Another Errand You Could Skip: Get Alcohol Delivered

Did you know you could get alcohol delivered? People tend to spend hours running errands. When it comes to buying alcohol, for instance, it takes an average person about 20 minutes or more. Often times this goes up depending on travel time to the store, finding what you’re and the time you have to wait in a queue, if there’s any.

To think, average drinkers usually lasts only a few days a week without alcohol. And, not every one of them can afford to buy in bulk, to keep it stored for future needs. This means more trips to the grocery or drive-thru liquor stores. If we put it in numbers, the time people actually spend on this errand could mean so much in the long run. Suppose, one spends 20 minutes travel time back and forth, and regularly buys alcohol - about once a week.

10 mins there + 15 mins shopping + 10 mins back = 35 minutes alcohol shopping
35 minutes shopping x 52 weeks/year = 30.33 hours/year

Remember in our earlier post where we used the calculators to estimate how much your personal time is worth? Go find out right now if you haven’t already.

How much value of your personal time do those liquor store runs cost you in a year? $300? $700?

Think how much time would you have saved in a week if only there’s another way to get alcohol? Imagine the relief of getting the batch of liquor and beer for that upcoming bbq you’re hosting?

It’s worth noting, each state’s liquor laws are different.

In just about every state, beer and wine are allowed. I have Amazon Fresh bring a lot of those for me when they bring my groceries. The wild card is the liquor and whether it can be delivered. In the DC area, you have 3 different state’s laws in play. In VA, ABC stores have a state mandated monopoly on all liquor sold, and they do not deliver. In DC and Maryland, it’s deregulated and can be delivered, so most all the resources below should work for you. Liquorama.com has a list of the states that do not allow shipments and those who only allow wine. The NCSL has a state by state breakdown in a chart, which is handy if you’re wondering about your state specifically.

Table based on the information taken from NCSL.

The remaining states not listed above only allow direct wine shipments. While these are all true, please also note that delivery of alcoholic drinks is only allowed to people 21 years old and above. The presence of one is required for every direct delivery.

For those of you, like me, that live in a state with restrictions, there is the potential for creative solutions too. Errand running services such as Taskrabbit, (here’s a referral code for $10 off your first use if you’d like to experiment with it) have people that will go run to the store for you and drop off what you need, you’ll just compensate them for their time.

It’s a good thing that e-commerce has reached the alcohol industry, and it’s actually thriving. This industry is expected to grow more in the next few years.  Have you ever had your alcohol delivered? What are you waiting for? Avoid these random trips to the store to satisfy your cravings, get your alcoholic beverages delivered!

Here’s some of the apps/websites/services I’ve heard of or tried:

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Drizly on mobile site

Drizly

I’ve used this one several times. With Drizly, there’s no need to worry about having an empty cup. Not on their watch, as they say. Drizly works with local stores and allows people to shop their beer, wine, or spirit of choice from their shelves at the touch of a button. Ordering can be easily done through any computer or smartphone by visiting their website.

Oh! They sell extras too. With their website, you can also have some snacks, mixers, sodas, and fruits delivered. Find some cocktail recipes too! Now, you’re so ready for that party.

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Minibar Delivery

Get your favorite drink, straight to your door with Minibar Delivery. You can visit their website, or download their app from App Store or Google Play, and experience alcohol shopping with just a few taps. They partner with local stores and identify which ones are nearest to your location.

Like others, they have extras too. No time to shop for gifts? Minibar Delivery got you covered with their Give a Gift offers. Better yet, easily and conveniently plan an event with the help of Minibar Delivery and just a few clicks with their Party Planner. You can even book a bartender for your next event. How cool is that?

budlight.com

Bud Light Button

This one is a funny and ingenius use of technology. It’s an app that is simply a button. You create a profile with your payment and credit card info, and the default quantity of bud light you want. 6pack? 12pack? After the initial setup you open the app and press the button, and in 30-45 minutes, bud light gets delivered to the location of the phone. I used it while I was at a social softball game one evening in DC and we ran out of beer. It was like magic! Used it one other time at a BBQ at a friend’s house. For light beer drinkers out there, maybe this app is for you.

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LoveScotch

LoveScotch, like many others, is an online liquor store but it gives more emphasis on scotch and spirits. You can have the best range of rum, vodka, tequila, bourbon, and more, delivered across the USA.

They also cater gifting with an even more personal touch. You can have a personalized message engraved in the bottle of your loved ones’ favorite drink. That would be sweet, wouldn’t it?

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Here are other options you might want to try, as well:

• RemedyLiquor

• Saucey

• KlinkDelivery

• Amazon

You may not be able to give up drinking, but you can give up random store trips for drinks. Save time and enjoy the comfort of ordering your drinks online and having them delivered in less than an hour!

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I’m Brian. I created Productivity Gladiator after I saw what a difference it made to share very small and very specific actions you can take right now, right away. They make a difference in your life, little by little, and the impact grows and grows. I want you to start doing the things you WANT to do, not get stuck chasing what you NEED to do. If any of this resonates with you, I’d love to talk with you or your organization about it, send me a note. Thanks for letting me share my Productivity Gladiator passion with you.

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Get Groceries Delivered. You Running Errands? Or Are Errands Running You?

The average American spends on average 10 – 15 hours per week on tasks like doing laundry, picking up the dry cleaning or grocery shopping. And of course, this in addition to their regular “40” hour a week career, and this is frequently even more! This is more than just about work/life balance; it’s about taking back your time!

Let’s just zero in on those grocery store trips, for example. How much do your grocery visits cost? Let’s put a number to it.

Data suggests the average person goes to the grocery store 1.6 times a week and spends 43 minutes there. As everyone knows, the grocery store can be quite headache with overcrowded aisles and the long lines to check out. Then there’s the travel time, which according to what I found is 15 minutes or less for 87% of people. For our estimating purposes here we’re going to use a travel time of 10 minutes each way door-to-door.

10 mins there + 43 mins shopping + 10 mins back = 63 minute grocery store trip

63 Minute Store Trip x 1.6 Trips Per Week x 52 Weeks/Year = 87.36 Hours/Year

How many dates could you have gone on with that time? How much would your relationships have been improved? How about time with the kids?

Remember in our earlier post where we used the calculators to estimate how much your personal time is worth? Go find out right now if you haven’t already.

If you value your time at even a very cheap $10/hr, for 87 hours that’s $870 of your time you spend going grocery shopping each year. At $25/hr that’s $2,184/year of your time. This doesn’t include the cost of the groceries either, this is just the time you spend on it.

Let’s add on another layer of going to the store. The more time you spend in the grocery store, the more money you will spend? If you have 15 items on your store list, you’ll likely come home with a few more items you found which were such a great deal, or something else you came across which looked cool, or you thought the kids would like.

Is there a way to break out of this time and money wasting cycle? Get your groceries delivered!

These services started to pick up steam around 2010. I’ve been getting groceries delivered since 2014. Here’s what I’ve tried, what I know, and resources I’m happy to share. Overall the change has been worth it. I only go to the grocery store maybe once or twice per year, the rest get’s delivered

Amazon Fresh

Best experience so far. Amazon Fresh Free Trial Referral Link: https://amzn.to/2InrRc1

Came to Washington DC in 2018, I quickly switched to give it a try. I haven’t looked back. Amazon Fresh is a service available to Amazon Prime members, for an additional $15/month. Unlimited deliveries included on orders over $40.

Pros:

• Orders have never been late…ever.

• Produce has been well picked. Have never had a product which I had to throw out

• Orders have been correct

• Many prices cheaper than competitors like Walmart and Giant.

• Delivery drivers in most cases have followed directions (ex: leave groceries outside my door, call me when you arrive to let me know the groceries are here if I don’t answer the door)

• They deliver the full lineup of Whole Foods products, so many of the generic brands are reasonably priced (Amazon just slashed prices on whole foods products)

• Delivery windows are in 2-hour increments from early morning to late night, can even deliver the same day, rarely have windows not been available.

Cons:

• Some items are Prime, some are Fresh, which are 2 different programs. Some are Prime Pantry, which is yet another program. Prices differ, need to pay attention

Peapod

I used Peapod from 2016-2018 up until Amazon Fresh arrived, because it was the best option I had at the time.

Pros:

• Had full stock of all items available from Giant grocery store for the same price as available in the store

• Had decent selection of delivery time frames, though they weren’t always available, sometimes had to order 2-3 days in advance

Cons:

• Delivery drivers often over worked, tired, and sometimes irritable

• Rarely did full order arrive as requested,

• Only 1 out of every 10 times did the driver arrive within the specified delivery time window.

• No way to resolve issues (ex: wrong item delivered, one of my eggs is broken, etc) automatically like amazon through the website, you had to email, then wait one business day for a response. You could also call but the wait was long on hold.

Instacart

Have tried this twice. Pricing on the app isn’t always the same as in the store, it’s sometimes inflated pretty drastically. Instacart is is currently the best option for Trader Joes delivery, though they drastically inflate the pricing. If they would match the price in the store, I this I would use Instacart as my go-to option more frequently and might even pay their monthly fee to get unlimited deliveries, but between the inflated prices, AND the delivery charge, I’ve stayed away and made do with other services.

Why do people say they don’t do this?

In my workshops, the most common response from people who were not on board with grocery delivery, it’s generally for 2 main reasons:

1. Only I can pick good produce.
   Okay, I understand this mentality. Here’s 2 thoughts on this though.
   a) if you had a friend who worked in a grocery store, and handled the produce all day, would you trust them to pick good produce? These are often the type of people that are picking your produce with these delivery companies.
   b) These companies know if they bring you bad produce you’ll leave and never come back, there’s incentive and motivation to get it right for them. This is exactly why I left Peapod, it happened one too many times. With Amazon Fresh I’ve never had a problem.

2. But I really enjoy going to the store.
   I don’t want you to think I’m taking this away from you. If this really is your favorite part of your week and you absolutely love to shop at the grocery store, then I support you, I want you to do the things you love and enjoy! The reality for many people is there’s too much on their plate, they don’t have time, and something has to give, and if they’re going to sacrifice something, the grocery store run is lowest on the priority chain. For some (not all, just some) participants in my workshops, when we dug a little deeper we found out that they’re overwhelmed, and going to the store was one thing they felt like they were good at. They felt successful when they did, so it was more of a pick me up, and by taking it away, it was like taking a “win” off the board for them, which didn’t feel good either. It’s been intriguing to see the reasons why there’s more to this when you dig a little deeper.

Conclusion

This isn’t meant to be an all inclusive list of grocery delivery services, I just wanted to share a little of my experience with it to get you thinking about it. If you want to read about all the different grocery delivery services, here’s a thorough Lucie’s List article from 2019 which does a great job digging into many more of the options you may have available. Try commiting to getting your groceries delivered for a month, see how your life and schedule feel different without the regular pressure of getting to the store. I recommend you try one service with their free trial offer. Then another. Then another. You’ll learn as you go. Each time you’ll get a bit more savvy. Pretty soon you’ll not only be saving money from the cost of groceries in the store, but you’ll be saving the time to go and get them.

If you find you miss going to the store, you can always go back to doing it, but if you have too much on your plate, try letting someone deliver your groceries, see if it changes your life!

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Subscribe if you don’t already! Get these nuggets of knowledge in your email so you don’t have to go looking for them!

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I’m Brian. At age 4, I was diagnosed with insulin dependent (type 1) diabetes and told that I was going to have a harder life that was likely 10-20 years shorter than normal. I’ve lived my best life every day since then, because you only get one chance to live it. I created Productivity Gladiator because I saw what a difference it made to share small and specific actions you can take right now, right away, to achieve better work life balance, be more productive, and live your best life right now, today, not wait until retirement. I want you to start doing the things you WANT to do, not get stuck chasing what you NEED to do. If any of this resonates with you, send me a note. It brings me joy to share this passion with you.

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Turbocharge Your Focus & Productivity Through Music

Ever been behind, and wish you could get “in the zone” to really crank up your productivity? With the right kind of music, you may see a huge difference!

With a work day requiring so much from us, it’s frustrating how often we get distracted. Even with the knowledge that we have a lot to accomplish, or the pressure of a deadline, the distractions continuously pull you away, keeping you from accomplishing what you want to during the day.

Some people, myself included, have discovered listening to music perks them up, keeps their brain working, and helps them focus on the task at hand, thus, helping them to be more productive.

What does the research say?

A research study by Nature Neuroscience, says “Music, an abstract stimulus, can arouse feelings of euphoria and craving, similar to tangible rewards that involve dopaminergic system.” In short, listening to music leads to dopamine release in our system, a reward of sorts.

A study about the effects of music in our concentration was done and published by Tram Nguyen, a scientist on the Cambridge Brain Sciences team. It’s called “Mind your music: The effects of music-induced mood and arousal across different memory tasks”. The study was done by letting participants work on memory tasks while listening to music of different types. It found that a person’s memory performance is at its best while listening to low arousal, negative music - one with a slow tempo.

In addition to that, there are other studies that also show proof that music’s effect to our focus may vary according to our taste in music. Our personal preference contributes a lot to music’s ability to perk us up and enhance our efficiency. For some, it may be the calming sounds of nature or classical music, or it could be music of any genre as long as it’s handpicked by them. While for others, it could be music scientifically arranged to decrease distraction and spark creativity.

Photo taken from Focus@Will’s twitter post.

What Kind Of Music?

For me, I’ve noticed that music is generally effective at putting me in a good mood. To take it one step further, it’s music without words or lyrics that really enhances my ability to concentrate. For a while, I’ve had a “smooth jazz” playlist, that upbeat “Kenny G” saxophone jazz which worked fairly well. Recently, I’ve been experimenting with a playlist/app/service called ‘Focus@Will’ which provides thousands of hours of exactly this kind of music, and the improvements in my focus and productivity have been so profound that I needed to share it with you. I’m listening to it right now as I write this, and I feel like I’m in the zone, cranking through this post! Focus@Will is a music service producing playlists based on human neuroscience. The company claims that with Focus@Will, people will be in their most focused state longer than usual, and helps them stay there. This audio technology works by balancing ‘distraction’ and ‘habituation’ in your mind, keeping you focused.

Here’s what they say, and what I’ve experienced:

Music has been used across cultures for millennia to put people’s minds in specific states: only recently have neuroscientists discovered that this effect is due to the broad impact of sound on neural circuitry across the brain – not just in the auditory cortex, but in all areas of the brain, including areas that are important for memory, analysis, and creativity. Focus@will uses the brain-shaping features of sound to keep your mind from avoiding two undesirable states: distraction and habituation.

You already know about distraction – it’s what happens when you have a video on in the background, or your kid is crying, or you turn on the radio while you’re working. Part of your brain is focused on the distractor, and you can’t concentrate on your work. But what about habituation? Habituation is the other extreme – your mind gets bored with your surroundings (environmental habituation) as well as whatever you’re working on (goal habituation). Because your mind seeks novelty, habituation leads to checking your social media, opening your email, or calling a friend rather than making continuous progress on the screenplay or code you’re writing.

Keeping your mind from being distracted away from your work while simultaneously keeping you from habituating to your work is the key to focus@will’s audio technology. Without sharing our “secret sauce,” we can tell you that we do this by making sure that each piece of music is related to the previous piece in a way that keeps you from being distracted by the changes, but that each piece of music is different enough from the previous piece so that you don’t habituate to the music or your goal. In this way, we balance your mind between the two poles of distraction and habituation, keeping you focused on your work.

Give It A Try!

Don’t take my word for it, try it out! Here’s the Spotify playlist I found which has been a game changer, called Focus And Flow - high intensity.
Also, another one I use frequently which has heavier beats (slight techno vibe) called House Focus by Spotify.
Here’s a couple of youtube samples as well in case you’re not a Spotify user.
Another one I use frequently which is uptempo instrumental hip hop beats called Focus Flow by Spotify.
Below I’ve embedded a free Youtube video below to try as well.

Here’s the link to a service that produces and offers it’s own version of this music:
https://www.focusatwill.com

Next time you’re feeling out of focus and unmotivated, try one of these playlists and see how far you’ll go from zero to finished tasks.

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Subscribe if you don’t already! Get these nuggets of knowledge in your email so you don’t have to go looking for them!

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I’m Brian. I created Productivity Gladiator after I saw what a difference it made to share very small and very specific actions you can take right now, right away. They make a difference in your life, little by little, and the impact grows and grows. I want you to start doing the things you WANT to do, not get stuck chasing what you NEED to do. If any of this resonates with you, I’d love to talk with you or your organization about it, send me a note. Thanks for letting my share my Productivity Gladiator passion with you.

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Addiction To Social Media: Fix It With Apps and Tech Hacks

Social Media Addiction Series: Part 3

Updated 10/5/21: Removed app “Feedless” since the app is no longer on the ios app store, replaced with #Blockit which does the same thing even better

In Part 1 and Part 2 of this series, we started discussing this issue, now we continue with more solutions!

The good news is, technology and apps are being developed to help you keep social media under control.

Here are some of the apps and tech hacks you can use to help rein it in. If you haven’t already, before we dive in here, we recommend you take just a few minutes to read or refresh your memory on our last posts

1. #blockit, iOS app (alternatives available for other systems), Free

If you didn’t try the first hack in our other post, do it now, delete the social apps from your phone and try this free app. #blockit is a content blocker for iOS that removes the entire feed, stories, and other things from facebook when viewing it in your mobile safari browser. At the time of this writing, it did not work for the Chrome browser on iPhone, only the Safari browser, so I just am in the habit of using Safari whenever I check anything social media. This app allows people to still access Facebook’s core features like checking notifications and logging in to websites with your Facebook account while removing the newsfeed completely from the screen so you’re never sucked in to checking it! I love this hack, as it allows me to still check my notifications, but once that’s done, there’s nothing else distracting to see, so I just naturally move on to more important things. I find I’m only on facebook about once a day thanks to this app! This app works for Instagram, youtube, Twitter, and more, it works on one for free or you get them all for a one time $5 charge.

Before #blockit

After #blockit

2. Chrome Desktop Extensions, Free

A Chrome extension that eradicates the newsfeed and replacing it with inspiring quotes instead. There are other eradicator apps like this one, such as Distraction Free Youtube which eliminates the recommended videos on the right side of youtube. If you look, you’ll find many more of these for many of the other big sites many people get sucked into.

Another helpful Chrome extension is StayFocusd, it’s a productivity extension that allows you to place your own time limits for how long each day you can spend on time-wasting websites. After your time is up, it makes the site inaccessible for the rest of the day and your screen will simply say something along the lines of “Shouldn’t You Be Working?” in big text across the screen.

Newsfeed Eradicator Screen (left) & StayFocusd Screen (right)

3. Freedom App - Set Limits on all Devices

This is one of the all encompassing options. They describe it: ”Stop being distracted by your computer. Freedom is the app and website blocker for Mac, Windows, Android, and iOS, used by over 750,000 people to reclaim focus and produc­tivity. Experience the freedom to do what matters most.”
For those who just can’t help themselves, and need a more all-encompassing solution that covers all their devices, Freedom is the next step.

4. Scheduling Your Social Media Posting

Buffer Screen

If you’re using social media for business, fresh content and keeping people engaged is important. With apps like the below which allow you to schedule your posts, you can log on only once or twice a week or even once a month depending on your content. Simply schedule all your posts, and then go back to more important things with the rest of your time.

For Facebook, try Facebook’s post scheduling feature. This enables you to save draft posts and schedule them for the future.
Note: Facebook changed it’s API in 2018 to reduce the utility of other services like the one’s below, so I recommend doing your facebook scheduling in facebook itself.

For other social media sources, like Instragram, Twitter, Linkedin, etc, you have Buffer and Hootsuite. These platforms allow you to schedule posts and even monitor conversations and analyze the performance of your social media account as well. Batch your time spent on social media through the use of these apps, to get back to other more important things, like your work, and your life!

Discipline yourself and take control of what you do with your smartphones and computers. Escape from social media entanglement. I’m leaving you with this quote from Alan Lakein, on personal time management, “Time equals life; therefore, waste your time and waste of your life, or master your time and master your life.” Time is an investment, spend it with discernment.”

SOCIAL MEDIA ADDICTION SERIES: PART 1 - How Many Hours Do You Spend On Social Media?

SOCIAL MEDIA ADDICTION SERIES: PART 2 - Free Hacks To Fix It

SOCIAL MEDIA ADDICTION SERIES: PART 3 - Fix It With Apps And Tech Hacks
(*You’re Reading This One)

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Subscribe if you don’t already! Get these nuggets of knowledge in your email so you don’t have to go looking for them!

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I’m Brian. At age 4, I was diagnosed with insulin dependent (type 1) diabetes and told that my life was going to be 10-20 years shorter than everyone else. Time is precious. I created Productivity Gladiator because I saw what a difference it made to share small and specific actions you can take right now, right away, to achieve better work life balance, be more productive, and live your best life right now, today, not wait until retirement. I want you to start doing the things you WANT to do, not get stuck only chasing what you NEED to do. If any of this resonates with you, I hope you’ll subscribe, and if you’re so inclined, send me a note. It brings me joy sharing Productivity Gladiator with you.

Addiction to Social Media & Free Hacks To Fix It

SOCIAL MEDIA ADDICTION SERIES: PART 2

“Wait, I just spent 45 minutes on Facebook? Instragram?”

In Part 1 of this series, we talked about just about smart phones, now in this Part 2 and Part 3, let’s look at the issue overall across all your devices.

For many, social media has become a habit, and the longer they stick with that habit, the harder it is to break. For some, it becomes an unhealthy addiction or an unfortunate obsession. Are you a constant social media checker? In your leisure time at home? At work? On school breaks? While in line at the grocery store? While eating? While in the bathroom?

Found at Digital Information World

Statistics from GWI in a report by the Digital Information World show that internet users are now spending an average of 2 hours and 22 minutes daily on messaging platforms and social networking applications. In a year, that’s a total of 863 hours!

Expand over a decade and that means the average person spent 8,630 hours on it during that time. If there’s 8,760 hours in a year, that means…

That’s one FULL YEAR spent on social media out of your last 10 years?!

Let’s assign some value to that time. Did you use the calculator in our earlier post and calculate how much your personal time is worth? If it’s $10/hr that means you spent $86,630 worth of your personal time on social media?

If you value your personal time at $25/hr, that’s $215,750 worth of your time you spend on social media over the last 10 years?!

That doesn’t even count the “opportunity cost” of the life experiences you missed out on during those hours. The best memories of the last decade likely haven’t involved the times you were on social media! How many real conversations could you have had with this time? How many games could you have played with your kids? How many dates could you have been on? How many romantic moments could you have had? Happy hours? Family movie nights? How much money could you have made if you picked up a side hustle instead?

Now this isn’t saying you should quit social media all together, though I support and admire those who do, and they often seem happier not to be on it! I’ve heard so many people in my workshops talk about how much they need it. “But I have to use it.” I hear you! For some it’s work. For others it’s family. For some it’s for a specific project. Social media is helpful and advantageous in many ways, but the time you consume for it is the problem, and it’s not too late to find solutions to that.

So what can you do? Here’s life hacks to get you started!

Productivity Gladiator is all about action. Here’s specific actions you can take right now to help get it under control. Start with one of these, then do another, then another, find the solutions that work for you, where you feel like you’re back in control. I recommend trying all of these below. Start at the top and try that one for a week, then try the next one. Once you’ve tried them all, you should have a combination of one or more that gets you to a better place where you feel in control. These are behavioral hacks you can change now, now costs or apps needed. In the next post we’ll share other apps and software to add another layer to your management of this time suck.

• Turn off all of the notifications on all your devices.
  Yep, your phone, your computer, your watch, your tablet, ALL OF THEM. This loosens social media’s constant nagging, “check me!” Now you’re back in control, it’s up to you when you check it, and won’t bother you when you don’t.

• Uninstall the social media apps from your phone.
  This way you must use the browser to access social media. The experience isn’t as good on the mobile browser, so it’s not as easy to lose track of time, it helps make you slightly more aware of the time you’re spending.

• Sign out of your account every time you’re done,
  Now you always have to sign in to access the social media sites. It’s the extra moment which makes you think about what you’re going to do.

• Use an “incognito” or “private” browser window, on both your phone and on your desktop. Most people aren’t good at remembering to log out each time, and this way the computer won’t remember you’re logged in, and you’ll have to go through the act of logging in each time, which will make you pause and think about what you’re doing.

• Change your password to something AWFUL.
  This way each time you’re logging on, you’ll have to think and type that phrase, such as “IMworthlessONsocials” or “1kittenisdyingbecauseofme!” or “IMbetterTHANthisUGH” or much worse! BE AGGRESSIVE! BE MEAN! YOU NEED TO THE REMINDER!

• Use an actual alarm clock instead of your phone.
  In the morning, laying in bed. That’s the biggest time many of us fall into social media without meaning too. Avoid that completely. Get an alarm clock, maybe even one of the ones with a light that slowly gets brighter! I haven’t tried it, but something like this one could be an option?

Most importantly, if you find you’re unable to take any of the above steps, or it’s not making any difference, it may be time to talk to someone about this, a professional or therapist. There are real problems of addiction and depression that can come from social media. The Anxiety and Depression Association of America delves deeper into this. Please read, be self-aware, and seek help. It’s important! This is about the life you’re actually living, and you only get one of those, so prioritize that over social media!

Don’t stop here!

SOCIAL MEDIA ADDICTION SERIES: PART 1 - How Many Hours Do You Spend On Social Media?

SOCIAL MEDIA ADDICTION SERIES: PART 2 - Free Hacks To Fix It
(*You’re Reading This One)

SOCIAL MEDIA ADDICTION SERIES: PART 3 - Fix It With Apps And Tech Hacks

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Subscribe if you don’t already! Get these nuggets of knowledge in your email so you don’t have to go looking for them!

---

I’m Brian. At age 4, I was diagnosed with insulin dependent (type 1) diabetes and told that my life was going to be 10-20 years shorter than everyone else. Time is precious. I created Productivity Gladiator because I saw what a difference it made to share small and specific actions you can take right now, right away, to achieve better work life balance, be more productive, and live your best life right now, today, not wait until retirement. I want you to start doing the things you WANT to do, not get stuck only chasing what you NEED to do. If any of this resonates with you, I hope you’ll subscribe, and if you’re so inclined, send me a note. It brings me joy sharing Productivity Gladiator with you.

Calculate The Specific '$/Hr' Value Of Your Time. What's Your Time Worth?

The Calculator

Be sure to read the “Background” & “Applying The Concept” sections below and watch the TEDx Talk Brian delivered on this, to truly understand the intentions behind these numbers as a tool to help make decisions in your life.

Estimate Your Time's Value

No symbols. No commas. Use only basic numbers with decimals.
($68,703.50 = 68703.50 --and/or-- 15 minutes = 0.25 hours)

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Total annual income?
Before taxes

Average total work hours PER WEEK
Include commute time

Average sleep hours PER NIGHT
Include time spent in bed or sleeping.

Calculate Clear

Calculated Estimates

Personal Time:

$0/Hour

Work Time:

$0/Hour

Hours of Personal Time Weekly:

0 Hours

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Can I help you with this? Let’s chat, won’t take long!

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Background

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“There just aren’t enough hours in a day!”

Ever find yourself thinking that? Have you spent hours working on something, only to realize “That took me SOO LONG.” I’ve had those same thoughts at my job: “Wow, did I really just spend 40 minutes crafting the language in that email?” or “I just spent hours on this report that no one is going to read!”

It happens at home, too. Installing a new plunger in the toilet might lead to more than an hour lost. You fix what’s broken, and then go with a little cleaning, and keep going, and pretty soon it’s dinner time… already?!

What if we could actually assign a dollar value to that time?

Modern life pulls our time in all different directions. Really getting a handle on how you spend your time is a POWERFUL step in becoming more productive, both at work and at home! Incorporating the value of your time in your planning is a game-changer for many people when balancing work, and home and life. James Clear had a point when he wrote about The Value of Time:

“Not all uses of time are equal, and this simple truth can make a big difference in life.”

Most people are aware of this concept in general, but it seems to largely be ignored in practice. Most smartphones allow you to measure the amount of “screen time” being used — and knowing that doesn’t necessarily change how much time you spend on them though, does it? What about time spent on social media, or catching up on the latest episode of Game of Thrones? What’s the other shows you’re watching?

You spend this time, your time, but how do you get a perspective of it’s worth it?

The Wealth Hounds weigh in on this question:

“If time is money, then the decisions we make regarding how we spend our time are financial decisions.”

Ok, I don’t think that’s always true, but it definitely is sometimes!

Let’s work it out for you right now.

With Productivity Gladiator, we’ve worked out a calculator to let you estimate your own numbers.

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Applying The Concept

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Now that you know what your time is worth, I recommend remembering it 2 different ways. Remember the hourly value, and also remember what 5 minutes is worth. With those 2 numbers top-of-mind, we can easily interpret & see examples such as:

1. If there’s a $5 delivery charge, but it saves me 20 minutes, is that worth it?

2. I could take the bus for $2 and it will take 40 minutes, but an Uber will cost $8 and take 10 minutes, is it worth it?

3. I can pay someone $50 to fix the toilet, or it will take me 2 hours to do, is it worth it?

4. If you could pay someone $100 to clean your home and that would save you 4 hours on a Sunday, would it make sense to do that?

Certainly there’s more factors than just the dollar amount in some of these examples — it’s the perspective of what your time is worth that I want to add to your tool belt, because in many cases, it may simplify the decision making.

Let’s also examine some scenarios that work in the opposite direction. Considering your Personal Time’s value, what are these worth:

1. Take a 20-minute survey for a chance to win (1 person out of 1,000 will win a $50 gift card).

2. Take a survey about your experience and a company will send you a coupon for $1 off your next purchase.

Is that worth your time?

Remember the numbers we’ve calculated above. Check-in with yourself and update those hours from time to time as life changes and you make more money, or your work hours increase or decrease.

Consider this specific $/Hr amount as part of deciding what you’re spending your time on. It’s not always this simple. There will be times when you’ll make decisions that go against what these numbers might say — and that’s okay.

Armed with this knowledge you’ll be able to make better decisions with your time.

Henry David Thoreau once said,“It is not enough to be busy… The question is what are we busy about.”

Time is the currency of your life, spend it wisely!

More great reads on this topic:
The relationship between time, money, and happiness, by GetRichSlowly.org

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I’m Brian. At age 4, I was diagnosed with insulin dependent (type 1) diabetes and told that I was going to have a harder life that was likely 10-20 years shorter than normal. I’ve lived my best life every day since then, because you only get one chance to live it. I created Productivity Gladiator because I saw what a difference it made to share small and specific actions you can take right now, right away, to achieve better work life balance, be more productive, and live your best life right now, today, not wait until retirement. I want you to start doing the things you WANT to do, not get stuck chasing what you NEED to do. If any of this resonates with you, send me a note. It brings me joy to share this passion with you.