Making the Most of Life

"Life's short. Make the most of it."

This commonly used phrase is blurted out frequently, mostly by people who seem to be practising what they preach. Upon inspection, one realises that this simple phrase is harder to follow than first anticipated, and in reality, I doubt anyone can  truly say he is making the most of life... Although this doesn't mean we shouldn't try to.

To do this we must aim to use every minute of every day to its utmost. If you take all the moments that you aren't making full use of and add them together, you are left with a considerable chunk of time with which more can be done with. Technology allows us to do just that, especially during activities where no hands are needed or one hand is free. I have taken the liberty of drawing up a list of the top 5 things you can do today to maybe not perfect your time usage, but certainly improve it:

• 5. Accessibility to everything! This is the art of being able to organize your work space so that everything you could ever think of needing is less than an arms length or a chair's roll away. This means being tidy and I of all people know that this is easier said than done. However, the only reason why my desk looks like the first twenty minutes of Saving Private Ryan is because I am too lazy to pack things back into their rightful place. But if their rightful place was actually only a stretch away I would be more enticed to keep things tidy. So arrange your seat so that while sitting at your desk you have access to as many things as possible. I find that a huge time-saver is to keep a stash of food to nibble on tucked away in a nearby drawer, which saves the totally unnecessary 10-step walk to the kitchen...

• 4. Absorbing information to be remembered is usually a tedious process of repetition. But why can't I remember lists or names as well as I can recall the entire lyrics of the latest pop song? Well that's just it isn't it: repetition! Unknowingly we are exposed to promoted songs several times a day whether it be through the radio or on our iPods. If you did the same thing with information that you need to remember, then you would never have problems. And to make the process even more efficient; why not combine it with your daily chores? Record yourself reading a list of information that you need to remember, preferably in short chunks, and play it on repeat while doing the dishes or cleaning the table. Say the words with the recording, and soon enough you'll have those important lists of Game of Thrones character names memorized in a jiffy!

• 3. Most smart phones come standard with text reading applications. This means that while you are busy getting down and dirty, your phone can read you stuff that you're too busy to read. Emails, online news, text messages etc. can all now be absorbed while doing unavoidable daily activities, such as while shaving, eating breakfast or even just clipping your toenails. Just another small thing that most have access to, but that the majority of people don't use... Wasted resources if you ask me!

• 2. Doing work while sleeping! OK I'm just joking about that one... But maybe it's one for the future! If our brain activity at night could be recorded and used to create 3D worlds and movies, who knows what could happen. But until then,why not try something small, but helpful nonetheless: I find that when I get absorbed into something I completely lose track of the time. To solve this issue I created a timer that would inform me every three minutes that three minutes had indeed passed. Seems silly, but this sort of thing can really cut down on the time you spend doing things that could be done much quicker if only you realized when you were dilly-dallying. 

• 1. The number one stretch of idleness for the majority of the common people is that caused by long stints in the bathroom. We have all experienced those dragged out moments where as hard as we may try, the best solution to the problem seems to be just to sit, relax, and wait for nature to perform its duty. During these callous moments, minutes can tick by without us even realising! The best way to combat this is to find something that preferably requires a single hand, for reasons I hope obvious, such as reading the newspaper or your favourite book. Just make sure you don't dirty the pages!

Just to prove my point, I typed this entire post on my Samsung S2 whilst upon the high seat of parliament, and now that my motion has been passed, I hope you will follow suit.