13 Time-Saving Hacks To Find More Free Time

Time is the most valuable thing we all have, and time is divided equally. Everyone has the same 24 hours in a day. It’s what you do with those 24 hours that is crucial. Many people are wasting time each day, myself included. I’ve listed 13 time-saving hacks that I’ll share with you today, so you find more free time and up your productivity.

Wasting your time can make your tired, stressed and can stand in the way between you and your goals. If you are able to implement a few time-saving tips, you might get up to a few hours of your day back. Where can that lead you?

This past month, I’ve been too tired to actually 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.

No matter how you lose your hours, I got you. Let’s dive into the 13 time-saving hacks to get more free time

13 Time-Saving Hacks To Find More Free Time

1. Check Your Email Once Per Day

Especially when I’m at work, I’m checking my emails all the time. I have my Outlook always open. As soon as an email pops in, I get a notification in 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? All the time you’re wasting on checking your email that could have been used to get difficult tasks out of the way – or simply go home earlier.

A tip that I’ve got a few months ago, is that you should have a designated hour for checking your email. Let’s say from now on, you check your email every day between 10-11am and between 4-5pm.

If you notice things are going well, you can even lower the email-checking frequency to once a day! How Radical!!

2. Get Your Stuff Together

According to 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).

Back to the point.

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 stuff 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 on the place where they belong, not on 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 it 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.

Read more about budgeting here and about creating an emergency fund here.

4. Make A To-Do List

I’m one of those people who has a continuous 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 the things 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!

5. Avoid Procrastination

One big thing that is costing you a lot of time, is procrastination. If you’re starting right away with tasks, without delaying them, this will save you a lot of time.

When you don’t want to work out, get over it. You are going to 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 would have 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 was watching 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 take 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. The time goes by without noticing it. That’s why it’s so important to get aware of 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 different 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 the social. What if you’re spending 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’re finding that your time on social media is not good 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, ánd 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!

Last month 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 congratulate her. What did we learn from this? Set reminders to your phone.

If we look into this in a broader perspective: embrace technology. It’s mostly 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 saves you massive amounts of time.

10. Wear The Same Clothes

A good amount of successful people are wearing the same 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. There are some people who might be able to multitask correctly, but the vast majority of people cannot focus on two things at the same time.

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 actually 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 how 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 for me is, saying: okay, I am awake, I am going to 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.

With these 13 time-saving hacks on how to save time throughout the day, you will find more free time throughout the day. Finally!

What other time saving tips that you have?

This article first appeared on Radical FIRE and has been republished with permission.