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Automate Your Life, As Much As You Can

April 6, 2012 12 Comments

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Successful people do not do different things, they do things differently; is probably often heard cliche for you. But the sentence has all the wealth of richness in it. Why some people get to taste success, why not all of us?

The answer lies in the first sentence. There are a lot of opportunities for the average and normal people to start doing things differently. Time management is an integral part of accumulating wealth (manage time to be rich).

Honest confession, even after determining blogging affects work and deciding on to have a fixed time for blogging work, I still get attracted towards my site-stats no lesser than earlier intensity.

I still get fixated to yakezie forum and check multiple times a day to find interesting discussions to participate in.

If you do that, like me, you also should be as worried as I am. You know, why?

Because time is limited, the only scariest thing in this world in Time. If you can manage time effectively by doing things differently, you will have time to create.

You will have time to unleash creativity, in you and your family. We are not super human we can’t do everything quickly. There are certain things which we can do quickly, other things take time.

There are certain tasks which do not require our in-depth attention. Those tasks can be automated.

These things which otherwise take up a significant chunk of our time, if automated and left to auto pilot, should save us some time in our daily life.

After all, we have two hands and a brain which easily gets overworked and needs fixed resting time every day to work efficiently. the sheer number of decision we make each day is enough to get the brain tired.

The following are the automation I am contemplating on, I am very much interested in knowing your view on these items. My main objective is to spend lesser time on routine items and not to think about it as much as I can.

I don’t want my brain to work on these routine items, simply!

The list is in addition to bill payments, of all kind, which are automated already.

I even have some investments in auto pilot as well. Example, retirement savings including IRA contribution, automatic transfer of 50% of my take-home salary to interest earning saving account. Automatic investment in to mutual funds, etc.

1. I will stop checking blog stat, rank and other statistics – It’s really distracting to check my iPhone every hour for total visitors and page views. I will stop checking my blog ranks altogether. I have created sample response of each type of blog related mails I get, I will stop all sort of customization and use only the templates.

2. I will stop checking share prices and fund NAVs every day – I will rather do it weekly. This can save up to 30 mins a day at least. I figured that how hard I mentally want them to go up every day, it’s not going to work. So better forget about them except for once a week.

3. No more spam mails – I updated personal Gmail’s preferences to have marketing emails from all my financial institutions go in spam mail folder. I will check my spam folder once a week. I will, thus, not have to read and manually spam those mails multiple times a day upon their arrival.

4. Make a few routines – On Sunday night I’ll decide five dresses to wear for week days and arrange the dresses in the order of date. This would save me at least 5 mins of prime time every day during early morning.

5. Optimal email time spent – At work, I have color coded calendar entries and mail messages for my manager, my second level manager and two of my reportees on whom I depend a lot. I read those colored mails as soon as I see them, for other mails, they have to wait.

6. Started depending less on memory – I am using Remember the milk application (RTM). All new tasks; Personal, blog or career related, go in to remember the milk database. I can access the memos from iPhone and office laptop and personal computer. No more taxing my memory and forgetting important things.

Cool that I can set the criticality and importance of these memos in RTM

7. I will try my best to stop arguing with SMB – That means, a save 10 -30 mins a day. I plan to keep my shoes and socks at their designated places, the towel would no longer be inside bathroom forever. Believe it or not, if you stay with a partner, you’ll spend a significant amount of time arguing about stuff not at all important for you. If you find a way to stop it, you can spend the time in doing some productive work.

All the items in the list have some degree of automation in it. They are meant to simplify life and generate more free time everyday.

Readers, are they achievable? This blog is a great way to share information with you.  Feel free to express your opinion, let’s learn mutually and improve our life.

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About the Blogger Hi I am SB, a personal finance enthusiast with a career in software development. I am an immigrant to the USA since 2005, after being born and brought up in India. This 40 something technocrat lives and breathes personal finance whenever he gets time from the day job, job as a husband and a dad

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Comments

  1. Jai Catalano says

    April 6, 2012 at 8:13 AM

    My favorite is your last one. However I am guilty of checking stats from time to time but I have slowed down lately. I have started to create again but I need to start scheduling it out so that my “9 to 5” with overtime is on point. This article comes at the right time to inspire me more.

    Reply
  2. krantcents says

    April 6, 2012 at 1:27 PM

    I routinely write notes to myself so I do not have to remember it. It actually makes me more organized. I maintain lists to get things done. BTW, I routinely check stats and my portfolio multiple times a day and I do not see anything wrong with it. I am not obsessive, I just use it to monitor my efforts.

    Reply
  3. Karunesh says

    April 6, 2012 at 2:25 PM

    The last one would save a lot of your time 🙂 just kidding

    Reply
  4. jefferson says

    April 7, 2012 at 12:46 AM

    i like the email tip.. far too often i fall into patterns with my email at work where i instantly respond to every email that comes in, even if i am completely absorbed in a different activity.. i am trying to change my habits so that i only check at the top of the hour.

    Reply
  5. Marissa @ Thirtysixmonths says

    April 7, 2012 at 1:48 PM

    Tell me that you don’t wear dresses to work 🙂

    Reply
    • SB says

      April 8, 2012 at 9:45 AM

      Is this your inference after reading this post?

      Reply
  6. Mike Collins says

    April 7, 2012 at 4:50 PM

    I like the idea of automating email responses by using a template. Using canned responses can be a big help when you get bombarded with the same type of requests over and over again. A few minutes here and there can really add up and make you a lot more productive.

    Reply
  7. Paul @ The Frugal Toad says

    April 9, 2012 at 9:25 AM

    I just went through my email last night and did just what you did SB! Great minds think alike! I’m guilty of checking on the stats more than I should and need to cut back. Great ideas SB!

    Reply
    • SB says

      April 9, 2012 at 11:23 AM

      Thanks for counting me as one with great mind 🙂

      Reply
  8. MyMoneyDesign says

    April 10, 2012 at 12:59 PM

    Automation has made a world of difference in my finances – no more going to bank, paying bills, or moving money around. Now it all just happens naturally. The last tip is the best. I’ve got a few routines I go through to avoid unnecessary arguments with Mrs. MMD.

    Reply

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Blogger by choice and IT manager by profession. Finance is my passion and gardening is my greatest satisfaction. Born in India, settled in US, Husband and a father. I created this blog in 2011 with a vision to help others. Thanks for your patronage. More info on my "about" page.

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