How to Get Out the Door Faster in the Morning

Mar 2018

Stephanie has a problem most of us can relate to. She often finds herself rushing in the morning so she won’t be late to work.

In today’s advice column, Rick teaches her a technique called ‘Doing Things in Parallel’. This is a technique that she can use to optimize her morning routine to decrease the time it takes her to get ready.

There are many tasks or areas in your life that have many steps, steps that you must perform one after another – you cannot start the next step until you finish the first step.

But there are also tasks or areas of your life where you don’t have to wait to finish one step before starting the next. So, while you are waiting for one step to complete, you can complete another step or even two, or at least start another step and get it going. This will decrease the total time it takes you to do everything.

Ok, on to the story…

From: Stephanie Z <stephzzzzz@gmail.com>
Sent: February 4, 2018 9:11 AM
To: Rick Melnyck <rmelnyck@hotmail.com>
Subject: Hey!

Hey Rick,

Good morning. I feel like it takes me too long to get ready in the morning and was wondering if you had any techniques I could quickly implement to speed up my morning routine?

Thanks in advance.

Have a good day,
Steph

From: Rick Melnyck <rmelnyck@hotmail.com>
Sent: February 4, 2018 9:45 AM
To: Stephanie Z <stephzzzzz@gmail.com>
Subject: RE: Hey!

Hey Steph,

Thanks for the email. There is a technique called ‘Doing Tasks in Parallel’ that I think may help you quickly reduce your time to get ready. Many times, tasks you do in life are designed so that they are done in a sequential or linear sequence. The second task is not begun until the first task is completed. However, a lot of times you can save time by doing certain tasks at the same time, or in parallel.

So here is what I would do:

Every day for a week, write down how long your morning routine takes from when your alarm goes off until you leave the house. This way you will have an idea of how long it takes you on average, so that you can see if this technique helped you after you have implemented it.

Then, either write down or make a mental note of the different tasks you do every morning

Now is the fun part. See if you can figure out how to do some of your tasks at the same time, or in parallel, to help you save time. You may need to be a bit creative.

Let me know how it goes!

Have a good day,

Rick

From: Stephanie Z <stephzzzzz@gmail.com>
Sent: February 23, 2018 10:31 AM
To: Rick Melnyck <rmelnyck@hotmail.com>
Subject: RE: RE: Hey!

Hey Rick,

It worked! Yay! See below for what I did. I reduced my average getting ready time for my morning routine from 69 minutes to 35 minutes.

This is how I did it:

My usual steps in the morning were as follows, in order:

(1) Lie in bed, hating life for 5 minutes after my alarm goes off before I get up
(2) Get up
(3) Put coffee on
(4) Check behind shower curtain to make sure no one is there
(5) Morning poop
(6) Brush teeth
(7) Check email
(8) Crack eggs
(9) Wait while boring, plain omelet is cooking
(10) Eat boring plain omelet
(11) Shower
(12) Get dressed
(13) Make funny faces while I put on my makeup
(14) Leave

I was able to get creative and found that in fact there were several things I could do in parallel (noted below), my new steps are follows:

(1) Get up as soon as my alarm goes off and hate life while I put the coffee on (no reason to lie in bed while I hate life) – tasks in parallel
(2) Check behind shower curtain to make sure no one is there (you never know)
(3) Check email on phone while taking morning poop – gross but tasks in parallel
(4) Crack eggs
(5) Cook boring plain omelet, then shower and brush teeth in shower while omelet is cooking – tasks in parallel
(6) Eat boring breakfast
(7) Get dressed
(8) Make funny faces while I put on my makeup
(9) Leave

Thanks again!

Steph

Use It or Lose It!

Using the ‘Do Tasks in Parallel’ Change Concept

Identify an area of your life where you could benefit from doing tasks in parallel. (for example, your morning routine or your preparing dinner or doing your weekly chores)

Estimate how much time you spend on doing things sequentially

Write down the different tasks you do in that area of your life

Now is the fun part. See if you can figure out how to do some of your tasks at the same time, or in parallel, to help you save time. You may need to be a bit creative and experiment with this

Let us know how it goes by sharing what you have done in the comments section below

When to Use Doing Tasks in Parallel:

When you want to reduce the time you spend in a certain area of your life

Discuss…

How have you used tasks in parallel to make your life more efficient?

Thanks for reading and until next time, remember…PYMFP!
– Rick

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How to Get Out the Door Faster in the Morning

Use It or Lose It!

When to Use Doing Tasks in Parallel:

Discuss…

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