Ten Ways To Waste Time Without Ever Leaving Your Desk

I get on it so much about saving time and finding ways to create more of it, I thought it was time to fess up. I am also really good at wasting time. But then what self-employed, creative entrepreneur isn't?

The key word here is creative. When creativity is part of your game it's a lot easier to waste time. In fact, often when faced with the ugly green eyed monster who gets in the way of one's creativity - the only thing creative you can come up with is ways to waste time.

In the digital world the possibilities are endless. Without even leaving your desk look at all these things you can do.

1- Unsubscribe to all those email newsletters you keep getting that you (a) don't remember subscribing to or (b) are sure you did and can't figure out how they keep coming back.

2- Read Jerry Seinfeld's AMA on Reddit. It's really funny.

3- Go through the sponsored Ads on the side of your Facebook feed, one by one, and click the button that says you don't want to see that ad anymore.

4- Change the display on your computer screen every ten minutes until you find one that suits your mood.

5- Delete all the apps on your iPhone you haven't used since the day you downloaded them.

6- Read through your back-up of Google Alerts and discover that the National Association of Professional Organizers has deemed February National Time Management Month. Who knew?

7 - Google the Kardashians and see if you can figure out what it is they actually do that earns them a living. (this one can waste more time than you ever thought possible)

8 - Create a Spring Fever Pinterest Board for no other reason than to dream of Spring.

9 - Search for contests you can enter to win and enter them. (here's a cool one from The Travel Channel)

10 - Write a blog about wasting time instead of working on the five other projects you still have not finished.

I could go on - but I've wasted enough of my time and yours - at least for today. It's time to go back to work.

If you'd like to hear the other side of this - how to create more time - instead of wasting it - my popular little book, It Takes An Egg Timer, A Guide to Creating the Time For You is available on Amazon for just $.99!  

The Pause After The Storm

This morning I got an email from Bloomingdale’s with the eye catching header, “ Just In: Coats You Can’t Live Without.” I’m aware enough to know that email was preplanned and already in the cue to be sent. That whoever prepared it had no idea that it would go out and be received at 9:30AM, the Tuesday morning after Sandy brutally wrecked havoc through the Northeast, hitting among others, three different states I have lived in.

Still, I couldn’t help but wince. I couldn’t stop thinking of all the people without electricity or running water, whose homes had been destroyed, some of whom the storm cost them their lives.  Who at the moment are living without so much of what we consider in 2012 to be modern day necessities. People, who if they had power and access to a computer right now, might like me, find such a solicitation a bit offensive.

Bloomingdale's was not alone. There was more in my inbox. News of the Kardashian sisters enjoying a sunny outing in Miami, an invitation to treat myself to a new skin cleanser, and one who knowingly sidestepped the storm and offered a cooking lesson and promoted a new cookbook.

Did they really think that while the winds were howling past my window last night and I worried about the crane next door swinging into my building and when my mother would get her electricity back, I was also thinking I needed a new skin cleanser and maybe a new recipe? 

I know. Life goes on after the storm. There is money to be made. Let’s move on. Get past it. Blah, blah, blah. I was once a sales director and now an entrepreneur. I know the lingo. But seriously, even the NYSE took a break today!

Now I'm about to suggest something radical here. So make sure you are sitting down.

Instead of starting to pretend a history making storm is not a big deal and start peddling our wares again before the last drop of rain falls, perhaps we all just take a moment to express some gratitude and put the sales pitch on hold. If you're feeling really wild and crazy, give it the whole day!

I know. Really drastic, right?  To suggest, to stop worrying about the money, albeit briefly, and say thank-you for what you got? 

I, personally, am humbled with gratitude today. For a safe, warm home that is not knee deep in water. For a hot shower. For power. For Internet access. For my fail-safe, old-fashioned land line. For my brother going to get my mother today.  Most importantly I am grateful that at this moment everyone I know and love is safe and well. 

We are a nation with short term memories. We like to forget the bad stuff as quick as we can and get back to the business of making money. We are fed the dialogue as marketers to take advantage of every situation, no matter what, not pausing to think, that maybe we should, for just a moment, think and do the right thing. We don't stop enough to appreciate what is. And we have a lot to appreciate.  

If Hurricane Sandy left me any lesson, it was a reminder of just how lucky a girl I am. I’m going to seep in that today, before I start peddling my wares again and or go worrying about a coat I just can’t live without.