Let’s talk about how to free up a bunch of your time. Most people feel overwhelmed and busy most of the time and there are ways to put more minutes back into your day and they do not take too much effort.
There are a lot of reasons you should want to free up your time. Even if you just want to have more fun and enjoy life more, freeing up time is a noble en-devour. Another reason you might want to free up time is to do more side gigs and make some extra money to pay down bills. Either way, well worth doing. Here are 10 ways to grab back those minutes.
- Live close to work – Have as small of a commute as possible. If you are living in Hudson and working in Fairlawn, why? You can change your job or your home. Cutting your drive can add an hour or more a day to your free time.
- Work from home – Better yet, make your commute a short walk to your home office. You may be able to work from home all the time or only some days a week, but cutting down on drive time can free up your day. Also, less office chit chat might make you more productive.
- Plan your meals – Do you go to the store every day or two? Plan out your meals for the week and shop once.
- Get up early – Get up earlier and go to sleep earlier. Chances are you are more productive in the morning and even if your sleep hours remain the same, the morning hours will probably be more productive and free up time later in the day.
- Time your errands – Do your errands, such as going to the post office, the bank and shopping during times when other people are working. This cuts down on lines and waiting.
- Prep outfits – Know what you are going to wear for the week and prep them all at once. The less you need to think about your clothes the better. There is a reason that many great leaders have worn the same outfit most of the time. They save their time and energy for more important things.
- Declutter your home – In our article on decluttering your home, we talk about how having less stuff saves time and money.
- Automate finances – One of the best things I ever did was automate most monthly financial transactions. I know how much money I need to have in my account and everything happens automatically, saving me time and avoiding late fees.
- Hire help – If you are not an expert on something, don’t try to do it yourself (unless you truly enjoy figuring it out.) You can find people to do thing much more affordably than before with sites for people doing gigs like tutoring, handyman, lawn care, etc. Know what your time is worth and don’t waste it when you could hire out more cheaply.
- Limit Non-work Screen Time – Whether it is binge watching Netflix or reading fake (or real) news, limit your time in front of screens and get back hours a day.
All of these things individually are fairly minor habit changes or location changes that can vastly free up your time and improve your life.
