If it seems like you never have time to slow down and appreciate life, then you are not alone. Many people live a hectic lifestyle and never feel as if they have enough time to get to the bottom of their ‘to do’ lists. However, here are six great hacks to free up your life and give you the gift of time.
Hire Some Help
In an ideal world, you would be able to afford a cleaner, gardener, chef, and butler to take care of your essential needs. For most people, this is not affordable and will always remain a beautiful daydream. However, just because you can’t afford all the above, doesn’t mean that you have to go without any help at all.
Decide on your budget and work accordingly. For example, you may not be able to afford a cleaner to come in every day but could your budget stretch to hiring someone for a couple of hours per week? Even getting some cleaning help once a fortnight could mean that you can come home to a clean house occasionally, and the chores would be easier to manage in the meantime. This could save you a lot of time.
If that is too costly for you, there are other ways of saving yourself time doing chores. Supermarkets only charge a few pounds to deliver your groceries to your door. You may even save yourself money as ordering online will mean that you are more likely to stick to your shopping list rather than buying extra treats as you might if you had to go to the shop yourself. You can order your shopping online when you have a spare five minutes and all you then have to do is put it away when it arrives. This can save you at least an hour per week.
Batch Cook
If you find cooking every evening is too time-consuming, then stop doing it. You could set some time aside at the weekend or one evening per week and do some batch cooking instead. Then you could pop all your meals in the freezer, and you would just have to heat them up when you were hungry. This will save you the time and effort of cooking from scratch every night, but you would still be able to enjoy homecooked meals rather than having to order expensive takeaways. It will also save you time on clearing up as you will not use as many utensils every night.
Go Electric
Do you ever get that sinking feeling when you are running late for a meeting, and you look down at your petrol gauge only to realise you’ll have to make a pit stop en-route and make yourself even later? Until recently, there was not a lot you could do about this. However, these days, getting yourself an electric car will mean that you never have to worry about the petrol tank again. This will save you a lot of time over the course of a year on a chore that you don’t much like doing anyway.
Another way of saving time in an electric car is in how you can avoid having to drive round and round the carpark looking for a space. An electric car is still quite a novelty to some people, so if a carpark has electric charging stations, you can easily find somewhere to park and charge your car at the same time. If you’re wondering whether an electric car is right for you, you’ll want to do your research. Websites such as ElectriX can provide you with all the information you need to make an informed decision, and you can find the answers to any questions you have before you go shopping. You can even take their online quiz: Is an electric car right for me?
Prioritise
If your ‘to do list’ seems to be never-ending, you need to consider your priorities. Everyday there will be things that you absolutely have to do, e.g., go to work, attend your child’s parent’s evening, buy a birthday present for the next day.
Then there are things that it would be nice to do, such as calling a friend, shopping for a new top, or cleaning the car. The nice to do list can be left until the next day or the one after that if necessary. The top might be for a party the next weekend, or you could wait for your friend to call you back. There will come a time when the things on your ‘nice to do’ list will have to be transferred to your ‘need to do’ list but you don’t have to beat yourself up about it and try to cram everything into a short space of time. Instead, give yourself a pat on the back if you do finish your ‘need to do’ list and find yourself with some spare time to start on your ‘nice to do’ list.
Double Up
You would save yourself a lot of time if you could double up and do two things at once, wouldn’t you? While that might not always be possible, there are ways of making it happen regularly. For example, you want to meet your friend for a coffee, but you want to do some exercise as well. Instead of trying to fit both in, how about you meet your friend for a walk in the park instead, and then you will both benefit from getting some exercise while having a natter. There are lots of things you can double up on if you put your mind to it and this can save you a lot of time.
Delegate
If you are struggling to fit everything you need to do into one day, then perhaps it is time to delegate. At work, think about why you are struggling. Does it always seem to be you who gets the jobs that nobody else wants? This might leave you running around like a headless chicken while your colleagues enjoy a tea break. There is an art to learning how to say no but if you can perfect it, you can delegate your workload more evenly and give yourself more time to do the work that is important to you.
This doesn’t just work in the office either. At home, you can practise your new delegation skills too. You might have a teenager who can be encouraged to help you with the housework or a partner who can do the ironing while you do the hoovering. Drawing up a chores list and ensuring that the whole family sticks to it may not make you popular at first but it could free up a lot of time and your family may learn some valuable new life skills.
These six life hacks can save you a lot of time over the course of a week or even a month. Put them into practise today and see how much time and stress-free livingyour new lifestyle will offer you. Think about all the things you can do now that you have been given the gift of time and you finally have the headspace to enjoy doing them.
