Everyone has the same 24 hours in a day. What you do with them is up to you, but you may be wasting time each day. I wish I could say that I wasn’t wasting time, but I definitely find ways to do so. Fortunately, with the time saving tips I’ll share today, you can reclaim some of that lost time.
The bad thing about wasting time is that it can hold you back from reaching your goals.
If you are able to figure out where in your day you are wasting time, you may be able to:
Make more money.
Pay off debt.
Spend more time with your loved ones.
Learn a new skill.
Have more fun.
Reach your dreams, and more!
All of those things take time to figure out, and if you’re looking for time saving tips to make them a reality, I have you covered. Just think about it: What do you think you could do with an extra 5-10 hours, or even more, each week? That’s 20-40 hours a month! These time saving tips can help you put those hours back into your life.
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The bad thing about wasting time is that you probably don’t realize when you are doing it. I’m sure you’re already aware of some huge time sucks, but it’s usually the little things you don’t realize that add up to a huge number of wasted hours.
Hopefully the time saving tips in today’s post will help you find hours in your week, no matter how you lose them.
Here are 12 time saving tips to help you reclaim your time and stay in control of your life:
1. Stop checking your email over and over again.
This is one thing that I am pretty bad at. But, even though I am guilty of checking my email numerous times throughout the day, I am starting to take my own advice and follow my first of these time saving tips. And, I’m starting to get better.
I think the problem for me is that I feel obligated to keep checking my email in case something pops up with my business or if a reader has a question. I want to be as available as possible, but that means I am constantly checking my email. Once I realized how much time I was spending on that, I realized that I could use that time to interact with my audience more in my Facebook group and Instagram, write more blog posts, and work on a new course.
While it may not feel like you are spending that much time checking your email, the time and focus it takes to switch back and forth can really add up. It can also lead you to losing your train of thought when you should actually be doing something else.
For the first of my time saving tips, I recommend setting time aside throughout the day to check your email. You can even set a rule that you only check after you finish a task, and you can turn off email notifications if they are distracting you.
You may want to work down to only checking your email just a few times a day, or even (EEEK!!!) once a day.
2. Get organized.
Here are some surprising statistics I found from Simply Orderly about being unorganized:
The average person spends 12 days per year looking for things they can’t find.
Every day, the average office worker spends 1.5 hours looking for things.
In a recent survey, 55% of consumers stated they would save anywhere from 16 to 60 minutes a day if they were organized.
23% of people pay bills late and have to pay late fees because they are unable to find their bills.
Being unorganized can waste a significant amount of your time, and like those numbers show, it can lead to late fees, stress, lost items, and more. I know some very unorganized people who say they always know where things are, but I’m not sure that is the case for everyone.
Learning to be more organized can be a hard thing to adjust to, but it can really help you reclaim some time in your day. If you are wanting to work towards a more organized life, here are several helpful time saving tips for becoming organized:
Put things away when you are finished using them.
Make a schedule and stick to it.
Write things down in a notebook or planner so you don’t forget anything.
Regularly tidy things up.
Switch to a minimalist lifestyle.
Like I said, learning good organizational skills can be difficult, and you will have to commit if you really want to take part in this tip. But, being organized can keep your living and working spaces functional, and it will probably even clear some mental clutter.
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3. Cut back on TV.
I love a good TV show, and I can honestly say that I was once wasting a lot of time by watching too much TV. The average person watches TV for over 35 hours per week! I’m not sure if I was watching that much, but I know I was close.
Can you imagine what you could do by reclaiming just half of those hours each week?
I actually have firsthand experience with what you can do when you stop watching so much television. When Wes and I moved into the RV we actually got rid of Netflix, which was our only form of TV. I was able to spend more time on my blog and more time exploring the new places we were traveling to.
4. Organize your finances.
This is one of the time saving tips that won’t just help you become more productive with your time, it will help you gain control of your financial situation. Organizing your finances includes things like setting up auto pay on your bills, creating a budget, and using an online platform to show you all of your accounts. Read more at How to Make A Budget: Creating A Budget That Works.
My favorite online tool for keeping track of my finances is Personal Capital. Personal Capital allows you to aggregate your financial accounts so that you can easily see your financial situation. You can connect accounts such as your mortgage, bank accounts, credit card accounts, investment accounts, retirement accounts, and more. And, it is FREE.
5. Stop gossipping.
Whether you spend too much time reading celebrity tabloids or if you talk about people a lot, spreading gossip can be a huge waste of time. Besides being a waste of time, it can also add a lot of negativity into your life, and I will talk more about that later.
Just think about the amazing things you could do if you focused on yourself instead of wasting so much time gossiping about others. The energy you use talking about others can be focused on growing a business, finding a side hustle, reaching your goals, and more.
This is one of the time saving tips that really helps you to focus on yourself and your goals.
6. Stop taking forever to get ready.
When looking at time saving tips, many people overlook the little aspects of their daily life that add up to a lot of wasted time, like taking forever to get ready. There are lots of people who spend way too much time picking out outfits and trying to get ready, and I was once one of them.
Since we had to downsize to travel full-time, I had to get rid of a lot of my clothes. It was a little hard at first because I had so many! But, by having less clothing options and/or choosing your outfit the night before, you can save valuable minutes each day.
Before we downsized, I couldn’t even remember all of the clothes I had, but now I save time each day because I know what I have and what looks good together.
For more information, I recommend checking out Becoming Minimalist’s blog post, Capsule Wardrobe: Why Some Are Wearing the Same Thing Every Day.
7. Have a to do list.
I am one of those people who has a constant to do list.
Without it, I would feel lost, unorganized, and probably even confused about what to do! Yes, I rely heavily on my to do list, but putting a to do list together doesn’t have to be hard. I keep my to do list on my phone, and it’s just a simple list of things I need to do throughout the day, week, month, and year. I can even set reminders so I don’t forget when things need to be done. Others find that planners work for well for them too.
This is one of the time saving tips that will help you in every aspect of your life, as you can have a to do list for work, home, etc. Your to do list will keep you on track so you don’t forget what needs to be done on a daily, weekly, or monthly basis, which in turns keeps you motivated towards your goals.
8. Stop procrastinating.
Procrastination can waste time as you may find anything else you can possibly do before completing a certain task.
Then, you might do things that waste even more time, such as just standing around, watching TV, cleaning the same area you’ve already cleaned 10 times that day, and more.
People procrastinate for all sorts of reasons, like anxiety, avoidance, etc. When you figure out why you are procrastinating, you can then create an action plan to take part in one of the most helpful time saving tips. By focusing on what you need to do, you will stop wasting time!
9. Get off social media.
Okay, you’re probably thinking, “there’s no way that I can cut out social media!” I’m not saying that you need to cut it out entirely, but if you spend a little less time everyday on social media, you will find valuable hours each week.
The average person spends many, many hours on social media each week. Between Pinterest, Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Snapchat, and many others it can be quite easy to waste your entire day away.
Social Media Today found that the average person spend nearly two hours a day on social media. When you add all of that time up, it equals to wasting over 5 YEARS of your life on social media. That’s shocking!
If you find that you are spending too much time on social media and that it is negatively impacting you, you may want to close the accounts you are spending too much time on. You can even create a time block so you cannot access your accounts during certain periods of the day, and so on.
Related content: 100+ Things To Do Instead Of Social Media
10. Ditch your negative outlook for positivity.
This is one of the time saving tips that may be hard to adapt to, but learning to be positive will really help you in the long run.
Instead of focusing on negatives like regret and being mean, you can be more productive by using this time for things that actually matter.
When you find that you are thinking in a negative way, take a moment to think of something that makes you happy. Is it your family? Do you love what you do? Did someone do something nice for you today?
A positive outlook can be life changing.
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11. Singletask instead of multitasking.
There are some people who will say that learning to multitask is one of the best time saving tips, but I don’t really agree with that 100%. Now, some people can multitask successfully, but many people cannot with the large amount of time it takes to refocus on a new task. So, when you are constantly switching back and forth, you will have to spend time refocusing each time you go back to something else.
It’s best to realize your strengths and weaknesses to know whether or not multitasking actually helps you save time. For myself, I’ve found that focusing on one thing at a time is actually how I save the most time when working.
12. Stop hitting the snooze button.
Sleeping for those two minutes after your alarm goes off isn’t going to change your life. There are actually many scientific studies proving that hitting the snooze button does nothing good for you.
I know many people who set their alarms to go off anywhere from 30 minutes to an hour before they actually want to wake up.
I’m not going to lie. I used to do this as well and thought it was the only way I could get up. It definitely did not work, as I always felt extremely groggy and sometimes even more tired!
Instead, you should wake up when your alarm first goes off to use those minutes valuably. If you are so tired in the morning that you feel you need to hit the snooze button, then you should either start going to sleep earlier in the evening or set your alarm for when you actually need to get out of bed.
What other time saving tips help you? How are you wasting time? How much time do you waste each day?
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