There’s no question about it – time management is a HOT topic these days, primarily because most of us are running around feeling like we never have enough time! Time management is a huge topic, with countless experts, theories and strategies, but we want to focus on practical tips you can practice to help you reclaim precious minutes (or more) each and every day. How you use your re-claimed time? Now that’s up to you!
Time-Saving Tip: Automate Your To-Do List
This might be anything from setting up automatic bill-paying or membership renewal to using pre-printed grocery lists and email reminders for recurring or infrequent tasks. Doing so helps you avoid re-inventing the wheel and also relieves the stress of needing to remember to take care of these tasks. Example, if you need to change the water filter in your refrigerator every 6 months – write it in your calendar or better yet, set up a recurring appointment in your calendar with an email reminder. No more wondering if it’s time!
If you find yourself doing the same task repeatedly, see if there’s something you can do to make it more automatic. This includes setting up routines to turn your frequent tasks into habits. The more habitual a task becomes, the less you have to think about it! However, until your new routine becomes automatic, set yourself up with reminders to help you stay on track. And don’t give up on a new routine – it can take up to 3 months for a new routine to become habit. So keep at it – in the end, you’ll save time and mental energy!
Laundry is a great example of a recurring task that can benefit from a routine. While there’s not much you can do to actually automate the work itself, setting a regular schedule and making it habit can do wonders! For most families, waiting until the hamper is full results in laundry stress and mess. Pick a schedule that works best for you and stick to it, even if the hamper’s not full yet!
If you’re worried about putting things like bill-paying on auto-pilot, a few simple steps can help keep this time and worry-saver from back-firing:
- Maintain an account balance that’s high enough to handle your automatic payments. If you’re not able to establish a cushion, automatic payments may not be the best idea for you at this time.
- Know how to log into your account on-line. This means saving your username and password (or a hint) in a safe place.
- Sign up for email notifications when your monthly statement is ready. This email should be your trigger to log-in and review your statement. This might mean checking each transaction against your receipts (which you can save in a small accordion file or envelope) or simply doing a quick review to make sure everything is as expected.
Bottom Line: Automating your to-do’s can be a great way to reduce stress, save time and eliminate late fees from your life!
If you’d like to learn more about time management, we invite you to take our e-Course: Time Management: 10 Tips to Take Control of your Schedule. This week only we are offering it for only $19!
