Time Saving Hacks: Five Ways to Make More Time in Your Day {Free Printable Weekly Planner!}

With all there is to do every day, it can be hard to make time for it all. A popular saying I’ve been hearing lately is “Beyonce has the same 24 hours every day that you have”- and that’s true, but she also has people to do all those time-sucking chores we all have to do. Someone is cleaning her house while someone books her appointments and appearances and someone is cooking her family gourmet meals and yet someone else is keeping tracks of birthdays and buying gifts for loved ones. And you know Beyonce isn’t grocery shopping.

For those of us who don’t have five people helping us do our daily tasks, there are still ways that we can use our 24 hours better. With young kids at home I still struggle to get the most out of my days, and if you have kids you’ll know the struggle too, but below are five ways that I’ve added more time back into my days.

1. Grocery Pickup. Let someone treat you like Beyonce and grocery shop for you! Many stores now offer either grocery delivery or curbside pickup. I’ll be sharing a post soon about my experiences with several different stores, but as of right now my favorite one to use is Walmart. They don’t charge any extra for curbside pickup and their online ordering system is so easy to use!

2. Make your errands make sense. If you’re going to be in a certain area at a certain time- like during your kid’s afterschool activities or for a doctor’s appointment- do as many errands around that area as possible so you aren’t making several trips over there. For example, my kids go to martial arts in the same shopping center as Target- so I plan my Target runs around their class times.

3. Make the most of downtime. Waiting for school pick up? Make a shopping list on your notes app. Send your sister that message you’ve been meaning to send. Go through your calendar and see what birthdays, anniversaries, and other occasions you have coming up. You know you’re just going to mindlessly scroll on Facebook anyway, you may as well give something done!

4. Narrow down your social media use. Look, I’m not saying abandon social media- most of my friends and family aren’t local to me and that’s how I stay in touch with them. It’s also how I find new, online friends, and how I’m able to share ways to make life easier for thousands of women every month. But! It can easily take over all of your free time if you let it.

I was pretty good about ignoring Twitter during the day and usually only check in on Instagram for a few minutes every few hours, but I found myself on Facebook a LOT. I took the Facebook app off of my home screen and buried it into a folder. Now I can still get to it, but every time I pick up my phone to use Facebook that long process of getting to the app makes me second guess if I’m using it for an actual purpose, or just wasting time. It’s been over a month since I did that and I use Facebook way less often- which leaves me more time to do other things!

5. Get to know your Instant Pot. Now an instant pot is a bit of an investment, so this may not be something you want to rush out and get. In fact, I waited almost a year to get mine because I just wasn’t sure I’d use it enough. However, since I got it in February, I have used it at least twice a week! {In the beginning, I was using it almost every single night!} While building pressure can take a few minutes, it’s still a quick way to get dinner on the table on busy weeknights. It’s like using a slow cooker in that you just add the ingredients and then let it do it’s thing- except you don’t have to be home six hours before dinnertime to put everything in. I’ve been using it for everything from chicken to pasta to soup and I have a whole Pinterest board filled with recipes I want to try next! {Don’t have an Instant Pot? This affiliate link is for the one I have and I truly love it!}

Okay, one more bonus tip: This may seem simple, but you’d be surprised at hoe much it helps- I save a lot of time in my week by staying organized with a weekly planner. Every week, I sit down and plan out the following week- everything from what I’ll make for dinner to when I’ll take Zac to the library or take the kids to after school activities. Then I’m able to see the big picture and I can plan my errands around the things I need to do, I’m able to prep ingredients on time {like marinating meats}, and I can see where I actually have some extra time so that if something comes up, I don’t overextend myself on an already busy day if I don’t have to.

If you don’t already have a planner, be sure to grab this free printable weekly planner! It has plenty of space to keep track of everything you need to do each day of the week, and of course an area for notes like reminders and things that need to get done but not at any specific time. You can download it right here or by clicking the image below!

How do you find ways to save time in your day? I’d love to hear your tips!