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When trying to increase our efficiency, we essentially care about producing the maximum amount of work in a given unit of time. This section will share tips for maximizing your efficiency.
In order to have more time to do the things that we want to do, we should start by looking at where we spend most of our time. What is one of the most common activities that pretty much everyone does in a day? That’s right, walking. Here’s a sample of a typical student’s day:

9am – Get Up
9:30am – Walk to Class
9:40am – Class Starts
10:30am – Class Ends, Walk to Class #2
10:40am – Class #2 Starts
11:50am – Class #2 Ends, Walk to Lunch
11:55am – Eating lunch
12:30pm – Finish Eating Lunch, Walk to Lab
12:40pm – Arrive At Lab (Yeah it took you 5 minutes longer on the way back :-P )
2:00pm – Lab Ends, Walk to Class #3
2:10pm – Arrive at Class #3
3:00pm – Class #3 Ends, Walk to Library
3:10pm – Arrive at Library, Homework/Study
6:00pm – Walk to Gym
6:10pm – Work out at Gym
7:00pm – Go Have Dinner With Friends, Walk to Collegetown or dining hall
6:15pm – Eating Dinner
7:15pm – Finish eating, back to dorm/hang out
7:30pm – Arrive at dorm/some sort of night time entertainment

In this normal sequence of events, you walked a total of 85 minutes, and spent 50 minutes at the gym. However, if we assume that you can run 3 times as fast as you walk, it would take only 28 minutes to traverse the same distance. That is a savings of 57 minutes a day! Furthermore, most people do some sort of aerboic exercise for about half an hour while they’re there, so you can skip that since you’re already getting your running time in for the day. Additionally, if you schedule your gym days better, so that you only do aerboic exercises on some days, you can skip the gym trip all together.

So in total, you can save approximately 1.5 hours per day by just running from place to place instead of walking! Not to mention you’ll be getting exercise every day AND you’ll be running faster day after day, hence increasing the amount of time you save even more.

What can you do with 1.5 hours per day? Well, I like to assign a monetary value to my hours. In this example, as a student, probably only like $10/hr. So 1.5 hours/day * 365 days * $15/day = $8212.5. Assuming you have some knowledge of converting your time to money, what an easy way to make $8.2k/year and have a healthier body!

This is even better for the professional who works. While most professionals drive, their amount of time spent walking is pretty large also. In general, to/from lunch, to/from a recreational place, and/or possibly to/from work/gym. However, remember that the hourly rate is much higher for someone who has decent technical/work skills. A technical job is very easily $40/hr, conservatively (as of 2007). Even if they save only 30 minutes a day including the savings from the gym), that is 0.5 hours/day * 365 days * $40 = $7,300. As a professional person, with all tha extra time, you can easly produce $7.3k worth of extra work and ask for that $7.3k raise (or invest your time elsewhere on something else if your boss is kindda tight). For professionals who drive though, very significant chunks of time can be saved by making good use of concurrency or not driving.

So pretty much, running should be an efficient person’s default mode of getting from place to place, unless there is some special reason not to (i.e. you don’t want to show up all sweaty to meet a date, you’re hanging out with people and they’re all walking, etc.).

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Comments

3 Responses to “Always Run”

  1. Kevin on June 19th, 2007 1:20 am

    This is amusing because it’s true yet stupid.

    Classes accomodate the time needed to move from class to class.

    Either way, it’s fun to run and good for the heart perhaps.

    Good article.

  2. Warren on June 23rd, 2007 2:57 pm

    Yeah, classes do accomodate for that by starting like 20 minutes after the last one. However, if you get there in 5 minutes instead of 20, you can use the extra 15 minutes for other stuff ilke studying or doing homework, which you would’ve spent later.

  3. laura stiljump on January 30th, 2011 9:23 am

    Can’t imagine doing this with the backpack I carry from class to class. And, getting sweaty without workout clothes on isn’t appealing either. Any other tips?