When making dinner, make a triple portion. Put the extra portions in your freezer. After a week of making triple portions you will have two full weeks worth of dinners prepared and in your freezer. You won't have to cook dinner for a full two weeks.
Instead of spending time running to the store every time you need to send a thank you or birthday card, create a card organizer and stock up when you are at the store. Just get a small portable file box and put in folders labeled - Birthday, Thank You, Graduation, Baby, Wedding, Anniversary and Blank. Buy cards in bulk and keep them in the appropriate folder. Then, when you need a Birthday card it will take you a matter of a couple of minutes to get one off in the mail. Also, it allows you to stock up on cards when they are on sale.
When you are filling your car up with gas use the time you have while the gas is pumping to clean out your car. Throw away all of the garbage. Keep moist car wipes under the seat so you can wipe everything down. Clean the windows (inside and out). No more spending time on your weekends to clean out your car!
Keep your log-ins and passwords organized and quickly accessible. One way to accomplish this is to keep them in your address book (electronic or paper). How to do this is to create a new "contact" for each of your accounts. In the notes section write or type in your information and any other notes pertaining to that account. To keep them secure in the event that someone gets a hold of your address book, set up a code system. For example, your code could be that you make the last four digits or letters bogus. Your real password is what comes before those last four digits or letters.
Simplify Your Email. There are 3 different types of emails.
1. Junk.
2. Emails that require a response or action.
3. Emails that you are interested in reading or using as a reference (but do not require any response or action).
Delete the junk and respond to action items immediately, if you can. Store the ones you want to read or reference in a "To Read" folder. Make it your goal to clear out your inbox at the end of every business day when possible.
Do important or urgent action items immediately (when possible). Don't feel obligated to respond to forwards, or to even read them. If you are interested in reading it but don't have time at the moment, simply store it in a "To Read" folder. Never put any emails that require an action or response in your "To Read" folder. Respond to personalized emails right away and stop responding when an interchange has served its purpose.
Schedule your "To-Do List" into your daily calendar. For example, if one of your To-Do List items is "schedule a dental appointment", than put it into your calendar as an appointment - "Friday, 9:00am-9:15am, schedule dental appointment". Many things on the list will probably take less than 15 minutes, but schedule each item for 15 minutes anyway. In a 2-hour time period you will have 8 items scheduled. Most likely you will accomplish everything early and still have time to handle interruptions.
Organize your paperwork. This is help eliminate piles of papers and save you oodles of time searching for the one piece of paper you need right now. According to Real Simple magazine, if you live in America, you spend 55.2 minutes per day on average locating things! That's 14 days every year! The number one thing people spend their valuable time looking for is paper documents. Spend just a few hours setting up an easy to use file system and then schedule a few minutes each day to maintain your system. You will be able to take any extra two-week vacation every year with the time you saved!
Instead of spending time running to the store every time you need to send a thank you or birthday card, create a card organizer and stock up when you are at the store. Just get a small portable file box and put in folders labeled - Birthday, Thank You, Graduation, Baby, Wedding, Anniversary and Blank. Buy cards in bulk and keep them in the appropriate folder. Then, when you need a Birthday card it will take you a matter of a couple of minutes to get one off in the mail. Also, it allows you to stock up on cards when they are on sale.
When you are filling your car up with gas use the time you have while the gas is pumping to clean out your car. Throw away all of the garbage. Keep moist car wipes under the seat so you can wipe everything down. Clean the windows (inside and out). No more spending time on your weekends to clean out your car!
Keep your log-ins and passwords organized and quickly accessible. One way to accomplish this is to keep them in your address book (electronic or paper). How to do this is to create a new "contact" for each of your accounts. In the notes section write or type in your information and any other notes pertaining to that account. To keep them secure in the event that someone gets a hold of your address book, set up a code system. For example, your code could be that you make the last four digits or letters bogus. Your real password is what comes before those last four digits or letters.
Simplify Your Email. There are 3 different types of emails.
1. Junk.
2. Emails that require a response or action.
3. Emails that you are interested in reading or using as a reference (but do not require any response or action).
Delete the junk and respond to action items immediately, if you can. Store the ones you want to read or reference in a "To Read" folder. Make it your goal to clear out your inbox at the end of every business day when possible.
Do important or urgent action items immediately (when possible). Don't feel obligated to respond to forwards, or to even read them. If you are interested in reading it but don't have time at the moment, simply store it in a "To Read" folder. Never put any emails that require an action or response in your "To Read" folder. Respond to personalized emails right away and stop responding when an interchange has served its purpose.
Schedule your "To-Do List" into your daily calendar. For example, if one of your To-Do List items is "schedule a dental appointment", than put it into your calendar as an appointment - "Friday, 9:00am-9:15am, schedule dental appointment". Many things on the list will probably take less than 15 minutes, but schedule each item for 15 minutes anyway. In a 2-hour time period you will have 8 items scheduled. Most likely you will accomplish everything early and still have time to handle interruptions.
Organize your paperwork. This is help eliminate piles of papers and save you oodles of time searching for the one piece of paper you need right now. According to Real Simple magazine, if you live in America, you spend 55.2 minutes per day on average locating things! That's 14 days every year! The number one thing people spend their valuable time looking for is paper documents. Spend just a few hours setting up an easy to use file system and then schedule a few minutes each day to maintain your system. You will be able to take any extra two-week vacation every year with the time you saved!
About the Author:
Heidi DeCoux is a Professional Organizer & Public Speaker who specializes in home office organization. You can get her FREE monthly e-newsletter which features time saving and home organization tips. For information on an efficient home office filing system visit ClearSimpleLiving.com.
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