Time Management & Life Hacks to Save You Time
Tips to Help You Maximize Your Time
Do you feel like sometimes time just slips away from you? Do you need ways to save time in your schedule and make yourself more efficient? Did you waste time this morning looking for a lost shoe? Or what about the blouse you wanted to wear but could not find (I still have a blouse lost in my closet that I could not find from last week)? Fortunately, there are time management life hacks you can start today to help you save time and money.
We all have moments even a whole day when things just don’t come together as we planned. Use these tips, and you will find yourself more organized and able to deal with these moments because you are prepared.
Time Management Tips
Preparing the Night Before
- Select the outfits you plan to wear the night before and place them in an easy to find place. Be sure to include all accessories and shoes.
- Select your children’s outfits the night before. No fussing in the morning about what to wear. Have their shoes and shoes prepared too.
- Prepare lunches and backpacks the night before. You don’t want to be running around on a rushed morning looking for lost homework and preparing a last minute lunch. Be sure all homework, books, lunch money is packed the night before. Don’t forget gym bags for PE and musical instruments.
- Pack your own brief case or work bag. Be sure to include your laptop and important work papers you will need the next day.
- If you have a baby, pack the diaper bag. Remember to include diapers, extra clothes, baby formula. When my children were babies, I always prepared the bottles the night before. I would prepare the total number of bottles needed for the next day, so I was not mixing bottles all day. When the baby attended daycare, I would prepare the bottles with water the night before and have them in the diaper bag ready to go.
Preparing in the Morning
- Get up the first time your alarm goes off. Do not allow yourself to hit snooze and think you have an extra 5-10 minutes. An extra 5-10 minutes will not make you feel better during the day, but not getting may make you late and add more stress to your day.
- Get up before you children and allow yourself time to start your day. Do something you enjoy like savor your cup of coffee or read your Bible quietly.
- Get your children dressed first, especially little ones. When my children were little, I would always dress myself first, then the kids. My children are a little older (youngest is 6), but it’s much easier to help the youngest get dressed and then let her go eat breakfast while I am dressing than wait to dress her when I am ready. If she’s dressed, we can leave when I am ready. The older children just need reminders.
- Keep your closet organized. Have all your blouses in one section, and your pants and skirts in another section. If possible, organize by color to make everything easy to find. Don’t forget your shoes. Keep all your shoes matched on a shoe rack or organizer.
- Have simple and healthy breakfasts available to eat. Weekday mornings are not the time for fancy breakfasts.
- Simplify your steps for getting ready as much as possible. If it’s not absolutely necessary, skip it.
Home Cleaning
- Keep a bucket or small carry toolbox with your cleaning supplies (just the basics like a few rags, mirror cleaner, counter cleaner, Lysol wipes, All-purpose cleaner). When you start your cleaning chores, take this bucket or toolbox with you so you have all your supplies.
- Have a set cleaning schedule and follow it. Maybe you like to do all the cleaning on one day. Or maybe you do the cleaning as one chore every day. Decide your schedule and follow it. If you start skipping a day, it’s easy to keep skipping days and then you will not home cleaning will fall behind.
- Pick up every day. Do a 5-10 minute pick-up every day. In this quick clean-up, put away items that have been left in the wrong place, wipe down the kitchen counters and dinner table, sweep the floor, and fold blankets.
- Minimize the time you handle items. If you don’t need it, toss it. If you need to save it, file it. Don’t just lay it on the counter to be handled later (it will get lost).
- Once a week try to clean out clutter. Empty the “catch-all drawer”, spend an hour removing unwanted items from one room in your house, clean out one closet. Depending on how much you save, sometimes you will need to repeat these steps. Each time you clean out, you will find more items you are ready to let go.
- Have a place for everything. If it has a place that it should go, then you will know when it’s out of place and creating clutter. You will also be able to find it when you need it. If it doesn’t have a place, find it a place or get rid of it.
Your Turn…
What is your best time management tip?
