Browse Tag: time management

Facebook Rehab: The halfway point

Hi readers 🙂

I recently blogged about my intention to cut out Facebook for a month. I thought I’d share a few side-effects now that I’m at the halfway point.

1.) iPhone battery lasts longer. The battery on this wondrous phone is awful, but it’s much less awful now that I no longer screw around on Facebook all the time.

2.) More efficient use of daily time. I used to wake up before sunrise, but then over coffee, I’d start Facebooking. Somebody please, cue up your favorite rendition of “Who Knows Where the Time Goes?” because that’s the very question I used to ask myself whenever my time disappeared into the Facebook vortex. I gladly report that this is no longer a problem.

Facebook vortex *

3.) Less anxiety. When I was cruising facebook aimlessly, I had guilt sitting like a rock in my belly. This is no longer the case and I gladly report that I am less anxious.

4.) Self-pity. Yeah, I know–not a desirable side-effect. I’d feel frustrated sometimes, like that painful, mouthwatering sensation that overtakes your body when you’re not allowed to take a potato chip from the plate of Lays sitting in front of you. One night, thanks to my TiVo, I did a 24 marathon and finally watched the last 6 episodes of the series. As the final minutes played out and I cried with Chloe O’Brian and watched Jack Bauer fade away, I actually felt sorry for myself that I couldn’t whine about the end of my favorite show on facebook.  I thought, ‘Lose facebook AND 24 in the same week?’ Anyway, I got over it 5 minutes later. Sometimes my husband sits near me, logs in, and says something like, “Ohh, so and so posted her first pregnancy picture.” Insert itch-that-can’t-be-scratched sensation. How many times did I want to bitch to the facebook community about Italy’s crybaby tactics on South Africa’s fields? Many times, but I engaged in animated discussions about it with my husband and father instead. Sidenote: How crazy was Italy vs. Slovakia??!

5.) True face time. I admit that I’m generally over-addicted to my iPhone. The apps, the email, the games, and worst of all, the facebook. Now that I use my phone a lot less, I’ve become keenly aware of people who are plugged into their smartphones–I’m talking zero eye contact during a conversation so long as the damn phone is in their hands. I readily recognize that this is a growing epidemic of rudeness, and I renounce this awful behavior for my part. I vow not to look at random info on my phone while talking to people. This new self-imposed rule has enabled me to converse meaningfully with people in a pre-smartphone way: no distractions, complete focus. Of course, I owe my friends and loved ones that courtesy anyway.

Bottom line: Life was always good, but these days, life is better; I’d be lying, however, if I said I didn’t miss facebook.

Photo Credit: “Facebook is Scary” by Kevin Saff

$1 flip flops, just pay us your time and sanity.

Hello readers! I hope you’ve all got fun but restful Memorial Day plans for this weekend.

Empty racks. Nope, not the USSR, but a South Florida Old Navy store.

In light of what’s sure to be a busy shopping weekend, my mind is on bargains today. We all appreciate a bargain. Bogos, two-for-one, buy-one-get-half, etc. A sale by any name is worthwhile. Or is it? Reliable consumer research, like that of the reputable finance blog Walletpop, tells us that people often overspend during retail promotions by buying things they don’t need simply because they’re getting a per-unit discount. But in a world where many of us live with a scarcity mentality, it’s difficult to accept that truth. The voice of scarcity warns us that we may not have enough money in the future to afford it, so we must buy it now while it’s on sale. Or horror of horrors, it may get discontinued in the future, so we need to buy it now. Read the following sentence out loud, please. “It’s on sale, I have to get it now. If I don’t get it now, I’ll never be able to get it, or something like it, again.” Sounds like a ridiculous statement when you say it out loud to yourself, doesn’t it? It sounds ridiculous because it is ridiculous. It’s also false and irrational.

For me, nowhere does this irrationality reach its boiling point more glaringly than at Old Navy on Flip Flop day. Last week, it was a gorgeous sunny Saturday. I hopped into my car, for a pleasant visit to Old Navy. I went intending to get a couple of t-shirts for a short getaway trip. The parking lot at the shopping center was insanely full, but I didn’t mind. Until I got out of my car and realized that everyone was walking right past the Barnes & Noble, right past ULTA and Babies R Us, straight into Old Navy. I opened the door and was greeted with pandemonium. It was sort of like a refugee camp–masses of people grabbing random things, yelling out stuff like “I’m over here Rachel! I got the last two, thank God!” and “MOMMY! Where are you?” and “WHY are you here?? I TOLD you to save my spot in line!” In the meantime the aid workers–er, Old Navy employees–were helping any shell-shocked stragglers find the things they needed to survive, like various inexpensive items that were further discounted by 10-20%. The line snaked all over the store and I realized the error of my ways: I had unwittingly come on dollar-flip-flop day.

A portion of the line

Folks, many of us use flip flops, and if you’re from warm-all-year South Florida like I am, you probably use flip flops more than the average North American. I get that. What I don’t get is how or why people lose their common sense and reasoning, and actually stand in LONG, SLOW, winding lines to buy these cheap rubber things. Seriously, people?  The regular price is roughly $2 more, and there’s a 5-pair limit anyway. Why would people willingly participate in that unruly mess to save 5 or 10 bucks? Isn’t your time worth more than that? It reminded me of reports that I read about the Kentucky Fried Chicken promotion for the free meal: people waiting in line for a couple of hours for free fast food at what is already…drumroll please…one of the cheapest restaurant chains in the USA. Seriously? You’d rather wait two hours for two pieces of free chicken than shell out a few dollars somewhere else and do something pleasurable or productive with that time? Hmm, okay then…

Needless to say, I stayed at Old Navy just long enough to snap pictures of the madness and promptly walked out. In my opinion, waiting in line can be worth it for a significant discount on a big-ticket item, like a 20% markdown on a television. But if it’s a dress marked down to $29.99 when the original price is $34.99, then it’s not worth it. Neither that price point, nor that dip in price merit my wasting time in a long line when I could be at the pool with my relatives. My advice after previous years of holiday weekend shopping? Do a little research first before heading out. Just because something is featured on the cover of a store’s newsletter doesn’t mean it’s marked down–very often, the products you’re buying during holiday sale weekends aren’t even discounted at all! Bargains shouldn’t just be about saving a buck; they should be worth your time too. Time is not renewable resource, but a cheap product is! Remember that when you’re standing in long lines during Memorial Day Weekend sales, Independence Day sales and Black Friday sales and remind yourself that your time is more valuable than a pair of flip-flops.

What stuff are you and aren’t you willing to stand in line for?