Our time is so precious yet we can easily waste it if we aren’t careful. I think it’s safe to say we have all
been guilty of this at some point in our lives. Whether you have so much on your plate that you find it almost impossible to juggle everything in your life or you honestly just don’t know where to start, remember many others have been in your shoes and prevailed.
We live in such an amazing time! There is so much information right at our fingertips that can help us achieve anything we could ever dream! We have the choice to keep doing things the same way because they are comfortable or we can learn better, more effective ways of living our lives. There are a million different ways to save time and become more productive, but not every way works for everyone. You have to find what works best for you. Will finding those ways always be easy? Nothing good in life is ever easy, unfortunately. But you have to start somewhere and these resources have helped millions of people and can help you too.
1.Save hours on your weekly grocery shopping
There are so many companies that will allow you to pick the items you want online and they deliver your groceries right to your door. Every area has different programs available.
But another AMAZING option is to use Walmart’s fairly new grocery pickup! This is so great for parents and the elderly, but anyone can benefit from this service. All you have to do is sign up, pick your items, select your pick up time, and park in the “reserved for pick up” parking spaces. Once you get there, you just call in and they come out with your groceries. You don’t even have to get out of your car since they will load everything for you! They do charge a small fee (it varies) and they have a $30 minimum checkout to use the service. Sign up here and receive a $10 credit!
2.Automate paying your bills instead of wasting time every month
Bills. Pretty much all of us have them, unfortunately. If you don’t, count your blessings. For everyone else, how much time do you waste on the phone or on the internet (or even driving) paying bills? A lot in a year for sure.
Many people have been using automated bill pay for a while now. So how does it work? You can take an hour or so one day to go into your bank and they will set everything up for you.
You have two options. For bills that are the same amount every month, you can have your account set up to send them money when your bill is due. For bills that vary in amount, you can download your banking app and add payees. This way when your bill is due, all you have to do is enter the amount you owe and press send. So convenient!
3.Download a productivity app to stay focused and organized
Okay, there’s like a million apps out there that are designed to help improve your life. This is going to take a bit of trial and error on your part but want to hear the great news? There are TONS of free apps that are amazing! Here are a couple good ones that I have found and how they can help you.
Evernote – This app allows you to create project to do lists, jot down reminders, take pictures of important things, and makes your information available on all of your devices. You can also easily share your ideas with friends, family, and co-workers.
Fabulous: Motivate Me! – This app is great for helping you to get into good habits. From achieving your health goals and drinking more water to sleeping better and feeling more energized, this app is perfect for everyone.
Todosit – This app allows you to create tasks, set goals, track and improve your productivity, and many other things to help you get your life on track.
4.Organize your life by creating a household binder
Storing important information all in one place is so helpful and can help free up a lot of time in the long run. Like everything on this list, I want you to know you have so many options here. You could create your own binder with the information you want, you can purchase a premade binder, OR you could just download and print free worksheets and insert them into your own three ring binder! Personally, I like the third option.
My all time favorite blogger Sarah Titus has a really awesome one that she gives away on her website. It includes a weekly meal plan, emergency contact numbers, bill payment tracker, cleaning checklist, child information, medical information, and a bunch of other helpful stuff. You can go to her site and download her free household binder here.
5.Listen to self-improvement ebooks during your daily commute
Listening to music is nice and can be very relaxing but that’s not the only thing you can do on your way to work. And why not do something that will help make you a better version of yourself? Audiobooks by Audible is a wonderful app that allows you to listen to any book you want, anywhere you want.
You can try Audible for free for 30 days to see if you like it. They give you two free audible books and you get access to the many different podcasts.
6.Download an app to limit your time on social media to help you get more important things done
Social media is more than likely one of the biggest productivity killers out there today. I mean it is designed to tap into the pleasure center of our brains. Ever notice that rush of excitement you get when you get a lot of likes or when you hear you received a notification. It probably doesn’t take you long before you HAVE to check it out, right?
These two apps below are great for helping you set limits on your amount of time on social media. Technology is amazing but like anything else, you just have to find balance.
Self Control (MacBook) – This app allows you to block distracting websites for whatever time period you set. And even if you restart your computer, there is no accessing the sites you choose until the time is up!
Freedom – This works with Mac, Windows, Iphone, and Ipad (not Android, unfortunately). This app allows you to plan daily and weekly times where you do not want to have access to certain apps and websites.
Focus Me – This works with Mac, Windows, and Android (yay!). This app lets you set limits at whatever time you choose and it will kick you out of the websites and apps you choose. Here’s the trick I found…Set the password to something random (like numbers) to keep you from stopping the app. You can write this down if you want, but keep it somewhere that’s not so accessible.
7.Shop online for your household items and clothing
Just like shopping online for groceries, you can do that with pretty much anything else you could need. Products for baby, beauty, cleaning, clothing, feminine, household, furniture, are just a few things you could save time (and a lot of the time money) by purchasing online.
And there are like a bazillion websites to shop on these days! I personally love shopping on Amazon. I haven’t found many businesses that can compete with their low prices and shipping options. All orders over $35 or more get free shipping! I’ve been filling my cart until I reach the shipping requirements for years now, but just upgraded to their Amazon Prime membership after trying out their free 30-day free trial of Prime. I fell in love with the free two-day shipping and can’t go back! You can sign up to try out Amazon Prime’s 30-day free trial here.
8.Listen to productivity podcasts during your workout
Do you like listening to radio shows? Podcasts are very diverse but the three best types of podcasts are news, marketing, and inspirational. And the time length of each session can range anywhere from 5 minutes to two hours.
Like I said above, Audible has some podcasts. But iTunes has more and pretty much all of them are free (best part, right?) Here are some great stations and saved podcasts to get you started.
Getting Things Done – David Allen discusses different ways to better manage your time and become more creative.
The Tim Ferriss Show – Topics discussed vary widely from fitness to business, but they all lead back to becoming more productive. Tim always asks his guests about their habits and rituals. Maybe some will work for you.
Ted Talks – Ted Talks are my favorite! There are always new speakers discussing new ideas on the show. These speakers are experts in their fields and always have something new to teach.
Extreme Productivity with Kevin Kruse – 15 minutes shows where Kevin interviews highly successful people to discover the secrets to becoming more productive.
Prod Pod – Power packed productivity lessons in two minutes or less.
9.Organize your spending and saving
How will this save you time and help you to become more productive? We live in a society where 80% of people are in debt. The negative effects of being in debt can completely ruin a person’s life. Taking a bit of time now to organize your spending and savings will save you hours upon hours in the future. Dealing with evictions, wage garnishments, being denied for a car or home loan, etc. will suck up so much or your time and can really take a huge toll on your mental wellbeing.
But many people either don’t want to deal with creating a budget or they just don’t know where to start. If you don’t want to deal with it now, that is totally your business and I wish you the best. But if you don’t know where to start, here are some really great resources to help you out.
Free monthly budget sheets
These free printable budget sheets include monthly budget sheets and expense tracking sheets to help you keep track of all of your spending. This is great for everyone to do! It’s such an easy way to keep track of exactly where your money is going and will help you to figure out where you are not spending your money wisely!
Learn from a financial expert
Budgeting sheets are helpful, but they won’t really help you to fully understand your finances. Your finances will follow you forever and just winging it isn’t the wisest decision. But hiring a personal financial advisor can be pretty costly. I’ve recently discovered that experts in pretty much every field have started creating courses compiling all of their knowledge and charging a fraction of their in office costs (look into this next time you’re thinking of hiring an expert).
I’m currently trying to get out of debt and so I came across Adam Hagerman’s Budgeting For Budget Haters online course. He’s been a financial coach for years and has worked with over 700 families to fix their finances, so I decided to give the course a try. Wow! He really goes into detail and gives great information. His advice for paying things off has been extremely helpful to me. I’ve just been so overwhelmed and honestly had no idea where to start. You can learn more about his course here to see if it’s the right fit for you.
You may also enjoy…
- 100+ Ways To Make Extra Money This Year
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- How I Made $2300 From Home Last Month
- 7 Habits To Living Life To The Fullest
- These 2 Simple Things Are Stealing Your Dreams
Are you going to try any of these resources to save you time and become more productive? Let me know in the comments below!
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