If I had more time...

Okay so time does speed up as you age - everyone knows that. But what they don't teach you in school is how to account for this phenomenon. Leo Babauta of Zen Habits fame provides a list of "20 Ways to Find More Free Time."

The one I have found most effective and yet most elusive?
No. 12 - Do your Biggest Rock first. Of the three Most Important Tasks you choose for the day, pick the biggest one, or the one you’re dreading most, and do that first. Otherwise you’ll put that off as much as possible and fill your day with less important things. Don’t allow yourself to check email until that Big Rock is taken care of. It starts your day with a sense of major accomplishment, and leaves you with a lot of free time the rest of the day, because the most important thing is already done.

It's right up there with eat better, move more. Common sense but hard to practice.

Cheers...

Power Nap Dali-Style

This summer while in Trinidad, I honed my practice of power-napping to keep up with the young ones in the tropical heat. Whenever we had at least 15 minutes of downtime before the next activity, I'd dash off to the air-conditioned swamp, flop on my bed and listen with my eyes closed to a 10-15 minute ambient song like a stream or rain or crickets. Anyway, when the song ended, I'd wake up feeling rejuvenated.

The artist and napper Salvador Dali had an interesting nap technique, based on the idea that your body benefits from just getting to sleep as much as a couple of hours worth of dozing. He purportedley used a spoon to wake himself up just as he lost consciousness.

Here's how:
Sit in a comfy seat holding a spoon in your fingertips. You should be holding it in a way that when you lose consciousness (fall asleep) you drop it... the clatter (put a big metal bowl under your hand) will wake you.... and you're woken up JUST as you enter the best "dreamy" bit of your sleep. Then paint whatever you were dreaming about, I guess.

Cheers...