50 Ingenious Ways to Save Time Every Week
Do you feel like there’s never enough time for what you really want to do in your life? That you are always stuck in the day to day responsibilities don’t take over too much and we can have more time for what we really want to be doing.
What’s the answer?
The trick is to maximize the time that we do have. If we can make every minute count as much as possible, we should find our daily responsibilities doesn’t take over too much and we can have more time for what we really want to be doing.
To help you find that extra time, I’ve compiled 50 of my top tips to save time each week.
I really hope that they help you take take some control back and make tie for what’s important to you.
1. Group Similar Tasks Together
By grouping things together (errands, paying bills, phone calls, etc), you will get them done much faster than if you do each one as it crops up.
You will already have what you need out, and you will be mentally ready to tackle that specific thing.
2. Use Any Waiting Time
There are so many times every week where we find ourselves in some sort of a queue. Waiting in line at a store, waiting at the doctor, waiting in traffic, etc. So why not use this time to get stuff done?
It’s easy to go through your emails on your phone, make a to-do list, read a magazine article, etc.
3. Declutter
One of the easiest ways to save time and keep a clean home too—is to declutter. When you have less stuff in your home, you have less to clean, less to organize, less to maintain—saving you loads of time each week.
4. Create a Cleaning Schedule
If you know what household tasks will be done on a given day each week/month, then you save time doing it more than needed.
I have a post on creating a cleaning schedule HERE that you may find useful.
5. Create a Meal Plan
When you create a meal plan at the beginning of each week, you can shop for everything you’ll need in one trip, not have to think every day about what you’ll make, use less food and make less waste.
6. Make Every Outing Count
You have to pick up the kids from school—so why not do some errands on the way. By making each trip count as much as possible will mean you’ll have fewer trips overall—saving you a lot of time over the course of a week.
7. Double Up Whenever You Can
I spend a lot of sitting at my desk writing this blog, and as such I wanted to start walking more. I also wanted to spend time with my girlfriends each week, but we usually sit and have coffee. It was a win-win, therefore, when I suggested grabbing a coffee and going for a walk with them. This mean I could do everything I wanted to do, but on a smaller timescale.
Can you think of any ways that you can double up in your life-so you can still do everything you want in less time.
8. Automate Your Tasks
Whether you start paying bills by direct debit, plan your meals each week or automate in some other way—you will easily save loads of time.
9. Subscribe and Save
Subscribing to things, such as magazines, medicines and other items means less time shopping each month.
I love Amazon’s Subscribe and Save option to order regular deliveries of food and regular household items—it make it easy and helps me from forgetting to order them as well which saves time on extra trips to the stores.
10. Have a Place for Everything
If you can create a place for everything in your home, you will know exactly where it is when you need it (as long as you put it back when finished).
11. Create a Morning Routine
Make you morning tasks with a routine and you’ll be able to run on autopilot and get things done more quickly. This leads me on nicely to…
12. Create an Evening Routine
This will save you time exactly as your morning routine will.
13. Plan What to Wear the Night Before
It can be a waste of valuable time in the morning to pick out what to wear. What can make it worse is when you need something that needs ironing or washing!
If you plan what you’re going to wear the night before, you can save a lot of time in the morning as a result.
14. Manage your Energy Effectively
Try to pinpoint when you are your most productive—for me, it’s in the morning after I’ve had a healthy breakfast. Organize your schedule to take advantage of that time to tackle your most important tasks.
15. Stay Focused
Though some multitasking works well—the majority doesn’t.
When you have to concentrate on something, it pays to give it your full attention to get it done much faster.
Try to remove as many distractions as you can and you’ll find that you can save hours each week as a result.
16. Multitask
Multitasking is a way of saving time when it’s done right, otherwise, you wind up with no focus, as stated in point # 15 above.
It works best when the tasks you’re working on don’t require much concentration—or at least one of them doesn’t.
For example, you can call a friend while doing the dishes or laundry.
17. Declutter Your Schedule
We tend to continue doing things week after week because that’s what we’ve always done. We then become blind to what can be changed.
Take a look at your schedule and see if there’s anything you can eliminate, or can you reduce the frequency of what you are doing.
18. Use Leftovers for Lunch
When you cook dinner, try to cook enough so that you have leftovers for the next day’s lunch. Roasted chicken is great in a sandwich or salad and pasta dishes can easily be reheated. This saves prep time the next day.
19. Minimize TV Time
You can gain so much time by just turning the TV off every once in a while. Cut out one program a week and work your way up from there.
20. Create a Convenient Layout for Your Home
Check to see that the layout of your home works well for you to help you save time. Having things in the right room means less time walking from room to room to get things. Having the perfect kitchen layout means you don’t have to spend extra time putting things away.
21. Put Things Back After You Used Them
It can be quite frustrating to go get something and not be where you thought it would. You can spend minutes or even hours searching for it—and that’s a lot of wasted time.
Making the habit of putting things back when you’re done with them will help you save precious time.
22. Turn off Social Media
We know that having a quick glance at social media is never just a few minutes. Before we know it, 30 minutes or an hour has passed and we’ve done nothing but find out what’s going on in other people’s lives.
23. Check Email Less
Along with TV and social media, email can suck up a lot of your time if you’re not careful. Try checking it once or twice only each day—which can save you hours each week.
24. Record Your Shows
TV advertisements can waste so much time. Recording your shows can give you that time back by allowing you to fast forward through them.
25. Wear the Same Each Day
I’m not saying wear the same clothes every day, but having a type of go-to outfit can making choosing what to wear much easier and quicker.
Create a sort of outfit that you can mix and match and you’ll always be ready in no time. The fewer decisions you have to make each day, the more time you’ll save.
26. Share Lifts for the Kids
You kids may participate in a lot of after-school activities, which can be quite draining. Why not share the load with other parents? If someone else is making the same trip, you can alternate taking the kids and save time each week.
27. Create One Pot Meals
Create one pot meals to save washing up time. You can find many one pot meals on Pinterest. These are very easy to prepare and save cleaning time as well.
28. Food Shop Online
Food shopping can take a couple of hours—between traveling to the stores, walking around the aisles and making purchase decisions, looking at special offers, standing in line to pay and traveling back home.
Why not save this time by setting up a regular delivery online?
Most supermarkets offer this service for a small fee, which can be worth it for the time you save. You can even save time deciding what to buy as they save your favorites in a list so you don’t have to search through each time.
29. Delegate
You don’t have to do it all yourself. Get your family involved or hire some help—just a couple of hours a month can make a huge difference—which will give you back some much needed time for yourself.
30. Create Checklists
If you find yourself writing the same things down all the time, then consider making checklists that you can simply take out when you need them to save time. These work well for a babysitters info sheet, pet sitters info, preparing for houseguests, etc.
31. Plan your day
Take some time the night before or early in te morning to see what time you have an what you need to get done will help you be much more productive.
32. Shop Online
Since most retailers offer free shipping, why not take advantage and save on gas too.
You can purchase housewares, clothing, beauty products, etc. without leaving your home—and save a lot of time walking around the stores as a result.
33. Set a Timer
We tend to take the time we have to complete a job—whether that be a few minutes or an hour. Why not maximize this by setting a timer and racing to get things done.
34. Say “No” More
Often we find it easier to say “yes” to someone than to disappoint them or seem unhelpful. But it’s more beneficial to you to learn how to say NO a bit more—it’s not selfish to protect your time.
35. Avoid Rush Hour
Whenever possible, try and schedule things so you don’t have to travel during rush hour.
36. Use the Quickest Route
Make sure you’re using the quickest route and transportation to get where you need to each day. Would taking the train be easier than driving? Have you taken the same route each day and not checked for a while.
37. Strategize Shopping Lists
When you write a shopping list, write it in the order you go around in the store. Group items in categories so you can avoid wasting time going to and from each section multiple times.
38. Question What You Are Doing
When you are about to do anything—question whether you really need to be doing it at all—or is it just a habit?
39. Read Using Audiobooks
One of the best ways I save time is listening to books rather than reading them. This is because you can you can do other things at the same time—you’re not just sitting down and focusing on the book. I love listening when cleaning my house or driving. I get stuff done while enjoying a favorite book!
40. Do Bulk Cooking
It takes the same amount of time to cook double or triple amount for a meal, so if you can cook more than you need, you can save a lot of prep time.
Just let the food cool a bit and freeze what’s left—then you’ll have a quick meal for a day when you’re really busy.
41. Create a Convenient Place for Your Shopping List
Place a shopping list on your refrigerator door so you (and your family members) can add things that are needed as they run out. This saves you time having look through your cupboards and refrigerator every time you shop.
42. Use a Slow Cooker
This will save you so much time by doing the cooking for you while you are out and about each day.
43. Leave Space Around Furniture
It take so much more time to vacuum a room when you have to move every piece of furniture to clean the floor. Place your furniture so you have enough space around each piece to easily maneuver your vacuum and save a few minutes each time.
44. Wash Less
Make sure you only wash items that need a wash. Sometimes it’s easier to just throw your clothes into the wash when they can be worn once more—but washing them less means less laundry time.
45. Use Two Laundry Baskets
Instead of spending extra time sorting items before you do your laundry, do the work upfront by having a basket for whites and one for colors.
46. Use Quick Wash Functions
If you use the quick wash functions on your dishwasher and washing machine, you can still get things clean but save a lot of time in the process (most things we wash aren’t really very dirty most of the time.)
47. Shower, Not Bath
Baths take a lot more time — but having a long hot shower can still make you feel pampered.
48. Wipe Down The Shower Each Time
This may seem like it takes more time rather than less, but over the course of the week, you will save lots of time scrubbing than if you left the water on the glass.
49. Exercise at Home
Save time driving to the gym and you’ll have exercised before you’d have even arrived. There’s so many simple exercises you can do at home, such as walking or running around your neighborhood, using the stair, using exercise videos on YouTube, etc.
50. Buy Gifts When You See Them
How many times have you been shopping (either in stores or online) and see the perfect gift for someone and think you’ll come back and purchase it nearer to their birthday.
Why not just buy things when you then and there—you’ll save so much time since you’re already there, and you won’t have to think it all through again as their birthday approaches.
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