How to manage time?

How do you manage and find time with having a full-time job/being a full-time student?

• Unfortunately like most people, I have a full time job. At the same time, I love horses. I'm currently only taking lessons and am about to have a lease (full board at the same stables he's from). But all my time riding is spent either one the one day I get off early or on the weekends. When I lease I'll be riding at night after work at least every other day. It should get interesting.. I've never ridden at night before, though I will have a light source! How do you manage and find time to spend with your horses if you are a full-time student or have a full-time job? Do you find yourself riding at night or just on the weekends?

• Answer:

  In the warm months of the year when the days are long, I ride most evenings after work. In the winter, it's harder because we don't have an indoor arena, and once the ground freezes or there is ice underfoot, I don't ride for safety reasons. Like you, I work full time, and have plenty of other responsibilities during the weekdays. On weekends, I make sure to ride- and usually my riding time is longer than it is during the week. Saturdays are often show or competition days for me ( I do dressage) and when that's not the case, I generally take lessons at least once a month or so. As for riding at night, I don't worry about that- our arena has lights, and it's not hard to see. The secret to finding time for riding is learning how to prioritize and plan ahead. If you make a point of paying close attention to how you spend your time ( both at work and at home) you will start to see ways in which you can economize on your required activities so that you have more time available for fun things like riding. For instance, take a look at your commute times to and from work. What route do you take to your office or workplace? Could you pick a different route that has less traffic? Would getting up a half hour earlier each morning make any difference? Have you ever considered joining a car or van pool, so that you don't have to drive all the time and face the constant stress involved in that? Not having to drive opens up the possibility of your being able to get at least some things done remotely ( as in via e-mail, laptop or smartphone) while you're sitting in the back of someone else's car or van. What about during your workday- do you eat in the cafeteria, brown bag your lunch, or do you go out for lunch every day? If the latter is true, then you should think about changing your ways if you want to save yourself some time. Dining out every day is a HUGE time waster, and it's unproductive, as well. It's also quite costly.You could save yourself a lot of minutes ( and possibly be able to LEAVE WORK earlier at the end of the day) by simply brown bagging it and eating at your desk or in the break room. At home or on the weekends, do you make lots of little trips to do errands, or have you taken the time saving, sensible approach and learned how to COMBINE errands so that you do several errands in one trip? Instead of making multiple trips to the grocery store, the bank, and the drycleaner's, how about combining the first thing with the last thing, and taking advantage of your bank's online services ( which for most banks are FREE, by the way) to check your balances and pay bills? You can do the same thing with the post office, too. The Postal Service has become very adept at offering online services like stamps and mailing labels, etc., to customers online, and often at reduced rates. Online services are the way to go for things like movies and DVD rentals too. It only costs about $8 a month to subscribe to Netflix and Hulu, and you should take advantage of that whenever possible. Check with your other creditors and your utility companies to see if they'll let you pay your bills on line instead of writing checks and mailing them. That's not only a time saver, it's also SAFER, because it virtually eliminates the risk of identity theft. If you are a person who takes medications on a regular basis, then you should ask your doctor and the pharmacist about getting generic versions of your meds. Generic versions cost less to produce, and work just as well as the top brand names- and, more importantly, they are just as subject to the same testing and approval process that the big brands get. While you're at the pharmacy, ask about home delivery services too. That's another way to save time and money on your prescriptions, because you don't have to make constant trips to the pharmacy every time you need something. I could go on forever with different ways to save time and money, but now it's your turn to brainstorm and come up with some of your own.