What Would You Do With One Extra Day?

Today should be the last day of the month, but we are in a leap year. Think of tomorrow as our bonus day! For most of us it will be life as usual (wake up, wipe kiddie snot, work, wipe more snot, sleep, repeat), but think of this- If you could have one extra day to do something, anything- what would you do? Would you spend time with family and friends? Would you rather spend the time cleaning the house or tackling projects around your home?

Yahoo! polled over 2,000 people and found these results-

80% chose doing something fun like hanging out with family/friends, going on some wild excursion or shopping

63% said they might work, do some sort of organizing around the house or clean the garage

40% would do some online clean up, like cleaning their email box, their many online profiles or back up computer files


I spoke with Heather Cabot, the Web Life editor for Yahoo!, who is an expert on the Internet lifestyle. She is also the busy mother of twins and founder of the cool site The Well Mom to see if I could garner some tips on streamlining our lives on and offline. Through her I learned three easy tips to help manage my life on the web.





1. Bacon- Not the Oscar Meyer type either, but the email you opt in for when you subscribe to a newsletter or website. Remember that cute pair of shoes you bought online? You probably subscribed to the stores newsletter without even knowing it. Take ten minutes and unsubscribe to these newsletters as you get them in your inbox. If you are like me, Bacon stresses you out. You feel you have to read it but do not have the time and it clogs your inbox.

2. Social Networking- It can be a lot of work keeping up all those profiles, poking your friends and uploading pictures onto all those different networking sites. Re-evaluate why you are on these sites. Is it the networking for work or fun? Pick a professional one and a fun one and work from there. There is no need to be everywhere at once. Clean up your profile on these two sites and in the long run, you will save time.

3. Be mindful and opt out of things- Be selective of where you spend your time online each day and how much time you are actually online. It is all about balance.

Heather also suggested doing tasks like banking in one place. You can put all your credit cards, bank statements and more on one site these days. Check out safe websites like Wesabe and Mint that can show you where your money is going and how to budget efficiently.

Seeing that Heather is the founder of The Well Mom, a website where women can learn about obtaining and maintaining a healthy balance in life, I asked her for some tips in that area as well. You do not have to be a mother to heed her advice either. Heather talked about the importance in “remembering to be present in all you do, to be really there in the moment. Don’t multi-task and be mindful.” Take time for yourself each day whether it doing something decadent like spa time or simply taking a shower alone or reading a magazine. Whatever it is you need to be a calmer, nicer you, do it! She even has a great checklist on her site called ‘the well mom checklist’. Post it on your fridge ladies! If you are a new mom, please read this list. It is important to ask for help too, she says. Being assertive and pro-active is very important in life, but especially when you have children. You cannot do it alone so do not be afraid to admit that and seek help when needed. Lastly, do not take yourself too seriously. Do not worry about things so much. Easier said than done I know. However, it is advice well taken. I could not agree more.

I really enjoyed talking with Heather. She is down to earth, funny and not at all intimidating like I thought she might be. I got a bit freaked out when I found out she was a former ABC News anchor and correspondent. Like most women though, once we found some common ground you could not shut us up. Thanks Heather, it was a pleasure speaking with you!

For more information about Heather Cabot, you can visit her here and here.

What would you do with one extra day?