Net Time vs Gross Time

I made an impromptu road trip to Grimshaw this weekend and on the way back I listened to a few fantastic podcasts. One of them, Organization Station with Monica Ricci, talked about the concept of "Net Time" which I found fascinating. I've have often quoted one of my favorite movies, Empire Records, and said "There are 24 usable hours in every day!". However, with some very logical reconsideration, is there really 24 hours?

Research has shown that after factoring in sleep, eating, bathroom breaks, life, etc, each of us only really has 4 - 7 hours of each day that can be used to be productive. Taking this into consideration, most of us are attempting to jam far too much into each day, which gets carried over to the next jam packed day resulting in us feeling completely unproductive & yet totally stressed out. Boy can I relate to that! 

A few of the other time concepts she touched on were "Tiny Time" and "Buffer Time":

Tiny Time is those little moments of time where things can be done as you register them, but if left undone, cumulate to become overwhelming. Examples could include things like putting your jacket away, getting your kids to put one toy away before using another (or group of toys), mail, and lately for me texts & emails! [Right now I have nearly 70 unread emails on my phone plus countless read but unanswered email , despite my new years resolution to not do that.]

Buffer Time, is just like it sounds, its building buffer time into your schedule. For example, if it normally takes you 30 minutes to drive somewhere, consider actually leaving with an extra ten minutes to account for traffic or unexpected delays (like needing fuel). Or, if your kids need to be ready for a ride at 3pm, start them getting ready in advance so they'll actually be ready for 2:50. The amount of buffer time would differ depending on the tasks. Its really a simple idea, but I admit I am uber guilty for not utilizing this and in fact doing the opposite by thinking I can jam an extra errand or task in the five "extra" minutes I think I have.

An example of something I've been continuously guilty for lately is with my sitters. I tell them I'll be home at say 9:00pm, but instead of leaving at 8:45 and thus packing up at 8:30, I tend to leave the place i'm at around 9:05 or 9:15. Very bad. It's not how I would want to be treated, so I need to make adjustments accordingly.

I'm really looking forward to making some improvements with this knowledge and listening to more podcasts from Monica.