5 great ways to save time.

1. Plan your day.
   Make a list of the most important tasks to complete, and then do them first thing that day.
   
   
2. Get up earlier and go to bed earlier.
   Let's face it, what do you really do the last hours of every day? Are they really that important to you? Do you really feel that much more relaxed after spending x amount of hours in front of the tv or computer screen?
   Getting up early gives you more time in the beginning of the day, including daylight, to do the things that make your life better.
   
   
3. Reflect on what you're doing and how you're doing it.
   When you're in the middle of doing something (working, cooking, playing a game, watching a movie) realize what you're doing and what you hope to get out of it. Are you working as effectively as possible? Is your current activity really a distraction? Isn't there a friend you could e-mail in the twenty minutes it takes to read that blog? Maybe you'd enjoy it just as much, and so would your friend.
   
   
4. Watch less T.V./avoid Google and Wikipedia.
   We've stopped watching T.V. (except the shows we download), and it's given me a lot more time. Of course, watching T.V. in China was never really an option, but we had done the same in Belgium too. If you download what you want to see, you watch it when YOU want to relax and take some time, not when the channel decides it for you.
   
   
5. Stop the multi-task madness!
   I get the least amount of stuff done when I have the most on my plate. Remember studying for an exam but starting too late? You get so panicked and stressed that you end up doing nothing.
   You've planned the tasks, and you've put aside time for each of them. So the only thing you should think about, is the task you're on this very moment. You'll not only finish it much faster, but you'll also do it much better.

Any other ideas for how to save time and become more efficient? I'm always looking for new ways to gain that extra half hour.

nǐ 你