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Do you ever feel like your days fly by? Then, you get to the weekend and it flies by too? I know lately I feel like this. I just feel like I don’t get all the things I want to get done! We wake up early to go to the gym, work all day, sometimes have a second workout, cook dinner, then about an hour later it’s time to get ready for bed. I do have to admit we go to bed earlier than most couples our age so that does cut our evening time some. However, we must do that to continue to function after 4:30 mornings.
Ryan and I don’t sleep in and we don’t watch t.v. which is two places people can gain time easily. So I set out on an investigation to find ways to save time. I think a lot of people feel the same way I do so I thought I would share some tips I found!
There were the common ones like: don’t multitask, get away from distractions, and sometimes you need to say no.
Then there were others like:
Only handle things once– When Ryan was packing some things up from his mom’s house to move to our house he was making a pile on the floor. I asked what it was and he said trash. I giggled to myself and then asked if he would like a trash bag. He looked at me with questioning eyes. I then explained if he had a bag he could put it directly in there rather than making a pile now then having to put it all in a bag later. We got a trash bag. It worked great and saved time by only handling things once!
Pack your bags the night before-Ryan and I each night pack our gym bags for the morning, our lunch and anything we need for work for the following day. It allows for a fast transition out of the house rather than trying to gather things in a morning rush.
Automate your bill pay– Although this may take a little time in the beginning to set up, it will pay off after the first month of bills that are automatically paid. For us moving into a new house and having new bills and such has been kind of a hassle to get all set up. Some places have to wait 4-6 weeks to get automatic payments set up so be careful that you don’t accidently miss a payment you thought was going to be drafted. Things are finally getting settled and it is nice to not have to spend time making out bills!
Maximize your commute time– Listen to audio books on a topic you would like to learn about or make phone calls (if you are a type of person who can manage that without getting in accidents). Ryan and I will listen to audio programs that we may not have time to listen or watch otherwise. Just think: how much time a day do you spend in the car? I spend 15 minutes one way to work. That on its own comes up to 2.5 hours of learning in a week just from home to work and work to home. I also sometimes use this time to call friends I have not talked to in awhile or to return calls.
Batch your activities– They say if you do alike activities together it tends to save time because you get in a groove or it helps you not to repeat steps you would have to do each time you did that activity. For instance: Each day I take snacks with me to work along with my lunch. Instead of every night putting yogurt in a cup, carrots in a sack, and hummus in a cup, etc. I do it twice a week. On Sunday I will prepare Mondays and Tuesdays then on Tuesday night I do Wednesday, Thursday and Friday. This way the items are already out rather than having to get it all out each night. It doesn’t seem like it would save a lot of time, but I can actually tell a difference in quicker packed snacks!
Good news is I found a lot of great tips that could save someone time. Bad news is I realized that we already do most of these things… 🙁
BUT… I did stumble across two ideas that I am implementing.
1) When you are on your way to another part of the house grab something from the room you are in that needs to be moved to somewhere that is on your way or to the room you are going. This helps with clutter, but also eliminates trips later when trying to pick up.
2) Make one meal a week that can be doubled or that is large enough to freeze half of it for a quick meal later. Also, to use crock pot recipes so that they are ready to eat once you arrive home.
Maybe with these time savers it will free up a little more time in each day! Then, we can spend those few extra minutes a day getting something done we would like to do without feeling like the whole day flies by.
Leave a comment below telling us what kind of time savers you use!
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