14 Time-Saving Hacks To Save 7 Hours A Week!

Busy? Overwhelmed? Stressed?

As mums, we’re constantly on the go. In fact, it seems to be part and parcel of the whole motherhood gig.

Will it ever change? Some say only when the kids go off to university, and even then you stay awake wondering if they’re safe. 😆

In any case, even though our to-do lists are long and our lives busy, I do believe it’s possible to adopt certain time-saving strategies to help us deal with the load a bit better.

So I scoured the internet for different time-saving tips, added a few of my own, and I came up with my 14 top time-saving hacks!

1- Establish priorities and make a plan

Planning is important because when you align your priorities for that day or that week, you become more focused and efficient with what exactly needs to be done.

How: Simply grab yourself a notebook or planner and pencil the night before or early in the morning and set a list of tasks for the day or week, by order of priority.

Even if you take 10 minutes to do this, you’ll save at least 15 minutes by not doing things that are less urgent or having to sort out double bookings when you have external commitments!

Time-saving – 15 minutes

2. Batching

Batching is good for when you’re in a certain frame of mind to do a specific task and it helps cut out preparation time.

Now as some of you know, I work as a translator, writer, and blogger, and I work on several different projects.

So what I do is assign certain days of the week for certain tasks: Mondays are translation days, Tuesdays and Wednesdays are my blog and social media days, and Thursdays, Fridays and Saturdays are for my other writing projects.

In terms of housework, which I do without outside help, I also have a cleaning plan where each day has a specific room assigned to it.

How: Create a plan for batching certain tasks (for example, doing several errands in one go if you’re out of house anyway) and you’ll save yourself time in preparing for that specific task.

Time-saving: 15 minutes

3. Multi-task things that go together

With this I mean you put things together that have a common goal.

If you like doing exercise but you feel like it would interfere with your social life, why not create an exercise group with your friends?

Another thing you can do is carry out manual tasks and mental tasks at the same time, for instance, you can listen to a webinar while you’re doing the ironing.

How: Multi-task things you know you can do together, without compromising on quality or lack of focus. Pairing mental and manual tasks usually works well, as well as pairing social activities with hobbies or exercise.

Time-saving: 30 minutes

4. Delegate

Are there things you’re doing that you can delegate? Maybe getting your children to tidy their toys, do some dusting or help with setting the table?

Sure, it can be stressful at first, but they do learn and it gets easier.

I’ve recently started doing this more, as my children are getting more independent.

Yesterday, for instance, I asked them to lay the table while I was putting away the bed linens, and this morning they dusted their bedrooms, while I finished a computer task.

How: Create an age-appropriate rota for your children, or set out a plan for delegating tasks at work or with your different projects.

Time-saving 30 minutes

5. Shop online and meal plan

I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, this really does save time!

By not going physically to the shop, you save yourself at least twenty minutes a week (think traffic, parking, roaming around the shop).

For online shopping to work successfully, make sure you have an easy to follow meal plan that you have on rotation, then simply add the ingredient list to your basket and any other extras.

You save money too because you can’t see all the bargains of things you wouldn’t buy, anyway!

How: Create an online meal plan, and then refer to it while you do the online shopping.

Time-saving: 20 minutes

6. Limit social media

Social media can be a complete time waster.

Communicating with people is great, but when it’s constantly distracting you from your tasks, it is beneficial to switch off.

I like to put my phone on focus mode when I’m working and then turn it on in my breaks so that I can answer messages.

I also do regular social media intermittent fasting.

How: Put your phone on focus mode, or have it turned off at certain times of the day.

Timesaving: 50 minutes (if you limit social media by just 10 minutes every weekday).

7. Leftovers

Don’t want to cook every day? Cook a double batch of your favourite dishes and then fridge or freeze for another day.

At the moment I cook at dinner time, and then we use the leftovers for lunch the following day, which means I only have to cook once a day.

How: Meal plan and shop at the same time and buy double quantities of the ingredients, so that when you cook you make a double amount.

Time-saving: 1 hour

8. Incorporate exercise into your daily life

Walking the kids to school, going up the stairs instead of the lift, cycling to the shops are all great examples of killing two birds with one stone.

Although it may seem that these activities take longer, if you incorporate exercise into your daily life, you won’t need to spend hours at the gym.

If you need focused body training, why not do a daily 7-minute workout at home?

How: Do a short 7-minute workout at home, and then incorporate exercise into the activities you do every day, anyway.

Time-saving: 30 minutes

9. Declutter and tidy

If your house is in dire straits, block off a couple of days to declutter.

One decluttering method that might help you is Gemma Bray’s TOMM bootcamp.

Then maintain your hard work by doing mini decluttering and tidying sessions. This will save you time in the long run because you won’t be constantly losing things.

How: Do mini decluttering sessions once a month (assign a specific day of the week) and tidy hotspots every day.

Hotspots are the areas where things just tend to get dumped, like the entrance hall table, the coffee table in the living room, or the chair in your bedroom.

Also, make sure you have a place for everything! Even placing baskets to hold bills is a good option for making the house more organized.

Time-saving: 20 minutes

10. Learn to say no

This is a hard one, but learn to say “no” or “wait” to all the things in your life that you know deep down are not priorities.

This isn’t about saying “no” for the sake of it, but it is acknowledging your limitations and living by your priorities.

How: Again, write down your plan for the week or even month ahead, and plan some time buffers for things that might come up unexpectedly.

Time-saving: 30 minutes

11. Unload the dishwasher while setting the table

Unloading the dishwasher and laying the table at the same time can really help you gain a few minutes.

I like to do this in the evening or very early in the morning and set the table for breakfast.

How: Establish a time of day when you’ll turn the dishwasher on so that it’s ready just before you need to lay the table for a meal.

Time-saving: 25 minutes

12- Intermittent fasting

Yes!! It saves time, as well as providing a host of health benefits. By cutting out breakfast or dinner, you can save yourself at least 10 minutes every day.

How: Reduce the number of meals you have in one day, by having an extensive fasting period. For more info click here.

Time-saving: 50 minutes (10 minutes for each weekday).

13- Listen to audiobooks while you’re doing housework, or exercise

This one is a great hack if you like reading but have little time to do so.

Instead of listening to music while doing housework or exercise, why not try listening to an audiobook?

I started doing this a few weeks ago, and it’s a game-changer.

Before, I used to listen to YouTube videos, but I always found the adverts somewhat annoying.

Now that I have Amazon’s audible subscription, I enjoy listening to a good book without interruptions.

How: You can download Audible on the audible website. To sign in, just use your Amazon account details.

There are other audiobook sites available if you’d like to try something different.

Google audiobooks, Kobo Audiobooks, Librivox and Downpour are the best ones.

Time-saving: 25 minutes

14- Use your oven and slow cooker

Preparing meals that go in the slow cooker and oven saves time because prep is usually quick and easy.

I follow several recipes that only take 10 minutes to prep, and then the machines do the hard work of cooking for a few hours.

While your food is cooking away, you can get on with all your other tasks.

How: Prepare all your ingredients early in the morning for the slow cooker and set it on low for eight hours, or simply prepare your roast dinner a couple of hours before time, and leave it on low heat.

You can also pre-prepare all ingredients for your weekly meals on a Sunday.

Time-saving: 20 minutes

And that’s it!

Let me know if you do any of these or if you’d like to try them! Also, please let me know if you have any other time-saving hacks.

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