What are your best time saving tricks?

[hybrid]

So I started my new job last month and so far I absolutely love it. I had become burned out at my other job even though the people were great and the pay was good. I'm in a position now where I have the autonomy and capacity to make a difference for my new firm. And better pay as well. Win!

Except here's the thing. That new job came with a longer commute and longer hours. My typical work day starts an hour earlier and ends about 45 minutes later. And by the end of a lot of days I'm just finished, I haven't much energy for other things. I am on these forums very rarely right now.

So while there are many pluses, the big minus is my time has become much more valuable since I have considerably less of it (for now, the better pay should get me to ER a good bit faster). Between spending time on maintaining the house, a healthy marriage, and some family issues I cannot afford to be wasteful. It also means that I am occasionally using small amounts of money to buy time (the occasional pizza instead of cooking at home). So right now my focus is on optimizing my time. Since biking to work is now out I am going to the gym again. And while I am at the gym, I usually take my iPad so I can read the Economist, watch Hulu Plus, etc. while doing my elliptical. I've also used gym time as the same time to watch VCU basketball.

Sometimes when I cook I use the iPad to catch up with shows as I prep food. When I am driving home I often use the Bluetooth phone to make a few calls (and before the chastizing starts, when I do this I increase the distance between me and the next car significantly, my last fender bender was almost twenty years ago), or more often I use it as my NPR time.

Saving money is huge (the extra money I am making now is almost all being saved), but saving time is just as important. After all, getting to ER is just another way of saying buying the rest of your life. What tricks have you come up with to maximize your time on your way to ER?   

[mak1277]

My wife and I spend almost zero time "maintaining the house" as you say.  We're both pretty laissez faire in how much dust/clutter we can tolerate, so vigorous cleaning is only done when company's coming over.  I guess this isn't really a trick...it just comes down to not giving a crap, which is a GREAT feeling.

[Mississippi Mudstache]

Do you fix your lunch at home and bring it to work? I used to, but I always found myself remembering it either right before bed, or right before I left the house for work, which left me hurrying around at a time that I could have been enjoying with my family.

My solution was to go keep a loaf of whole wheat bread, a jar of peanut butter, a bunch of bananas, popcorn, and olive oil in my desk at the office. Every day, I eat a peanut butter and banana sandwich and pop a bag of popcorn with olive oil. The popcorn is loose kernels - I pop 1/4 cup in a brown paper bag in the microwave, then drizzle with olive oil, salt and pepper.

Now I never have to worry about what to bring for lunch, never rushing around trying to prepare it in the morning or evening. I know some people would get sick of the monotony, but it doesn't bother me. Best of all, I've calculated that this meal costs me about $1.25 each day, and it covers breakfast and lunch for me.

[GuitarStv]

Don't go to the gym, it's a big waste of time and money.  Set up a bike trainer in front of your television at home.  Whenever the television goes on, you bike.

Take a few hours and cook three large batch meals each weekend (roasts, crock pot stuff, stews, turkeys, big batches of pasts sauce, curry, etc), and reheat food for the rest of the week.  This way you never have to spend money ordering out, and you only have plates to clean up.  It's actually less clean up than ordering out because you don't have piles of take out garbage to get rid of.

Eat breakfast at work.  Keep a bag of oatmeal at your desk, most companies have microwaves or a way to get boiled water.  (No morning meal prep.)

Books on tape from the library can double as 'reading' while in traffic.

[hybrid]

My wife and I spend almost zero time "maintaining the house" as you say.  We're both pretty laissez faire in how much dust/clutter we can tolerate, so vigorous cleaning is only done when company's coming over.  I guess this isn't really a trick...it just comes down to not giving a crap, which is a GREAT feeling.

Cooking, basic cleaning, laundry, the usual stuff. I hate clutter, so the missus and I struggle with that one a bit. She's not the minimalist I am, but she is much better than many.

[hybrid]

Don't go to the gym, it's a big waste of time and money.  Set up a bike trainer in front of your television at home.  Whenever the television goes on, you bike.

I agree with you in principle. My gym is just five blocks away and my firm subsidizes the cost so I have access to a lot more stuff there than in my house, which is nice. But I like the idea of doing both, my gym keeps odd hours.

[LadyStache]

Find really quick and easy dinner ideas to reduce the temptation to order pizza.

We got an electric pressure cooker recently and it's been really great for cooking frozen chicken quickly with minimal effort. No need to defrost. Depending on which pressure cooker you use, you could even add the ingredients in the morning and set it to delay cooking until just before you arrive home (haven't tried this yet - I'm not enough of a morning person to follow through on it).

Take frozen chicken breast or thighs. Toss into pressure cooker. Add 2 tblspoons of sauce per breast or thigh (taco sauce, barbecue sauce, Land O Lakes Saute Express things, etc.). If cooking chicken thighs, add about 1/4 cup of water. The chicken breasts we purchased had a lot of water in them, so we didn't need to add any extra. Set the pressure cooker timer for 10-12 minutes. Then do whatever you want until the timer goes off (maybe start a pot of rice, or just read for a few minutes). Once it's done, I turn the pressure cooker on to saute so I can brown it a little more on the outside and reduce some of the extra liquid. If you're doing this with chicken that isn't frozen, you'll need to decrease the time.

A lot of people run errands or do online shopping/bill payments on their lunch break. I usually try to stop for things (like grocery shopping) on my way home instead of going all the way home and then leaving again to get stuff.

[MsPeacock]

Have your clothes, bag, etc. all set out the night before and ready to go.

Do a 10-minute tidy nightly to keep on top of house cleaning (assuming you are inclined towards having a tidy house). I can wipe down the kitchen, get the dishes loaded, flip laundry, and declutter in about 10 minutes.

I order my groceries online - it is 4.99 and all I have to do is drive to the store and they load them in the trunk. It saves me several hours per grocery run and helps w/ meal planning. (This is one of those situations where throwing a little money at the problem may or may not be worth the saved time for you.)

[Dances With Fire]

1) Cooking- We strive to make more salads, soups, w/or chicken breast or fish. Quick, easy, and more healthy.

2) Laundry basket/bag by the door ready to go.

3) Trips to the store etc. on the way home from work. (This may not be ideal, but once I am home that's it, I'm home to focus on more important things.)

[hybrid]

I order my groceries online - it is 4.99 and all I have to do is drive to the store and they load them in the trunk. It saves me several hours per grocery run and helps w/ meal planning. (This is one of those situations where throwing a little money at the problem may or may not be worth the saved time for you.)

I think this makes perfect sense actually. You are spending $4.99 to buy (at least) an hour of time. I'll be frank, $4.99 isn't a lot of money to me at this point, we make pretty good money. If I could trade $5 for an hour, I would gladly buy ten hours for $50. Expanded, I would gladly buy the extra five hundred hours I'll spend at work this year for $2500 (as the difference in pay between jobs was considerably more than $2500).

It's another exercise in "What is your time worth?" I don't feel particularly bad about a $10 pizza (bought on sale, of course!) when cooking at home would have been about $6 for the three of us. There are days when that $4 I'm not spending isn't worth the time I am losing.

I did make a tremendously good big pot of Thai yellow curry Sunday, and that has taken care of meals for the next three days. I'm still cooking in batches, just not as much as before.   

[Retire-Canada]

My best time saving trick is not giving a shit. I'm serious. My GF will get all twisted up about X, Y or Z not getting done and I'll just not care. When she wants help I point out how X, Y and Z are not particularly important.

Make a list of what you have to do each week and prioritize it. There can only be one #1 priority item and only one #2 priority item.

Run your week so you get things done from top to bottom. See where you get to.

If you consistently get to #5, but only rarely get to #6 or #7 you need to look at that part of the list and see if any of it really matters.

The common thing I see around me is people trying to do too much and not doing it in accordance with the priority of the item. Get rid of everything that's non-essential and then see where you are at.

-- Vik

[AlwaysBeenASaver]

One of the ways I've saved time is to only go grocery shopping once a week. I used to go about 3 times a week, whenever I needed something. Now I go once a week, and if I run out of something I do without it until the next week's shopping trip.

[Emilyngh]

I started showering about 2-3 times a week instead of every day.   This not only cuts down on shower time each day, but hair drying and styling, which for a woman, can really add up.   I also now bathe in the evening so I don't feel rushed and take the time to moisturize, do all personal grooming etc, taking care of it all at these few set times.   As odd as it may sound, it's one of the best decisions I've made in the last year or so.

Stay ontop of clutter by picking up for a few minutes daily and finding solutions for anything I notice I'm constantly dealing with (either a better system or get rid of it).   I find that a clutter free house saves time and mental energy and makes things look clean with minimal other cleaning.

Come up with easy meals that you eat the same of on certain days of the week.   For example, we have salad for dinner every Sunday, pasta every Wed, eggs every Tuesday, and usually some type of veggie burger/sandwich on Friday.   This leaves only three other meals a week to come up with.

Eat oatmeal at my desk at work for breakfast each morning.

Very minimal makeup and hair styling.

Pay bills and do all financial planning once a month.    I set as much up on autopay to credit cards as possible, have everything automatically tracking in mint, and then once a month I login, look over all cc charges, pay cc bills, mortgage, and any other random bills that have collected through the month.   I'll also look over investments, budgets, etc and reassess if anything needs attention.

Purchase everything either at the grocery store trip once a week or online.   Try very hard to otherwise stay out of stores (other than goodwill or Ikea or others a handful of times a year where we have to get something we absolutely have to try on or see in person).   Shopping sucks a ton of time and we wind up buying stupid crap.

Make most household and beauty products from a few of the same ingredients (vinegar, baking soda, bees wax, etc) so we can stockup on these at the grocery store and don't have to think about running out of specific products.

Try to really evaluate everything I do to determine (a) do I really value doing it and/or (b) is there a more efficient way to do it?   I try to not do things out of guilt or obligation unless I find them genuinely useful.

[DaveSch]

Paper Plates

[PatStab]

When I worked I had to categorize things to keep up.

I'm retired now, I do a bit daily, try to keep things neat and tidy as I like my home and surroundings clean.  I'm lucky I have a hubby that is the same way. Neither of us are obcessed with it but we try
to keep things up.  He is still working so I do a lot.

[firewalker]

In a Seinfeld episode, Kramer would save time by washing his salad veggies while showering. Brilliant, eh?

[2ndTimer]

Batch cooking.  I don't go about it in the organized way some people do.  I just cook a lot of whatever I'm making and freeze some meal sized portions.  I have the largest size slow cooker I can find and fill it to the top when I make stew, soup, chili, etc.  Eat it a couple of nights and freeze the rest in quart size yogurt cartons which is just right for two of us.

[kpd905]

I order my groceries online - it is 4.99 and all I have to do is drive to the store and they load them in the trunk. It saves me several hours per grocery run and helps w/ meal planning.

How is this possible?

[WESTOFTHEHUDSON]

I "big cook" or prep near whole meals together and label and freeze them. I then defrost and toss into slow cooker. I spend around 5 hours every 3 months (between deciding on recipes, calculating ingredients, actually chopping,etc) and then the day of I prep a salad or veggies,rice, etc and dinner time is complete. It saves me ridiculous amounts of time.

I also listen to audio books while knitting.

[ShaneD]

One of the biggest time- and brain-savers I implemented while working too early, too late, and too many hours overall (only recently left that gig) was to make coffee the night before. I know to some that's a sacrilege, but that 10-15 minutes of waiting for a pot of coffee to brew only ever meant 10-15 minutes less of sleep, and having the pot already made meant I could pour myself 2 cups right from the start and knock 'em back fast.

It ain't dainty nor how I'd enjoy a leisurely cup with friends [cue General Foods International Coffee commercial], but when I was commuting 90-minutes each way, my only goal was caffeination, stat.

As others have said, putting bag together and laying out -- or at least mentally assembling -- clothes options the night before also helpful. I'd often think about or pull together 2 outfits in case of weather or mood changes. Also, batch-made and packed lunches for the week on Sunday. (My standby: Grill 2.5 lbs of chicken thighs; steam raw or thaw frozen vegetables that won't stink in a couple of days (i.e., be kind to your colleagues: avoid crucifers), mix with olive oil or preferred fat, seasoning; pack in 5 containers.)

Random other thing: Stopped conditioning my hair (better for my hair, too) and banned any fussy grooming routines.

[TrMama]

Leave a Mr Clean Magic Eraser in the shower. Once a week, after showering (but before getting out) use it to scrub the shower and doors.

Meal plan. No need to call out for pizza when you have all the ingredients in the fridge for homemade pizza.

Pre-chop all veggies. Even if you don't cook ahead, having all the veggies ready to go makes cooking faster and easier.

Weekends. Use them to get caught up on laundry, cooking prep, etc.

My best time saving trick is not giving a shit. I'm serious. My GF will get all twisted up about X, Y or Z not getting done and I'll just not care. When she wants help I point out how X, Y and Z are not particularly important.

Make a list of what you have to do each week and prioritize it. There can only be one #1 priority item and only one #2 priority item.

Run your week so you get things done from top to bottom. See where you get to.

If you consistently get to #5, but only rarely get to #6 or #7 you need to look at that part of the list and see if any of it really matters.

The common thing I see around me is people trying to do too much and not doing it in accordance with the priority of the item. Get rid of everything that's non-essential and then see where you are at.

-- Vik

This takes care of the rest.

[1967mama]

I would really LIKE to order groceries online (and I did it for 3 weeks while recovering from surgery) but its $7.99 for the delivery PLUS its a real fancy-pants grocery store. I feel like I'm spending WAY more for my groceries there and would never actually shop at that store on a weekly basis. It had the potential to be a beautiful thing -- I really dislike grocery shopping and it takes me a LONG time because we have a big family so I need lots of food each week. But just can't justify to added costs.

One of my time saving tricks is to try and have dinner going by lunch time. Time seems to fly by from 4-6pm, but time earlier in the day seems more manageable. Today, I cooked up the lentils and veggie casserole for dinner right after we had lunch. Just before the kids come home from lessons, I will pop it in the oven for 30 minutes to reheat and melt the cheese on top.

[MsPeacock]

I would really LIKE to order groceries online (and I did it for 3 weeks while recovering from surgery) but its $7.99 for the delivery PLUS its a real fancy-pants grocery store. I feel like I'm spending WAY more for my groceries there and would never actually shop at that store on a weekly basis. It had the potential to be a beautiful thing -- I really dislike grocery shopping and it takes me a LONG time because we have a big family so I need lots of food each week. But just can't justify to added costs.

This area has 3 options for delivery: Peapod (Giant), Shoprite, and Safeway. Shoprite is the only store that has the same prices online as in the store and on their sales flyer. In my experience it is also the least expensive of the three, and particularly online vs. the others. All charge about the same for delivery (9.99 for Shoprite, I think 12.99 for Peapod w/ a $75 or so delivery minimum, similar charge w/ Safeway). Shoprite also emails me shop-from-home coupons every couple weeks worth $15 off a $150 order - problem is that I rarely purchase $150 worth of groceries at a time. Plush Shoprite doubles all their coupons up to $1. That said, when they started the service there were *major* bugs in the system and it took quite some time for them to work it out. I had conversations w/ the store manager about every order I placed for a year, and all my pick-up and/or delivery fees were waived. They seem to have it under control now.

Ok - several hours as someone questioned above - maybe an overestimate - but the advantage of online is that I can do it anytime - at 11pm or on my lunch hour, I don't have to take the kids, I can shop while standing in my kitchen w/ my meal plan (oh yeah, are we out of mayo??? Easy to check), I can easily sort the items by unit price for comparison shopping, and I can go back and fiddle w/ my order until a couple hours before delivery or pick-up. It is maybe 2 hours of transportation and shopping time + the convenience that feels like it saves me several hours per week.