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Ways to save time on everyday chores

The other day, Samantha Ettus simply could not find a particular pair of trousers.

But these days she doesn’t worry, nor does she go about ransacking the New York City apartment she shares with her husband and two children. Instead, she relies on the principles espoused by Michael Solomon, author of How to Find Lost Objects.

Solomon — a self-described findologist — and 99 other experts are featured in Ettus’ new compilation, The Experts’ Guide to Doing Things Faster: 100 Ways to Make Life More Efficient.

Each expert, as deemed by Ettus, takes one chapter to explain the best way to do a particular task, whether it be learning new names, raking leaves, selling a home, recovering from a break-up or stocking a home bar.

“The lost object chapter is my perpetual favourite,” Ettus says.

By reading it, one learns that a successful search is handled systematically, guided by the principle that the object will be found, typically no more than 18 inches from where someone set it down.

Ettus, 36, who also created The Experts’ Guide to 100 Things Everyone Should Know How to Do, and The Experts’ Guide to the Baby Years, says she developed her latest compilation in an effort to reduce lost time.

She writes in her introduction: “As someone who is passionate about everything but sitting still, I am always in pursuit of a more efficient life. ... Every extra minute we can squeeze out of life’s requirements adds a minute to life’s joys.”

As she tours with her book, she is even more acutely aware of the demands on her day. “Especially right now, I am dying for more time.”

It took Ettus about two years to put this together. And while the process, at times, was like “herding 100 cats,” Ettus says one of the greatest joys was getting to know all the book’s contributors.

The experts include actress Rue McClanahan with break-up advice, competitive eater Crazy Legs Conti on curing a stomach ache, and founder and president of Virgin Group Sir Richard Branson on how to get a loan. Ettus says she tracked down the experts by cold calling all of them, sometimes several times before getting them to agree to be a part of the compilation. “I really wanted the top of the field,” she says. “In the end, I fell in love with all of them.”

Ettus is particularly proud of convincing Barbara Corcoran to write the chapter on how to sell a home. It took Ettus four tries to finally get Corcoran, founder of The Corcoran Group, a leading New York City-based real estate firm, and contributor to several television programs.

“I didn’t know how pertinent it would be,” Ettus says, considering the current state of the housing market.

Beyond that chapter, Ettus says she finds herself returning to the book for help with everyday tasks.

“Even after working on the book, I didn’t memorise all of it,” she says. “I continue to return to chapters when it becomes relevant to me.”

Jody Bortone, chairwoman of the graduate occupational therapy programme at Sacred Heart University in Fairfield, Connecticut, says finding ways to do things more efficiently may leave more time for other activities that give one’s life more meaning.

“If I learn how to buy groceries faster so that I can spend more time with my kids or participate in a hobby that is meaningful to me, then it is a good thing,” she says. “Efficiency in and of itself does not necessarily mean the quality of life is better.

“Efficiency is not to be judged in a vacuum,” she adds. “It is embedded in the spiritual, emotional and day-to-day lives of people. Finding a balance may not necessarily mean equal time for all activities.”

Efficiency, she says, should be perceived by how it enriches the quality of life of a particular person. It is a guiding principle of the department, which is so named to represent the “business” of people’s lives, such as work, schooling, the care of others, rest and leisure.

Occupational therapy, she says, is aimed at helping people of all ages and abilities to perform and engage in activities that give their lives meaning, purpose and function.

That message is what guides Ettus in her efforts.

“This is not a matter of doing something based on a stopwatch,” she says. “Faster is just a sexier way of saying efficiency. I want to give people more time to do the things that they love to do.” — New York Times News Service

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