We live in a fast paced world in which we all have a few too many demands on our time. Throw in the fact that we all need a few minutes here and there just to recharge and catch our breath, and sometimes every single second of the day seems to be accounted for. But that’s just why it’s important to find any little way you can to cut down on wasted time and maximize your free moments. How you go about doing so depends largely on your lifestyle and obligations – but here are a few tips that can get you started.
Skip Commercials
Most of us are watching a lot of television these days. It’s frequently said that we live in a sort of golden era of TV content, and on top of that we have more ways than ever to access our favorite shows. But we also have more ways than ever of controlling how we watch those shows, and in many cases that can mean fast-forwarding through ads. TV marketing is getting smarter, as providers are taking advantage of digital streaming to target content more effectively. That’s actually nice sometimes, because you can get ads more relative to your interest; but it also means that even the newest and most convenient means of streaming still come packed with commercials. By recording shows and skipping these ads, however, you can actually save as much as five or 10 minutes in a given hour of consumption. That adds up pretty quickly.
Work Out Wisely
If you talk to a trainer or fitness professional about the average person’s workout habits with regard to time management, you might get a chuckle out of him. A lot of people waste an inordinate amount of time at the gym, whether by taking too many breaks between exercises, stretching too much before starting, or simply idly chatting with fellow gym-goers. Some also extend these habits once they’re out of the gym, spending a great deal of time on concocting protein shakes or optimizing meals to recover from the workout. Most of this time doesn’t really need to be wasted. Sure, if you have friends at the gym there’s no harm in chatting a bit while you’re exercising. But you can save a lot of time by educating yourself about when and how to take breaks, or how long to approach each exercise. You can also explore different supplements that make it a little less necessary to fret about your immediate dietary intake post-workout. A comprehensive approach to an efficient workout routine can actually result in a lot of time saved.
Improve Your Sleep Quality
Improving sleep quality can actually help you to save a pretty significant amount of time in multiple ways. For one thing, it makes you more productive throughout the day, meaning you should spend less time on fatigue or inefficiency when going about daily tasks. For another, it means you can feel rested on slightly less overall sleep (though we’re not advocating cutting down your hours!). But how do you do it? There are a number of ways to go about it, from finding the most comfortable mattress, to discovering your ideal sleep temperature, to finding new blinds that make your room darker. But another great (and easy) idea is to look into sleep sounds and ambient noise, which you can enjoy via a quick app download. The right sounds really can help you sleep better, and you might be shocked at the impact that has.
Shop Online
This may be a given for many people these days, but it’s worth repeating because of how much time it can save. And it’s not just about obvious items such as articles of clothing, electronics, or household needs that you can find on Amazon or a similar platform online. There are some unconventional means of shopping around online as well. Sites like Zillow can now help you do comprehensive property searching that saves you time on real estate efforts. Platforms like Uncrate can help you to browse for interesting and unexpected gifts for others, much faster than you’d do it just walking around at the local mall. You can even shop for a new car online, and for that matter Boatcrazy allows you to do the same for a new boat. The point is that just about whatever you need can be found on the internet, and there’s no longer much point to spending time shopping around town, other than in very particular cases.
Recruit Professional Help
Finally, you should also keep in mind that it almost always saves time to recruit professional help when dealing with a problem you have no expertise in. For a lot of people that might mean something as simple as recruiting a college computer science major to help build a website, or hiring landscapers to manage yard work. But even for more specific concerns you can always find professionals that will get the job done more quickly than you will. Research is an area in which this is often helpful. Trust doctors rather than wasting hours looking up your own symptoms and conditions, and rely on lawyers rather than delving into legal codes on your own. These days, you can even consult a cannabis law firm for a violation as casual as something to do with possession or use of a largely legalized substance. That example should go to show that there’s always some kind of expert, and experts save you lots of time.
These are just a few ideas that can get you started as you think about how you can cut back on wasted time. But put together, and added to other ideas you come up with more specific to your own life, they can make a real (and healthy) difference.
However, you can also learn how to manage your time and maintain a good health in the same way by signing up for a time management training. Check out Training Connection here!
