Here is a list of 10 things I do to make more time during the day. Some of these things are no-brainers while others are more suited for me and may not necessarily work for you.

Here they are in no particular order:

1) Eat Dinner Early

My wife and I get home from work at around 4:30PM. By 5:30PM, we've already finished cooking, eating, and cleaning up.

So how does this help with time? Well if we go to bed at 10:30 PM, that gives us block of 5 whole hours to do whatever we please. Five hours is plenty of time to work on whatever projects you need to work on or to blaze through a number of things on your to-do list.

Had we scheduled dinner at 7:00PM, we wouldn't have that same freedom to schedule our time to do what we need to do. In other words, we end up having to work a schedule around dinner. You might be too tired as soon as you get back from work to do anything significant before dinner and after dinner, you may feel more drowsy after the meal and would probably be more inclined to relax.

Of course, having an early dinner will mean you'd feel a little hungry later on in the evening, but some light healthy snacks usually holds us over.

2) Waking Up Early

I usually wake up at around 5:45AM every morning. I don't have to leave to go to work until 8:30AM. That gives me 2 hours and 45 minutes to get whatever I have to do to prepare for the coming day.

If you added up the big block of time from the previous day with the block of time in the morning, you've practically got yourself a full day's worth of working hours!

I can tell you from experience that you can definitely get a lot done in that time. Over the course of a week, you've got yourself more or less the same amount of time you do working full-time.

3) Do Chores While We Sleep....Or While We Work

There are certain chores that take a long time to do and instead of waiting for them to complete, why not do them overnight?

I'm talking about things like laundry or running the dishwasher. You can set these before you go to bed and when you wake up, it's all done. Likewise we can do these kinds of chores while we are at work and when we come back, it's all ready to be put away.

What I usually like to do is to "clump" all these types of chores together - that way, I can get them all done in one pass and I won't have to break-up my other, larger "chunks" of time for these tasks.

4) Book Classes/Appointments For The First Thing In Morning

Anytime we have appointments or classes on the weekend, we've always booked them for the first thing in the morning. That way, you are not planning your day around your appointment but instead you are efficiently setting your day up.

Imagine you've booked an appointment for 2:00PM on a weekend. On that particular day, you now have to start thinking about: should you have lunch at home or go out, should you run some of your chores before or after the appointment, you can't go catch a matinee after the appointment because it'll be too late and you don't know what to do for dinner, if you have dinner at home then should you go home and prepare,etc, etc, etc.

Guess what - now you've got yourself planning your day around your appointment.

Get that appointment or class out of the way as early as you can in the day. You can then have the freedom to do whatever you wish and it will feel as though you still have the entire day to yourself.

5) Breakup Larger Tasks Into Smaller, Manageable Chunks

Whenever I'm confronted with something that will require a large amount of time that I cannot seem to fit into my schedule conveniently, I'll break it up into smaller chunks and do it over the course of several days.

An example for me is exercise. During the weekdays, I cannot conveniently fit a big block of time dedicated to exercise. If I do it on any one morning, I'll be straining for time to get my other tasks done. I cannot do it immediately after work (I'm cooking and eating dinner), and I dare not exercise too close to my usual bedtime.

So what do I do?

I do intense, concentrated exercises on two or three muscle groups everyday for 20 minutes in the morning, six days a week. That's it! I can easily spare 20 minutes in the morning, every morning for six days, which adds up to a 2-hour workout every week.

Doing this also saves me a whole morning (or afternoon) on the weekends since I no longer have to dedicate a whole 2-hour block of time exercising.

6) Bunch Small Tasks Together & Get Them Done In One Sitting

I have a bunch of smaller tasks that I usually to do all together in the morning. I like to bunch these tasks all together so that I can get them out of the way and I don't have to think about when to do them later on.

I also try to do them all back-to-back so that I make maximum use of my time and when I'm about ready to leave the house for work, it'll feel as though I have already accomplished so much and the day hasn't even started!

A brief list of small tasks I do in the morning are: check email, check overnight market news, do my visualizations, do all necessary prep work for the trading day, exercise, check of various blogs, and so on and so on.

7) Do Grocery Shopping During Weeknights

This tip is one of those things where you think to yourself "Why aren't more people doing this?". I can understand that maybe people don't have time or they are too tired after work, but with this list of 10 things, I personally find plenty of time to do it (not that it takes a lot of time).

In the past when we did our grocery shopping on weekends, we had to contend with lots of traffic, a full parking lot, crowded grocery aisles, on-sale items out of stock and long check-out lines. Then we'd go another specialty grocery store to pick up a few extra items and we'd have to contend with the same things there too.

Since then, we've changed and we now like to go grocery shopping on either Tuesday or Wednesday nights, usually around 7:00PM when all rush hour traffic is gone. Why?

Well, we get our pick of parking spots, the aisles in the grocery store are near empty, everything is fully stocked, and no lines at the check-out counter. Then we can zoom over to the specialty store and pickup whatever else we need.

By doing this, I'd say we cut our grocery shopping time by almost 1/2. What used to take a whole morning or afternoon now only takes us an hour to do.

8) Do All Prep Work The Night Before

Whatever prep work we can do for the next day, we'll try to do it the night before.

The main thing that we do the night before is to prepare everything we are going to have for the following evenings' dinner. This include cutting up the veggies, prepping any meats, and sorting out which ingredients will be cooked together.

How it works in our household is as follows - my wife preps all the ingredients the night before and separates them into the various dishes that we'll be having.

The following day as soon as I get home from work, all I have to do is open the fridge and cook them according to how they are separated. No prep work is needed on my part and 15 minutes later, dinner's ready when my wife gets home (which is usually shortly after I get home).

9) Just Grab A Cup Of Coffee And Get Off The Couch

My problem is that immediately after dinner, I have the need to just sit down for a few minutes to let my dinner settle, which then leads to drowsiness, which then makes me want to just be a couch potato (this is especially true if I've had a really heavy dinner).

My wife doesn't seem to have this problem, but for me, that sloth-like feeling after dinner not only affects my productivity, but it also eats up a lot of time.

What I do now is the following: since we finish dinner at around 5:30PM, if I'm unable to get myself out of that "sloth-like" state by 6:00PM, then I'll get up off the couch and get a cup of coffee.

Obviously this isn't going to help everyone out there, but for me, this works wonders. All I just need is something to kick start me up and if I cannot do this under my own power, then coffee always does the trick.

If I don't grab that cup of coffee and get up off the couch, I end up spending the entire evening watching mindless TV shows (I've been guilty of doing this a few times).

10) Learn To Speed Read

Do you know how many RSS feeds I have in my newsreader? As of today, I have 383 feeds.

You may be thinking "That's absurd" or "What the...". Or you may know someone with more.

Obviously some of the blogs I have in there are no longer working, but I can tell you that on a typical day, there will be over 1000 new posts from the various feeds that I look at.

Since my interests are so varied, I have many types of feeds in my newsreader - trading, self improvement, luxury, travel, real estate, blogging, technology, health, and news are just some of the varying topics.

Part of it is that I do selective reading and the other part is that I actively try to speed read most of the posts. I cannot afford the time to read every single new post on a daily basis, but learning to speed read has definitely been a time saver.

As you can also see, I'm also an avid reader of books (our library no longer has room for all the new books that keep coming in - until we move to a new house, all new books end up in boxes or on the floor) and the only thing that allows me to read as many books as I do is by speed reading.

There you have it - 10 things I do to make more time during my busy day!

For more articles like this, please visit A Journey Of Dreams at www.ajourneyofdreams.com!

If you're like most people, you like to read articles or posts with lists in them. These kinds of posts are often quick and to the point and allows you to get at the main points fast.

So what I've decided to do is to compile a list of articles that were posted during the week from around the blogosphere that contain lists. I'll make this a weekly event and I'll post it up on Saturdays at my site A Journey Of Dreams for your enjoyment over the weekend.

The list I publish will be based on self improvement or personal development.

Here is the list I published last week on my site:

• 5 Steps To Change Any Habit at Ezine Articles

• 5 Ways To Double Your Energy Without Caffeine At LifeHack.org

• 5 Essential Lessons On Making Difficult Decisions In Life at Life Optimizer

• 5 Actions You Can Take To Gain The Respect Of Others at Clearly Envision

• 40 Inspirational & Motivational Songs That'll Keep You Refreshed at Goal Setting College

• 14 Blogger Jobs That You Can Apply For Today at ProBlogger

• 10 Secrets To Success at Pick The Brain

• Top 10 Beachside Destinations at A Luxury Travel Blog

• 4 Keys To Making Your Dreams Come True at A Miracle A Day

• 21 Money-Saving Sites From Around The Web at Get Rich Slowly

• 3 Reasons To Diversify Your Reading And How To Do It at Life Optimizer

• 3 Simple Tips When Planning Is Not Possible at Middle Zone Musings

• 7 Powerful Steps To Overcoming Resistance And Actually Getting Stuff Done at ZenHabits

• 5 Great Things About Blogging at Slow Down Fast

• 12 Ways To Get Just About Anything You Want at Dumb Little Man

• 10 Ways To Develop A Prosperity Consciousness at Cultivate Greatness

• 32 Free Personal Finance eBooks at Personal Finance Management Guide

• 20 Simple Tips To Defeat Negative Thoughts at Life Optimizer

• 10 Great Quotes That Inspire Courage at Life Balanced

• 4 Simple Steps To Turn Persistence Into Habits at Cultivate Greatness

• 14 Ways To Stay Awake At School Or Work at Dumb Little Man

• 5 Tips For Living A Fulfilled, Complete Life at Dumb Little Man

Finally, let us not forget the list I posted previously on this site:

• 3 Things I Avoid When Using The Law Of Attraction

• 3 Reasons I Procrastinate And What I Do About It

• 10 Things I Do To Make More Time

For more articles like this, please visit A Journey Of Dreams at www.ajourneyofdreams.com!

I've had bad days - everyone does. Especially someone in my line of work, it can be easy to blame one thing or another.

Since learning about the Law Of Attraction, I've been diligent in keeping things in perspective and in keeping a positive attitude. I have daily routines that keep me in the best of spirits and I usually start the day feeling 110%.

But I've had rough patches and sometimes I can't help but feel frustrated. I know enough to know that I won't grow unless I take a closer look at myself and what I may be doing wrong and what I can do to fix it.

Not too long ago after a string of bad trading days, I just snapped and I made the mistake of blaming the Universe for my bad luck. For several days in a row I was thinking in the back of my mind "Why are you doing this to me Universe? I've been so good and I've been doing everything in my power to keep these frustrations from getting the best of me! What's your problem Universe? Do you not want me to achieve success?".

This had gone on for about a week and a half and at the end of one particular day of cursing the Universe, I remember I felt mentally and physically exhausted and my mood was as sour as it had ever been.

On my way home that day, for whatever reason, something inside me told me to literally STOP - to stop what I was doing and to stop whatever I was thinking. My mind and body were telling me that the thoughts racing through my mind were not supposed to be there.

Once I got home, I meditated for a long while. Once I finished meditating, it all came to me and I realized that I shouldn't use the Universe as the "fall guy" for my shortcomings. I was using the Universe as an excuse for my failures, when I know full well that I am completely responsible for the things that go right....and the things that go wrong.

Perhaps the Universe was telling me something - perhaps it was demonstrating to me that there was a better way of doing things. Maybe the Universe was helping me realize something, perhaps it was trying to point me in the right direction.

By blaming the Universe, I gave myself an out - an excuse for not looking at the problem - ME!

Later that night, I was determined to work on "me" and I was determined to figure out how I got myself in such a situation and what I could do about it. I reviewed that string of bad trading days and I saw that during that bad stretch of trading, I was trading in a way that I wasn't used to and that I started to get sloppy on my trades (in terms of execution).

The first thought that came to me when I found this out was "Why on Earth did I do this trade this way? ", and "That's not right, I didn't follow my rules and that's not the way I usually trade!".

I identified my errors, made it a point to avoid repeating the same mistakes, and went into the next trading day full of confidence.

And you know what? It worked.

I bounced back and I got myself back in the groove and things have been rosy ever since.

That whole time I was thinking that the Universe was going to look after me because I was doing my visualizations and I was keeping a positive attitude - in essence I was leaving everything up to fate.

You know what?

The world doesn't work that way - you can't just think of something you want and expect to get it.

You have to take action to get what you want and in my case, I wanted to get my back to trading profitability and the action I took was to review and adjust my trading strategy.

So the moral of the story is this:

If you find yourself blaming others, the Universe, your luck, or anything else on your present circumstances, then STOP! People like to put the blame on other things so that they don't have to look at the source of their problems - themselves!

For more articles like this, please visit A Journey Of Dreams at www.ajourneyofdreams.com!