Time is money. Any rich person will agree with that. Thus, it’s important for all of us to save time as much as possible. It’s our greatest asset. This post is about how to save time each and every day. I’m a big believer in that if you use your time wisely, you’ll always have time to get rich.
I’ve read a lot of books about time management lately. Every book says planning is key. If you want to save time, you must plan your time. I know it seems inconvenient. Before I started reading these books, I’d often skip planning because it felt like I was just thinking about the tasks but not getting anything done. While that’s essentially true, it’s necessary as part of wise time management.
Reason being, many experts estimate that tasks get accomplished between 2 and 10 times faster if they are first planned. That makes complete sense to me. As I’ve began planning my own time, I’ve found it to be true.
How do my days look? The night before, I plan out my entire day. First, I have a morning routine. These are things I do first thing to get my day started. It includes my wakeup time, what to eat for breakfast, I make a note to drink a full glass of water and I also include various other tasks like checking income reports.
Next are my tasks specific to that day. These tasks are listed in order of importance. The most important tasks are outlined under the letter ‘A’. With each less significant task, the letter gets higher and higher in the alphabet. My letters run ‘A’ through ‘D’.
The first tasks I do are listed in the ‘A’ category. But my category ‘C’ is almost important. These are the tasks which I need to delegate. These also must be done ASAP. Without this letter system, I would constantly need to be reminding myself which tasks must be done in which order. By planning, I know exactly what to do and when to do it. I don’t have to constantly be taking my mind away from the tasks to think about what to do – I can just do them.
Throughout the day, it’s also wise to save time by limiting the time you spend watching video. This can be TV, movies or even YouTube videos. Watching someone else on video for too long can be dangerous. You may find yourself living vicariously through them. You may have watched 2 hours of TV show cops catching bad guys but in reality what’s happened is you’ve sat on a couch for 2 hours of your life. This is now way to get rich.
Also watch how much time you spend talking or thinking negatively. Negativity kills productivity. Saying bad things drains you emotionally. Instead, choose to only focus on the positive. Instead of complaining that you have nothing good to eat for dinner, think out a meal prep plan you can use for dinner the next night. Find a way to work out the problem so it doesn’t arise again. Heck, if you really dislike cooking, consider cooking your meals in bulk on Sunday’s. I personally like to cook a lot of chicken breasts at once. They’re healthy and versatile. They’re a fantastic way to save time each day.
You can also save time by deciding what you currently do which is a waste of time. This can be many things. Perhaps you wash your car every week even though it rarely seems dirty. Or perhaps you go grocery shopping twice per week when you could get by going just once. Find extra ways to save time that are pertinent to your routing.
If you have time, you can have money. So guard time and let the money flow in.
What ways will you save?
I’m a personal finance freelance writer and webmaster. I welcome you to visit me at www.thefrugalpreneur.com