the door at home?

I hear it all the time: “I’m so exhausted when I leave the office, but I always know there is more work waiting for me when I get home. What can I do?” With most of the day behind us, it’s easy to lose our focus and end up letting those precious hours at the end of the day go to waste. Keep in mind that those weekday hours from 5:00 ‘till 9:00 make up 20 hours of your week! Not many of us can afford to waste that much time.

Ask yourself a few questions to help you make the most of those evening hours and feel less stressed as a result.

How much television am I watching? For many, the biggest culprit – by far – is television. There’s no reason you can’t enjoy a favorite show or two, but don’t let it dominate your evenings. Have you ever spent hours in front of the tube and barely even realized it? You can’t get a single one of those precious minutes back, and chances are that in a week you won’t even remember what you watched. That’s a bad sign! See if you can turn it off for a week. You don’t even have to spend the extra time doing something particularly productive – just something different. Read a book. Talk to your family. Organize a drawer or two. You’ll be amazed at how much better you feel than you do after hours in front of the TV.

Where does the time go? Try keeping a diary for those 20 hours between 5 and 9 for one week. At the end of the week, it should be clear where there’s room for improvement. Here are a few things to look for as red flags, and some suggestions on how to tackle them:

• The Internet: Do you sit down at the computer to check your e-mail and end up spending an hour aimlessly surfing the internet?
o The Fix: Limit e-mail checking to just that. If you want to surf, go ahead – just do it after the rest of your “home” work is done.

• Continuing the Workday: Do you have a habit of bringing the office home?
o The Fix: Do it, if you must. But consider the value of your time and the things you are sacrificing to continue the workday. If you have to work at home, have a schedule and a plan of exactly what you need to accomplish. If you can just leave work at work, even better.

• Dinner Plans: Does it take twenty minutes of staring into the fridge to figure out what’s for dinner?
o The Fix: Take an hour on Sunday and plan 3-5 meals for the week. Even if that means planning for take-out, know what you’re having ahead of time. If you can, cook a meal or two over the weekend and reheat them during the week to save time.

• Kid Wrangling: Are you spending a ton of time making sure homework is done or working on kid-infrastructure like coordinating the carpool and extra-curricular activities?
o The Fix: Get a plan – and a calendar. Hang a desk-sized calendar in a prominent spot, and use it for the family’s master schedule. This way, it’s all in one place and you can spend less time coordinating on the fly. As for the kid-wrangling and homework: get a routine going. Whether it’s first thing when you come through the door or at a planned time each evening, block off time to do homework or other structured activities.

• Chores: Are you working all day and then coming home to work another few hours to catch up on the housework?
o The Fix: Don’t feel obligated to do it all, or even most of it. Aim for one or two “large” tasks and a couple of small ones each evening. Bring the family in on it, too. Throw a load of clothes in the washer and then go clean up the living room. When you’re done tidying up, fold the clothes. A little each night will go a long way for the whole week and give you more free time on the weekend.

• Paper: Does it seem like your mail is taking over every horizontal surface in sight? And that you’re constantly sitting down to pay bills?
o The Fix: While the kids do homework, you should too. Sort through the mail, file it in your tickler file by due date, and get it off the counter.

What can I do that will have a positive effect on my life? So many of the most personally rewarding things in life really do take very little time. You just need to make them a priority. With your newly-efficient schedule, you can now work in 20 minutes of exercise, an hour to read a good book, or 45 minutes to sit down with loved ones and catch up over a real dinner (with real silverware and everything). It doesn’t take much, but the results can be tremendous. You just have to commit to making it happen (and encourage loved ones to do the same). While you’re at it, make time for yourself. I’ll bet that no matter how tired you are, you always manage to take care of family and friends when needed. Make yourself a priority as well, whether it’s carving out time for a relaxing shower or going for a rejuvenating walk around the block. You’ve earned it.

What is my “perfect” schedule? There isn’t one. If you spend all day at work and all night fretting about a demanding timetable, you’ll drive yourself up the wall. Be flexible. Go with what works. And don’t be afraid to adjust as necessary.


Make it a productive day! ™

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This month, we feature YOUR answers to Sharon’s question (below). All submissions received an awesome productivity prize. To submit YOUR question to pose to our thousands of readers visit the Ask the Expert page.


Q: Hi fellow productivity enthusiasts, my name is Sharon.

I still have paperwork/old bills from my college days, which was something like nearly 25 years ago, and I have shuttled these papers to every re-location I've made over the years, so you can imagine how many storage boxes I've had to move over the years... :)

I also work at a job (medical field) where I'm on my feet for 8 hours a day (sorta like a hospital with no office or place to put your stuff except for a too skinny locker outside the department) but don't have time for paperwork. At work we have to print out important information to free space on the computer. Once I print it out, I chuck it in my drawer because I'm too busy doing other very important stuff. Other staff members get time to deal with their paperwork, but if I even try to do a little bit of paperwork, the work piles up and then someone gets mad at me because I'm trying to work on paperwork and not doing the other stuff I should be doing. Now my boss wants me to get that drawer "cleaned up" and possibly he will be eliminating the drawers for good.

Are 3 ring binders a good idea??? I started using them (but not faithfully - just for one thing) because there's always a possibility of a "random audit" which is very important to have these papers because if you don't, you are in very deep, deep trouble or worse which means one could be out of a job.

I have searched and searched the internet for something SIMPLE and EASY and yet I still am baffled because no one really covers stuff like papers from ex spouses but still have my name on them, you know that type of thing. I still have yet to find a "basic and simple filing system/help" without having to go out and buy stuff or buy color coded files or whatnot.

So you probably can see my frustration and why I beat myself down at work and at home because I can't get control of the papers. HELP, please.

Thanks for listening and hope to hear from you.

Sharon

Answers:

Whatever you do, do NOT go to three-ring binders! What a waste of time: find the hole punch, punch the hole, take out the binder, make space to open the book, open the binder, put the paper in, close the binder, close the book, and put it away.

How about a hanging file on the desktop? About 6" deep, it'll hold folders and you can just drop the page in.

I'm a big believer in "if you can't find it, you don't have it." Throw out stuff you can get elsewhere and stuff you won't need. I think, "I might need this one day, but there's a 95% chance I won't," so I pitch it. Start at the oldest and dedicate 15 minutes a day to pitching while you reminisce. If you only do 15 minutes (never more) every single day, you won't hate the task and you'll see a real change in a matter of days.

Oh, and obviously, shred the bills and other sensitive documents. I've been known to bring in some stuff and shred it at the office, or get a shredder for $10.

Waiting for the Filing Fairy won't work.

Alison Torvik

If Sharon is required to retain these files as a matter of policy at her work place then it is incumbent upon her employer to provide a suitable filing system. For infrequently accessed files, I would not recommend 3-ring binders. Too much work, labeling the binders, punching holes, inserting tabs, etc. I would tell Sharon to devise a simple solution of lateral file cabinets or regular legal file cabinets, outfit them with hanging folders and a simple system for filing. If files are normally retrieved (say for an audit) by date then file the papers by date. Depending on the quantity she might create a separate file for each month, quarter, or year. I would use a period that would store about an inch or so worth of paper documents. As she prints a new document, just drop it right into the correct folder. She should also determine what the retention policy is at the company and when the papers are no longer needed (e.g. after 3 years), toss them out.
Oh yeah, and ditch the 25 year old student papers. We moved a couple of years ago and after throwing out mountains of old papers like these (old bank statements, old tax documents, old receipts, etc…about two pickups full), I haven’t even missed them.
Mike Hammel, PMP

Laura,

It sounds like Sharon is at heart a "paper pack-rat", with all those old college papers that she can't bear to toss.

Regarding the stuff at work that she has to print to free up space on the computer, and which is only needed in case of a "random audit" rather than being used day-to-day, Sharon should consider copying the old files onto a CD or DVD so she can delete them from her computer but still have easy access if needed for audit. A recordable CD/DVD would allow files to be added over time, so she could use the same filing system that she has on her computer to organize the material by subject or whatever. If her computer doesn't have a built-in CD/DVD burner (most of them do now), she could get one that attaches externally by a cable - they are not expensive. Each CD/DVD can hold a huge number of files, so it's very space-efficient for storage and very quick to copy the files - no paper-sorting required!

Alwyn Wood

Oh my goodness I feel for this girl! Yes, first of all, the college paperwork should just go in the trash. Especially after 25 years. The work situation sounds rather time wasting and messy to say the least. If there is paper being printed in order to free up space on the computer, I would suggest deleting unimportant files on the computer rather than printing and trying to find a place to put all that paper. Or, as it prints, if it must be printed, decide right then and there if it is to be kept and where and just deal with it immediately. Putting things away into a drawer only delays the entire process. Hope this helps.

Joyce L. Cerutti

First of all, determine what the "statute" is for the papers in question. Many times 7-10 years is more than adequate and the remainder could be tossed (or shredded depending upon their nature). I tackle this in two very different ways -

1. At home - I am a three-ringed binder person. For me, it just seems much easier to put things in order (chronological, alphabetical, etc.). I have a binder for each year. After the statute, the papers are shredded and the binder is recycled.

2. At work - we store our records in bank boxes. After placing the items in the box, I clearly label the contents and include the statement "may be disposed of after ____ (date)" on the outside of the box. This way, when the date comes, no one has to go back through and decide what needs to be saved, what dates they were from, etc. The box can just go to the shredders.

Jessica McLaughlin