We’re all way too busy. We live and work in an age with infinite online and offline demands for our time and attention. And the end result is that we’re left with little free time to just breathe and be.
If you’re anything like me, you wish there were few more minutes in every day. Well, the good news is that there are always minutes to be saved and various ways to save them. Save enough of them every day, and you’ll have a few extra hours at the end of the week. In this article I discuss thirty of my favorite ways to save thirty minutes a day.
Sometimes our days are so crammed with things to do that an extra thirty minutes at the end of the day represents the difference between sanity and insanity. I use each of the tips below to save time and remain sane on a daily basis.
1. Group similar tasks back to back. Switching gears between different types of tasks can be tough. It takes most people several minutes to get into a productive mental groove geared toward a specific type of task. Therefore, it makes sense to group similar tasks in an effort to minimize the number of rough patches, and thus wasted time, between task orders.
2. Use productive shortcuts. People who claim that there are no productive shortcuts in life have been brainwashed. There are productive shortcuts for almost everything you do. Finding and using them can save you a few minutes here and there on a daily basis. If you use a computer, learn the keyboard shortcuts for the programs you use most often. If you can permanently delegate one of your regular tasks to someone else, do it. Is there a route to work with less traffic? How can you hit two birds with one stone?
3. Eliminate all distractions for a set time. Distractions are everywhere. They arrive via email, cell phone, coworker inquiry, etc. I’ve found that cutting out all distractions for a set time is one of the most effective ways to get things done in less time. You can’t remain in hiding forever, but you can be nearly four times as productive while you are.
4. Narrow the number of ventures you’re involved in. Productivity is not usually my challenge; narrowing the number of ventures that I can productively be involved in is. Even when you have the knowledge and ability to access super-productive states, you get to a point where being simultaneously super-productive on too many fronts at once causes all activities to slow down, stand still, and sometimes even slide backwards.
5. Plan ahead and start early. Ten minutes of dedicated planning each evening will save you from thirty minutes of ad hoc preparation each morning. Likewise, purposely starting your morning thirty minutes early will likely inject at least sixty additional productive minutes into your day. Think about it.
6. Organize your space. How much time do you think the average person wastefully spends searching for items they’ve misplaced? Keeping both your living and working spaces organized will undoubtedly save you thirty minutes daily.
7. Productively use waiting time. Waiting time does not have to be wasted time. When you are waiting at the doctor’s office, the post office, or on hold for the next available representative, what simple tasks could you complete while you wait? How about sorting through your snail mail, writing those thank-you notes you’ve been putting off, reading the book you keep meaning to read, reviewing and editing your to-do lists, etc.?
8. Handle two-minute tasks immediately. “The Two-Minute Rule” is the single greatest tip I picked up from David Allen’s book Getting Things Done. If you roughly estimate that a task is going to take you less than two minutes to accomplish, do it right now. It’s a waste of time and energy to keep small tasks like this on your to-do list or in the back of your mind.
