Time is considered one of the most valuable things we all have. Everyone has the same 24 hours in a day, but it’s what you do with those 24 hours that is crucial. Many people are wasting time each day, myself included, without even knowing it. So, I have listed 13 time-saving hacks, so you find more time to increase your productivity.
Wasting your time can make you tired, stressed and can stand in the way between you and your goals. If you can do a few time-saving tips, you might be able to get back a few hours of your day. And where can that lead you?
This past month, I’ve been too tired to do anything. Consequence? I cannot stop scrolling through social media or checking my email because my brain is not rested enough to function. Let’s get back on track with these tips.
The thing is that most of us don’t realize how much time we waste in a week. We’re scrolling, checking, staring at different devices without realizing the time is ticking by.
13 Time-Saving Hacks To Find More Free Time
No matter how you lose your hours, I got you. Let’s dive into the 13 time-saving hacks to get more free time!
1. Check Your Email Once Per Day
Especially when I’m at work, I check my emails all the time. I have my Outlook always open. As soon as an email pops in, I get a notification on my screen and a sound. My attention is drawn to the email. I read it and then decide if I continue with what I’m working on or reply to the email.
I should check my email less. I’ve switched off the notification and the sound effect just now. I’m sure that will help a lot!
Will you follow my example? You’re wasting all the time checking your email that could have been used to get difficult tasks out of the way.
A tip that I got is having a designated hour for checking your email. Let’s say from now on. You check your email every day between 10-11 am and between 4-5 pm.
If you notice things are going well, you can even lower the email-checking frequency to once a day! How Radical!
2. Get Your Sh*T Together
According to a survey at Pixie, we spend 2.5 days per year looking for things we can’t find. It’s costing us an average of $50 per year. Let’s not calculate what we have after investing that money every year for 20 years (it’s $2,386.74 I was too curious not to do it).
Being unorganized can waste a very big amount of your time, as I can tell you from a case study that I call my life. It can lead to late fees (they add up quickly), losing valuable things, or stress. To prevent this: get your sh*t together.
Becoming more organized is a hard thing to teach yourself. Once you learn it, it becomes automatic. You will save a lot of time.
Tangible things that you should start doing:
- Put things back in the place where they belong, not in the place where you last used them.
- Make a to-do list so you don’t forget anything.
- Make it easy for yourself by adopting a minimalist lifestyle.
3. Get A Hold On Your Finances
This will not only save you time but will also get you in control of your finances. You can pay your bills automatically, create a budget, and transfer money automatically into your savings and investment accounts.
4. Make A To-Do List
I’m one of those people who has an endless to-do list. It’s never finished, and there are always new things to be added to the list. I rely heavily on my to-do list. It’s written down on paper because I love to cross off the things once they’re done. If it’s easier for you, you can also have one on your phone.
It helps keep track of what you have to do for the day, week, month, or quarter. For some things that I really shouldn’t forget, I will set a reminder. I use an online calendar, Google Calendar. If physical planners work for you, write everything down in your physical planner.
Keeping a to-do list will not only get you on top of your to-do’s, but it will also keep you motivated to reach your goals. Plus, it’s harder to forget things. Which is a win!
One of the many lists is going out for groceries. If you are very busy and want to save more time, you may use Instacart for your grocery pick-up or delivery. Same as your food, you may sign-up for a $5 Meal Plan a month where each week you will receive six dinner options, one lunch meal, one breakfast meal, one dessert, and one ‘other’ meal – this can be a beverage or a snack.
This not only saves you time with groceries but food preparation as well!
5. Avoid Procrastination
One big thing that is costing you a lot of time is procrastination. If you’re starting right away with tasks, this will save you a lot of time without delaying them.
When you don’t want to work out, get over it. You will clean the entire house, watch TV, scroll through social media, and take a nap in your gym clothes. After some time, you still didn’t go to the gym. If you had gone straight away, you already could have been back.
Procrastination roots in many things, mostly it’s avoidance and anxiety. If you figure you why you’re procrastinating, you can take action to prevent that from happening.
Stop wasting your time by procrastinating, and start now!
6. Stay Away From The TV
When I was in high school, I watched a minimum of two hours of TV every day. I’ve switched my life totally around, and I don’t even own a TV at the moment.
The average person watches 4.5 hours of TV every week. This means that people watch an average of over 30 hours of TV per week. I hope I’ve never made that list, but I was probably closer than I thought.
Can you imagine what would happen if you just took half of the hours back each week? That would be a time-saving hack!
The problem with watching TV is that you don’t notice how much you’re actually watching. Time goes by without noticing it. That’s why it’s so important to know how much you’re watching and cut back if desired.
When I stopped watching so much television when I started University, I got back a lot of my time. After studying, I had time to party, eat with different friends every day, work out, and take on various committees within my study association.
Stop watching TV, and you will find so much more time during your week to do things you enjoy!
7. Cut Back On Social Media
It’s not that you should quit social media entirely, but you should think about the time you’re spending on social media. What if you’re spending a bit less time on social media? It would definitely save you a lot of time.
People spent an average of 3 hours per day on social media
There is Facebook, Pinterest, Twitter, Instagram, Snapchat, YouTube, and many others. It’s not so difficult to entertain yourself the entire day by scrolling through social media.
If you find that your time on social media is not suitable for you, you can take the radical approach. You can close the accounts you’re spending so much time on, delete the apps from your phone or create a time block for your social accounts.
8. Disconnect For Focus
Besides cutting back on your social media time, disconnecting entirely can help a lot. Put your phone on flight mode, close your email, and let everyone know you’re busy.
Disconnecting entirely will eliminate all the distractions. I’m sure that you’ll be much more productive and save a good chunk of time from your day when you disconnect entirely.
9. Embrace Technology
We all have that one friend that remembers everyone’s birthday and actually remembers to send them a text when the day arrives. If you’re this kind of superhuman, congrats, you’re awesome! If you’re not, no worries, I got you!
I forgot my best friends’ birthday. The worst part is, I know the exact date on which she has her birthday, but I simply forgot to greet her. What’s the moral lesson we can apply to other facets of our lives? Set reminders to your phone.
If we look into this from a broader perspective: embrace technology. It’s primarily designed to make your life easier. Why would you want to send emails out manually when you can automatically send a reminder to the one client that hasn’t reached out to you yet?
Embracing technology saves you brainpower, it makes sure you don’t forget, and it keeps you massive amounts of time.
10. Wear The Same Clothes
A good amount of successful people wear the same type of clothes every day. It saves you time, in terms of minutes you need to get ready in the morning.
When you’re wearing (a lot of) the same clothes every day, you don’t have to think about what you want to wear during the day. You simply dress, and that’s it.
11. Stop Multitasking
I’ve heard people say that multitasking is one of their best time-saving tips, I disagree. Some people might be able to multitask correctly, but the vast majority of people cannot focus on two things simultaneously.
When you think you’re multitasking, you’re actually twitch-tasking. Your switching between task 1 and task 2. Did you ever talk with someone while you’re texting? You write down the words you say or the other way around. In addition to that, you also have to refocus on the task at hand, which will take additional time.
For me, multitasking does not help. When I’m focusing on one thing at a time, it helps me save time.
12. Learn To Say No
This is essential when you want to save time during your day. We all get a lot of requests throughout the day, which demand time. If you would say yes to many of them, you are essentially giving up your own time and helping someone else. Ask yourself, is that what I want? If it is what you want, that’s okay. If it is not what you want, you’re getting yourself into a lot of additional work.
Learn to say ‘no’ instead. In the beginning, it will be uncomfortable because you’re not used to it. Over time you’ll learn to say no, which will free up so much of your time!
13. Stop Snoozing
My roommate snoozes for 30 minutes every single day. That means she’s lying in bed for 30 minutes before actually getting up and getting ready. I don’t see the added value, you’re not really sleeping, and you’re not really doing anything with your day.
What helps me is, saying: “Okay, I am awake, I will make something out of today.” If you’re too tired when the alarm clock goes off in the morning, you either need to sleep earlier or set your alarm at the correct time.
Conclusion – Time-Saving Hacks
Time is very valuable because time lost can never be brought back. But you can start by eliminating stuff from your life that wastes away your precious time. You just need to know what these are and try to change them moving forward.
Hopefully, through these hacks, you may find ways to maximize your time to further boost your financial plans in life. Time may have been lost but know that there is always time to change and improve your life. Better act now so that the benefits of these time-saving hacks will be felt and improve your life.
With these 13 time-saving hacks on saving time throughout the day, you will find more free time. Finally!
What are other time-saving tips that you have?
This article was published and syndicated by Radical FIRE.
Founder of Spark Nomad, Radical FIRE, Journalist
Expertise: Personal finance and travel content
Education: Bachelor of Economics at Radboud University, Master in Finance at Radboud University, Minor in Economics at Chapman University.
Over 200 articles, essays, and short stories published across the web.
Experience: Marjolein Dilven is a journalist and founder of Radical FIRE, a personal finance platform, and Spark Nomad, a travel platform. Marjolein has a finance and economics background with a master’s in Finance. She has quit her job to travel the world, documenting her travels on Spark Nomad to help people plan their travels. Marjolein Dilven has written for publications like MSN, Associated Press, CNBC, Town News syndicate, and more.
Hi Sam,
Yes I’m sticking to my schedule of posting Monday-Wednesday-Friday, thanks for noticing that!
Email is for sure a big one – shutting it off completely when I’m doing something important is my next step.
I agree on the laptop front, it’s much better since you’re learning something.
Laura Vanderkam sounds very nice, I’ve checked out her website and her books look very good, putting them on my on my to-read list!!
For someone who says that they didn’t want to do anything this month you are certainly very productive on the blog posting front.
Some great ideas here. The email one was something that I learnt on a training course. When I am working on a report for work I shut my email down completely. I have my phone on so if anything is urgent someone will ring me. I can be so much more focused without those emails popping up.
The big one is TV. I try to limit myself to only one hour a day from Monday to Thursday, but will indulge in more from Friday to Sunday. It is one of my frustrations with my partner, as he will watch over three hours a night. He probably thinks I spend too much time on my computer, but at least I feel that I am learning something from many of the blogs that I am reading.
I am a fan of Laura Vanderkam who suggests time-tracking for a fortnight to see what you are spending your time on and you’ll be surprised at how much time you waste. I find her books really useful when looking at ways to organise my time.