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Do you often feel frustrated at the end of the day because you didn’t get much done? We all do from time to time. It’s easy to get in a rut or let the chaos of life keep us from accomplishing things that are important to us. Life is busy. Sometimes we waste time and other times we just can’t seem to protect our time.
Time-saving hacks are great because we can learn ideas that will make a huge difference in the way we spend out time. Some hacks can really change your life. I hope that these time-saving ideas will bring you a lot more time to relax and spend with your family.
Tweak Your Schedule
So, maybe you already have a schedule or routine. But, it may not be working or it possibly needs to be adjusted. Think about what you usually do each day. What part of your schedule isn’t working? Make a list of things that don’t work and see if you can adjust the amount of time allotted for things you need to do.
If you know that one task never gets done as quickly as it should, just go ahead and give that task more time on your schedule. When you have your schedule set, have phone alarms set to remind you that it’s time to move on or set it up with Alexa.
Save Time With Food Delivery
I don’t recommend paying to have my groceries delivered over the long-term, because it’s not especially frugal. But, if you have a new baby or other life-change that makes it hard for you to shop, having things delivered is worth a little extra expense. Taking a new baby to the grocery store or if you have a broken leg (or some other physical issue)….it’s just too hard. It will be great during tough times to order groceries online through Instacart or another service.
Walmart has a plan that you can join. Having the groceries dropped off at your door will save you so much time and energy! We did this some during the pandemic (as I’m sure many of you also did) and it was great. If it works for you, there are also meal delivery services. These companies deliver a meal packet so that you only get food that goes into a specific meal. These are great because there is no food waste.
Cook Once, Eat Twice
This won’t work every single day, but could save you many hours each month. Buying a large amount of ground beef or turkey is great when you can find a good deal. Buying in bulk from Costco might be your best bet. Brown all the meat at once and freeze measured portions for meals to come.
You could also do this with chopping onions, peppers, etc with your food processor. Freeze 1/2 cup portions and thaw them out when you’re making a soup or casserole. If you’re making lasagna or other dish, make two and freeze one for later. There are cookbooks that can give you many fantastic meal ideas and they’re designed to help you save lots of time.
Autopay
Set your bills to autopay to save yourself time each month. You may not want to do this for every bill, but it’s great for utilities, cell phone, cable, and those types of bills. You’ll receive an email that tells you what you paid, so you’ll still be able to watch and make sure that you’re not getting a big surprise. Auto-pay can also be cancelled whenever you want to change your mind. I like using autopay for some bills that aren’t easy to pay online. Paying other bills online is also good because you don’t have to write checks and put the letters out to be mailed.
Carpool
If you have kids playing after-school sports or taking ballet, carpooling is a great idea. If you have a lot of friends, you could end up driving the group only once a week. Carpooling can save you so much time every day. It means even more when these pick ups and drop offs usually occur during rush hour. You’ll also be saved stress from driving in the heavy traffic and money, too. With gas prices high right now, carpooling is a terrific plan.
Sock Sanity
There’s nothing that wastes more time and your sanity than the missing-sock-problem. We all have socks that are hard to find. When you’re buying athletic socks for your family members, make sure you have a plan that will make laundry day easier. For the guys in my house, I buy one brand/style of athletic socks. They’re all the same so it makes pairing them easy.
I just fold all the matching socks and divide them equally between guys. Each person in the family could have their own brand/style if they wear similar sizes. One child could wear Hanes and another one could wear Adidas. Just purchase socks in a way that makes it very simple to fold and distribute them to the correct person.
Don’t Multi-Task
For a long time, I tried hard to multi-task. It was easier when I was young, to try and do many things at once. We’ve learned since then that it really isn’t good to do this. It certainly is a stressful method and we don’t need more stress in our lives. Try to follow your daily plan and be in the moment. Let yourself enjoy your day and the joyful moments in it.
Make sure to take time out for margin. Allow time throughout the day to take a breather. Sit down during the day and read your Bible, drink a cup of tea or coffee, or walk outside and breath fresh air. Life goes by so quickly and if we’re not careful, we just become a machine….checking things off of our to-do list. Smell the roses, laugh with your child over a funny joke, love life.
Plan And Prep
Plan your meals a week in advance. You can also plan a month of meals. This is great if you’re buying in bulk and do that once a month. At the very least, plan one day ahead. Prepping your meals for a week is all the rage right now, too. I don’t have kids at home, but my daughter swears by it. When mom works out of the home, it just makes good sense to do this.
You’ll save lots of time each day and your mind will be so much less stressed. No one has time to run out to the store every day, because you forgot to plan the meals for the week. Planning and prepping will save you time and money, too.
Save Social Media Time
When I homeschooled my children I learned that breaks during the day had to be regulated. If I allowed my children to watch television or play video games, they were done learning for the day. I had to make them wait until all of their learning tasks were done for the day before they were allowed to use screens. And, I know that the same thing works for me.
If I want to be productive, I need to postpone time on social media until my task is done. Why? Because, it’s too easy to scroll much longer than I had planned to. So, if you can schedule your social media time until the end of the day you’ll save time from being wasted.
Delegate
This is a very hard one for me, because I’m a type A person. I was raised to never ask for help. We took pride in being diligent. This is important of course, but we shouldn’t feel we have to be perfect and do everything all by ourselves. When you delegate at home, at work, and in groups, you’ll save time and sanity. At home, it’s important to delegate with household chores, errands, and dinnertime. Saturday morning is a good time to divvy up the household chores.
It saves time and everyone learns how to clean. If you’re in charge of a club or organization, it’s important to delegate. It may be easier to just do it yourself, but are you doing that because you think that your way is the only way that’s right? You’ll save yourself so much time and will learn to relax, if you give out tasks to all the members of your group.
Dinnertime will be so much better if your family members all have a part in getting it on the table. Let everyone do something: setting the table, assembling ingredients, helping you cook or chop vegetables, or cleaning up afterwards.
Good luck saving time! I would love to see you share your favorite time-saving hack, too!
@2022, copyright Lisa Ehrman
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- Lisa has been blogging since 2013, and loves sharing resources and ideas for living a simple life. To get free printables, bonus words, and more - sign up for the newsletter.
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Thank you for the information, helpful.
Very good tips. I do try to do social media at the end of my day.
Great tips – we all seem to need more time!