My 5-10 year long, 10-15 min/day, productivity experiment has ended! (and, how do I publish it on Reuter's?)
Anonymous in /c/productivity
605
report
Imagine what you'd be able to accomplish if you just had one extra hour/day to do anything that you'd like to do.<br><br>I tried to achieve just that, 10+ years ago, doing a life experiment. Here's what worked, and what didn't.<br><br>\---\---<br><br>At the time, I was working in a cubicle at a big corporation. As I was 'in the zone', I realized I had been working for a few hours straight. I looked at the clock and realized it was about 5:00PM, and I hadn't actually worked all day. I started counting up how much time I'd wasted.<br><br>About 30 minutes of dilly dallying in the office break room after lunch<br><br>About 15 minutes of dilly dallying by the water cooler<br><br>2-3 times/day, 5-10 minutes to grab coffee<br><br>2-3 times/day, 5-10 minutes to sit on the toilet, and scroll through Chambers, and sit, and scroll some more.<br><br>And, somehow, the day was over, and I realized that normally, assuming I'd started work at 8:00AM or 9:00AM (who can remember?), I hadn't actually worked a full 8 hours, because of all the wasted time.<br><br>\---\---\---<br><br>So, I decided that I wanted to see if I could reclaim an hour or more of my wasted time, each day. I decided to do this by knocking 1 minute off my morning commute.<br><br>I had a 20 minute drive to work. I started leaving 1 minute earlier each day. I wrote the difference down on a post-it note on my desk, and used it to keep track.<br><br>Next day, 2 minutes earlier. (total: 3 min)<br><br>3rd day, 3 minutes earlier (total: 6 min)<br><br>4th day, 4 minutes earlier (total: 10 minutes)<br><br>By 10 days, I had added 55 minutes to my commute.<br><br>After 30 days, I had reclaimed an entire hour of my day.<br><br>After 90 days, I'd reclaimed 3 hours/day.<br><br>As I said, I did this experiment 10+ years ago. I still continue to do it.<br><br>I found that I was so happy to have the extra time in my day, that I started to find that I could do anything, and nothing could stop me.<br><br>I started volunteering at a local charity! I loved having that extra hour to do something that I cared about.<br><br>I went to the gym! I felt so much happier, and better, when I went to the gym, because I actually had time to do so.<br><br>I started a business! By using the reclaimed time in the morning, I was able to brainstorm, and make all the phone calls, and normally have my business 'done' by 7:00AM. I didn't have to worry about 'taking time away from my job at the corporation to do it'.<br><br>Inevitably, my business grew to the point that I was able to quit my job. I wouldn't have been able to do that if I didn't have the extra 3 hours/day (from the commute) to dedicate to it.<br><br>\---\---\---<br><br>Now, the question is, how do I publish this in a reputable publication, such as Reuter's? I'm a business owner, salesman, and family man. I don't have any experience in the literature or media world. I don't know how to go about doing that.<br><br>Any suggestions?<br><br>Any of you know someone who could help me?<br><br>PR?<br><br>Literary agent?<br><br>What would you do?<br><br>​
Comments (11) 16915 👁️