I've posted in the past on What's Your Time Worth and it's a topic I want to cover more in the future. Money and time are closely related, though money is renewable while time is not. To me, this makes time more valuable.
Here's an article on how to save hours and "add" time to your life. I'll be posting on it over several days as the tips are broken up by how many hours they will save. Today's tips are estimated to save you at least one hour:
Grocery shopping. Many grocery stores are open 24 hours a day, so take advantage of that. Avoid shopping during the peak hours of 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. or 5 p.m. to 7 p.m. weekdays, and you'll cut your regular shopping time in half. That saves you about 45 minutes per trip.
Stockpile groceries in advance when deals are hot. And if you keep a supply of such products as paper goods, soaps, cereals, crackers, and canned soups, you'll save time by not running back to the store for that one necessary item you always forget to buy.
"Put your groceries through the checkout in categories and ask the courtesy clerk to bag them that way," says Teri Gault, who offers other resources to save shopping time. "Once you get home, you can put it away quickly because it's already sorted."
Laundry. Saving all your laundry for large loads on the weekend takes away an entire day that you could be enjoying with your family. "Do it daily, instead of wasting a Saturday," says Laura Stack, author of Leave the Office Earlier. "You'll have just one load, which only takes 30 minutes between washing, drying, and folding."
Bills. If you prefer paying your bills by check rather than online, keep a portable bill-paying file handy. Pull it out when you're waiting for an appointment at the doctor, dentist, or beauty shop, and "maximize those minutes," says Molly Gold, whose company, GoMom, Inc., creates mom-friendly products. "Keep a file stocked with stamps, envelopes, a calculator, your checkbook, and bills. I do 10 minutes of banking a day, five days a week," says Kristine Breese, author of Cereal for Dinner: Strategies, Shortcuts & Sanity for Moms Battling Illness.
Getting out the door. If you routinely misplace your keys, hang a set on a peg near the door or attach them to a "clapper" key chain to minimize search time. Depending on how many times you use your keys, this can save you an hour per week.
"Have kids help make their lunches and pick out their school clothes before going to bed the night before," suggests Lolita Carrico, founder of the Web site modernmom.com.
Time-management expert Mark Lamendola recommends putting everything you grab in the morning in one place before you go to bed at night. "Lunch bags, briefcase, purse, and anything else you'll need. You can save 20 minutes by investing five the night before," he says.
My thoughts:
1. We could benefit greatly by being a bit more organized when it comes to grocery shopping. Seems like we make 3-4 trips per week to the store.
2. We have the laundry and bill paying ideas down to a science. Not much opportunity in our household to improve here.
3. Getting out the door is our BIGGEST time waster. Anyone have any ideas on how to get kids to stay focused and hurry up???
4. I put all my stuff for work on the counter by the door every night. It makes it very easy to grab everything I need and be off the next morning.
It has been my experience that kids can either stay focused or hurry up. I've been told that this has to do with the stages of brain development. Kids can't multitask and prioritize the way adults do. As a result, they can't judge the amount of work left as well as an adult, and their only way of doing the next thing is to work their way through the list sequentially.
My wife and I deal with this by taking the responsibility for watching the clock for our kids. Then we have created a reliable morning routine for them. We've built our routine around it and we hand off the kids as we go. We did it by breaking up tasks as we went along.
A short example would be the kids' lunches. Since I'm the first out of bed in the morning to feed the cats, I make the sandwiches. We discovered that I was usually finishing that just as my wife and older son arrive in the kitchen. At that point, I hand off the lunches to her. She assembles the rest of the items while I wake our younger son and shave. Usually, finding the lunchboxes requires the kids. I end up putting lunches into lunchboxes if my wife hasn't found them.
Posted by: Dale | November 07, 2005 at 12:35 PM
Wow! 3-4 trips to the store a week? think about how much money you're wasting too. It took me a while but I have finally trained my DH to not run to the store for every little thing.
We keep a running list. When we get low or run out, it goes on the list. I am responsible for getting everything on the list on my weekly shopping day. And the two point kicker to this plan is......
1. If it ain't on the list, I dont get it.
2. If we ain't got it, we do without until next week.
Posted by: Colleen | November 11, 2005 at 05:41 PM