The Gift of Time Thanks to Technology

Don't be scared of technology

I’ve just concluded that for every international meeting I travel to these days, I save at least 20 minutes of valuable time between touching down at the airport and reaching my destination, all thanks to technology. I have been given the gift of time!

On a recent trip to Stockholm, I shaved valuable minutes off my commute by ordering train tickets via an app, arriving and hopping onboard with around 30 seconds to spare before the train left – therefore saving queuing at the ticket office, potentially missing my train and having to wait 20 minutes for the next one. I also navigated the city with Google maps, much quicker to be working in the map in real time than attempting to use a travel guide or rely on taxis.

So this got me thinking… don’t be scared of technology! So many people are still fearful of technology and the way it has changed our lives.

Don’t blame it for making society antisocial, or for doing people out of jobs. Instead focus on the positive changes, embrace it and use it to liberate some time in your day to day activities.

Great examples of this:

• Utilise online shopping to save yourself a visit to the supermarket
• Exercise at home with a YouTube HIIT session to save yourself a trip to the gym
• Think about having your devices and accounts linked so you can access them from your smartphone wherever and whenever you want – making your home and work life smarter and technologically streamlined.

You will see the time saved on these activities increasing, allowing you to feel the freedom and ease that this technological way of working provides.

Technology is only going to continue to develop this way, so you may as well get on board with it and embrace its benefits… there are plenty!

What can you do with all this new free time in your life? Don’t sit back and waste it! Fill it with something you otherwise haven’t been able to do.

For me, I use the time liberated through clever tech use to brainstorm ideas to raise money for charity and indeed complete these challenges.

Take last year’s challenge to run 40 marathons in 40 days for example: which I completed raising over £100k for Prince’s Trust in the process. Thanks to technology I was able to plan my route via an app, then track and time it daily, monitor the impact on my body, take pictures and record observations en route and share my fundraising mission with you via social media. Yes I could have run the marathons without the use of technology, but would it have been as quick, easy and fun to manage all those extra points? I doubt it. On that note, I am currently working up  plans for next year’s charity challenge, it’s a huge one and you will be hearing about it soon.

Given the gift of time, I also write. Writing is a huge passion of mine and I use technological tools to create as much time as I can for it. “Dead” time on my many commutes has provided many great opportunities to write my latest book “Live Love Work Prosper”, in which I explain how to effectively manage work and personal life, saying goodbye to the outdated idea of work/life “balance” and instead introducing the concept of work/life integration.

The new book is out later this year and I am so excited about spreading its message. I promise it will change your life, help your career and save your sanity. Just be sure to get to grips with technology if you want it to work even better for you!