I’m a father of 3 who travels around 2 wks a month for work. It always seems that I have a book I want to read, a pod cast I want to listen to, a video game I want play or a movie I want to watch but I’ve only got an hour or so a night to do this. Doesn’t help that I have a wife that wants to lay me too in this time.
How do you portion your time? I’m finding myself overwhelmed and feeling like I don’t have enough time in the day to do everything I want to do.
How do you travel to/from work? If you’re on a bus or a train you could be using that time to catch up on reading/podcasts/etc.
I would make a little list of the stuff you’d like to watch in the near future. So write “XYZ Podcast, 30 minutes” and “Mad Men, 22 minute” and “Pulp Fiction, 100 minutes”. Even do it for magazine articles that take more than 5 minutes. Then arrange the list from shortest to longest and save it on your iphone, ipad, or in a text document on your laptop, whatever is convenient. Then, when you have some free time, ask yourself how much time you have and pick accordingly. Update your list weekly or whenever you have time.
Never, ever force yourself to watch something you’re “meh” on. If you want something lighthearted and funny, don’t force yourself to watch a documentary on Dresden just because it’s been on the list for awhile. Always try to sort by time, then genre.
Remember, you’re not looking for efficiency, you’re looking for something that fits in the time slot you have and suits your desires at that point. So you’re looking to enjoy yourself :). Always choose to snuggle with your wife over watch or listen to something too.