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Often times, having an extra hour would make the biggest difference in our daily schedules. From work, parenting, hobbies, chores, and adulting in general, there seems to be a distinct lack of time during the day. In order to help put a little more back in there, here are 4 easy things to save an hour a day.

-one-

Cook enough at dinner for lunch the next day

To start this list, I want to talk about something that is super simple. Simple things are usually the easiest to implement after all.

When we prep, cook and clean for every meal it takes forever. Just think, you wash and cut veggies, make the sauce, bake, boil, sauté, then you got to clean a bunch of dishes and cookware.

You’re looking at 15 minutes for breakfast and up to an hour for dinner. Minimum.

This could be up to 2 hours a day getting your meals together. Anyone with kids will tell you that it’s probably longer when you take snacks and drinks into account.

By increasing your batch size to make sure that you have lunches for the next day you can easily save an hour.

Related: Prioritizing: What to do when
Related: Meal planning with a bullet journal

-two-

If it will take less than a minute – do it now

Have you ever thought of something that you needed to do and said to yourself “I’ll do that in a bit”. Only when “a bit” comes up you’ve completely forgotten? Or even ended up spending your valuable time thinking to yourself “What was it that I was supposed to do?”

I’ve done this plenty of times.

The method that I use to sift through these thoughts and handle them more productively is by first asking:

Is this something that needs to be done? If not, disregard it. Is the answer yes? Then ask: Is it an emergency? Yes, do it right away!

If not, ask: Will this take me less than 1 minute to do? If yes, do it right away. So if it’s washing the cup you just used or making the bed, or helping your wee one with their shoes, do it!

But if it’s something that you actually need some time to do then write it on your to-do list. When you have the time you can cross it out.

Taking this approach makes sure the little things don’t pile up and you’ll be more effective while saving all the time you spent wondering what you needed to do.

-three-

Turn off notifications for apps you don’t always need active

Simon Sinek said it best. We are addicted to our electronics, particularly our phones. If you’re like most millennials, we hear the ding and immediately pull out the phone to see what’s going on.

Apps want you to use them so audio notifications are usually automatically on. The problem is that you probably don’t need that notification about your software updating tonight at 2am or the one saying that Facebook marketplace has more of the stuff you just bought available.

Notifications can be good, but by turning off the notifications for the non-urgent or unimportant you can save a ton of time.

Each time a notification goes off it breaks our concentration, interrupts our day and takes time to look at. Then we have to exit out of it and refocus on what it was we were doing before. Or, as is often the case, it might prompt us to go down the facebook/youtube/insta rabbit hole.

Cutting out the temptation is a sure-fire way to save an hour. Stop the cycle my friends and turn off notifications on apps that are time wasters for you.

-four-

The to-do list will never be obsolete

Spending 10 minutes in the morning to clarify your priorities, list your “must-dos” and your”would be nice ifs” is huge. Not to mention it makes you feel good when you realize that it’s shorter than you thought.

I get a sense of confidence when I look at my list and think, “I can get this all done with time to spare!” The days that I do this I find that I have all my must do’s done before noon.

This gives me almost my whole day to work on the things that I want to do. The bonus here is that when we feel accomplished and get to spend time doing the things we WANT to rather than the things we HAVE to we feel way more energized. Who doesn’t want that?

There are a bunch of ways that you can save an hour and make your day more productive. Keep them simple, small and easy to do. Then you can sit back and watch how you rack up the time to spend on the things that matter to you.