Life is about developing yourself, which includes several skills. Here is a list of which skills you have to learn, and why!

• Speedreading. You don’t have time to read every book that is ever written, you don’t have time to read even a fraction of all the written books. But if you are able to speed read, you can read a lot more books, which means more knowledge and satisfaction!
• Speaking another language. You only speak English? Of course, almost everyone speaks English, but the non-American/English people speak another language besides that. I speak Dutch and English, perhaps you should learn another language too, because it’s handy and because it’s cool!
• Walking on your hands. I didn’t come up with this one, a friend of mine said it. ‘So if I lose my legs, I’ll still be able to do something.’ Does that need more explanation?
• How to tie your shoelace FAST. Ah, how long takes it to tie your shoelaces? 7 sec each, every day twice? That is 28 seconds a day. That is 10220 seconds in a year, 204400 seconds in 20 year. So you spend 3407 minutes in 20 year with tying your shoelaces, that should go faster right? I mean, that is 60 hours, that is like reading 3 books. Here is how to tie your shoelaces, fast: How to tie your shoelaces fast. Now tying your shoelaces takes only 4 seconds each. That is only 32 hours in 20 year! So you just made 28 hours in 20 year, that is almost a complete day, you’re welcome!

Those are my four for now, I will come with an update sometime, anyone have any skills I should add to this list? Post it in the comments!

Two days ago I informed you about what I call, the before the day. I can understand if you, after you had your BTD, you feel a bit tired during the day, because you are up early. Therefore is a solution: the powernap!

There are several ways to powernap, but I have created my own, and it works for me.

What is a powernap?

A powernap is as it says, a power nap. A quick nap, which gives you a boost to go own the rest of the day. You feel better after the quick nap. With quick, I really mean quick, don’t sleep longer than 30 minutes. Your sleep intensity is at the start really high, so at the beginning of your sleep, you gain a lot of mental energy.

How to powernap

• First, drink coffee, of course, this sounds like cheating, but it works! Drink coffee before you go to sleep, and the caffeine will start to work after 20 minutes. Which wakes you up!
• Set your alarm at 30 minutes. You won’t sleep right away, so set your alarm at 30 minutes, if you are tired enough you will fall asleep within 10 minutes and you still have a 20 minutes nap. Which is the right amount.
• Go to sleep. Obviously, close all the curtains and get into bed, with you clothes on. Seriously, getting up will be hard, but if you have your clothes on already, it’s much easier. It sounds rediculous, but it is true.
• When the alarm goes, get out of bed. Open the curtains, shut off the alarm, be awake.
• Alright, I’ll give you a break, get back in for 5 more minutes. But don’t fall asleep! Just enjoy the warmth of your bed!
• Get up, and feel refreshed.

I use the powernap as a way to recover after a training, so I can go on with school again. For me, it is working really well. I’m curious about how it works for you, post it in the comment section, I want to make another post with reactions, and I want to use yours! (You can also contact me on Twitter!)

Put the powernap in practise and share your thoughts!

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Early bird

You never got time enough to do all the things you want to do, you get up at 7.30 AM and you go to bed at 12 PM, but there is a way to use your time better.

I like to call it ‘before the day’ because you work on things, before the day actually starts.

The Idea

In stead of getting up at 7.30 AM, you get up at 6.30 AM or even 7.00 AM. This means at least half an hour extra on your day. This half an hour you use for whatever you want to do. I recommend you do something active, when I get up early and read something I would fall right back asleep. Write a blog, go running or practise origami.

When you finished the half an hour, you are going to do exactly what you do normally, just go to college. The only difference is that you already done something that day. Which means you already feels satisfied.

But, that means less sleep right?

If you do it on this way, yes. But instead of going to bed at 12 PM, go to bed at 11 PM. You may think you are a nightowl, but you only think that because you like to stay up late. Go put this in practise and feel the productivity-difference!

Stefan, how do you do this?

I swim 3 times a week at 6.00 AM, but this isn’t because I like it, it is the only opportunity, but it is a good example of BTD. And when I don’t have to train I wake up early and write a blog post.

Try it out

Go! Put it in practise, set your alarm early, choose what you want to do, go running, write an article or make the most beautifull origami figure! Good luck with it. I will be posting about this subject again!