Mashed Potato Life

I used to think I had to up my time management skills because when you think about it, how do you effectively combine being a father, husband, musician, office worker, entrepreneur, writer, ‘exerciser’ and all the other interesting things I’d wanted to do with my life – especially when you think about 4 hours of traffic on a daily basis?!

H.E.C.T.I.C!

C.R.A.Z.Y!!

With most Sunday mornings spent at home lounging, I was a bit happy that I had some time to play with, but time never seemed to be enough.

Then I stumbled on a rather interesting book called Refamily, which is a great read by the way and available online for free.

Yay!

It highlighted certain things I had already known, but re-emphasized a principle I would like to call the ‘Mashed potato life’. What this is simply about is that instead of breaking down various facets of your life into linear compartments, you can actually get more done when you combine them, as in, bring them together.

What am I on about?

So let’s say I want to spend time with my wife, spend time to unwind, spend time with my son, write for two hours, rehearse for two hours and then talk a walk.

If I break all that into separate activities, I will spend about 2 hours with my wife, 2 hours watching the movie, 1 hour with my son, 2 hours writing, 2 hours rehearsing and then 1 hours walking, which works out to about 10 hours.

Using the ‘mashed potato life’ approach, I pick the right kind of movie and unwind as I watch it with my wife and son – while rehearsing guitar finger picking  - and that takes about 2 hours. Then I write for 2 hours, spend an hour walking with my wife (if she’s up for it) and then spend 30 minutes teaching my son the piano, which helps me rehearse as well. That works out to about 6 hours. That is 4 hour saved in one day which works out to about 28 hours (over 1 day) to get other things done.

Now, that is just as example, which is a bit rigid, but I guess you get the idea.

So go ahead. Mash stuff up a bit – and get even more out of life.

Cheers!