Efficiency Expertness 101

My life is about efficiency. I make lists of lists that I need to make. Check marks are my friends. I time how long it takes me to do laundry. I use Excel, Outlook, Project AND a running set of notes both in Word and in a paper notebook to organize myself. Perhaps you have seen the holiday letter and gift spreadsheet. Or for that matter the former lover ranking spreadsheet. You know it.

But this week, I even exceeded my own expectations about making my life more efficient. Here are two pictures of the nightstand in my bedroom.




It has all your standards. Candle, light, water glass, lip balm, lotion, linen spray, birth control pills, nail polish ... bottle of wine!

Yes. This week I was at the grocery store, buying my standard low-end bottle of drinking while making dinner and before bed wine, and it dawned on me ... every night before bed I clean up, and then I walk into my bedroom, get my wine glass, walk back to the kitchen, pour wine and then walk back to the bedroom.

How much more efficient is my life if, instead of that, I just buy a second bottle of wine and leave it on my nightstand? Then, that entire kitchen scenario goes bye bye. And that kitchen routine? That's four minutes of my life that I now have back every evening!

And those are four minutes where I can now use the items in the bottom drawer of that nightstand! BAM! I just wrote that entire entry to get to the punchline!