70. Ten Life Hacks to Save You Time

In today's episode, I'm sharing 10 simple yet crucial strategies you can start using immediately to save time and cut down on clutter. Tired of drowning in laundry? Sick of stopping at the grocery store for the third time this week to grab something for tonight's dinner because you're flying by the seat of your pants? Overwhelmed by all the random items laying around your house? Then push play on this episode and discover ten ways you can regain time--and sanity--today. 

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Transcript

70. Time Saving Hacks - 10:21:24, 19.37

[00:00:00] Welcome to work life balance for speech pathologists. I'm Theresa Harp, an SLP and productivity coach, and this podcast is all about how to build a successful career as an SLP and still have time for yourself and the people--and things--you love. So if you're ready to ditch stress and burnout for a more balanced and fulfilling life, then you are in the right place.

Hey SLPs, welcome to episode 70 of the podcast. Today's going to be short and sweet. I am going to be sharing 10 tips to help you save time. Now most of these tips that I'm sharing, in fact, all of them are related to They're more related to your kind of personal life, daily, you know, not your professional life, not your career, not [00:01:00] your work as an SLP, but things that will help you save time in your role as a mom, or a spouse, or a partner, or just a human being who has to deal with all of the daily routines, chores, roles, responsibilities that we all do as humans, right?

All that stuff that we do when we're not working. And these are the things that I discovered either through, you know, trial and tribulation, personal experience through kind of research or social media influences and stuff like that, that have helped me to save time. And I am certain that there will be at least several tips in here that you have not thought about before, or you have maybe tried or have heard about but not actually committed into habit.

And these are all things that I do. [00:02:00] As truly as habits. These are things that I just do now as standard. This is just the way that the way that I operate. Okay. So I've got 10 for you. Here we go. Now, the first tip that I have is I, when it comes to grocery shopping, I use the notes app on my iPhone, and that is where my grocery list lives.

Always. Now I've done lots of different. approaches and techniques and strategies to managing the grocery list. But this is the one that I have been using the most and, uh, the one that I have been using, I'd say the longest. It's, this is sort of once I discovered this strategy, I have not deviated from it.

It just works really, really well for me. Now I'm someone who likes to write down on pen and paper my [00:03:00] lists. I like that. I like the experience of writing and all of that. However, I found that when it comes to grocery lists, when I would write them down, I would write them down and I would forget them, or I would forget where I wrote it down, or I would have it at home, but I might be out on the go and have an opportunity.

Unexpectedly to be able to stop at the grocery store and I wouldn't have my list with me and it was incredibly frustrating. So what I started to do was just keep my grocery list in my notes. Now, it's not just as basic as, you know, you type up your list in your notes and it's there. Listen to the way that I do this.

This is what works well for me, for my brain. I think it will also work well for those of you who have ADHD. And. I want you to consider giving it a try. Instead of [00:04:00] starting a fresh list every single time I'm going to the grocery store, I essentially have one major list in there. And what I do is anytime it's, you know, I'm planning out the meals for the week or I find myself in the position where I'm going to be going to the grocery store like this morning, I did this in the parking lot at ShopRite.

I just open up the notes app and I tap on the items that I need. So. Basically, the way that this looks is in my notes app, I have it as a bulleted list and everything that are kind of the standard groceries, the staples that we would buy, they're all listed as bulleted items. And because I've used this list before, when I buy them, I tap the list.

And so the bullet points. Checks off in the iNotes way, in the notes app way. Right. And so essentially when I opened up my list this morning, it [00:05:00] looks like a whole list of things that have already been purchased because essentially every.is checked off. But what I do is I see the items that are on there and anything that I need, I tap it.

And so it kind of like. Unchecks itself. So now it's an open bubble on the notes app and those are the things that I need. And as I go through the store, when I'm buying them or when I'm putting them in my cart, I just tap it. It checks them off and they're there. So that list remains and it's got everything that I need.

would, you know, really ever need and it also includes like those random things that you might need for one grocery, you know, for one random grocery run or for a new recipe that you're trying, so on and so forth. Now you can modify this in any way that works for you. But give it a try. Bonus tip with this is that I have it shared with my husband and I because sometimes he is the one who's able to make a purchase of something and so it's a shared collaborative [00:06:00] note and He if he's gonna run into the grocery store, you know We actually have two separate lists.

One is a list for him and one's a list for me and it's all on that one It's all in the one same note, but it's easy to see who's getting what. So there's different ways that you can modify this, but I have found it is always effective for me because I Always have my phone with me, right? I mean, so try it out grocery list on the notes app.

Okay, couple of Laundry related tips that I have for you. Number two. The second time saving tip is that I do a load of laundry every day for the most part and The reason why I do this there's a lot of reasons but one smaller loads are more manageable for me and so if it's Uh, if I'm doing laundry every day, it tends to be a smaller load of laundry.

I have less resistance to then doing it and then folding it and then putting it away because [00:07:00] it's a much smaller size of clothes. And so it doesn't feel as daunting as overwhelming. And then sort of a bonus spinoff tip for you. When I am folding the laundry, I, as I'm putting things back into the laundry basket to get put away, they get put into piles.

according to whose clothes they are. So each family member gets a pile, and it's all organized not only by family member, but also by drawer. So all the pants are getting stacked together. All the shorts are getting stacked together. All the shirts are getting stacked together. You get the idea. It sounds Maybe really trivial or obvious, I don't know, but for me, that was definitely not how I always did laundry.

That saved so much time and cut down on my resistance to putting laundry away because I would just take a, you know, a stack of clothes and I would know exactly where they're going. I didn't have to, you know, look at the [00:08:00] dresser and figure out, okay, this one goes in this drawer, this one goes in that drawer, this goes in this drawer, this goes in that drawer.

Oh no, that one goes there. This one goes in that drawer too. It's just, okay, here, open the pants drawer. All the pile of pants go in, open the shirt drawer, all the shirts go in. It's just so much easier and less overwhelming. And then on a similar note, my third tip in terms of time savers, this is also related to laundry is that each kid has their own color bath towel.

And they have a designated towel that they use, and they have a hook where that towel goes, and I cycle through them every few days, you know, with fresh clean towels. And they know that this color is mine, this hook is mine, and they're not grabbing a new towel every single time. So again, seems so simple, right?

And it is simple. But it's been so helpful to cut down on the amount of laundry because they're not grabbing a [00:09:00] new towel every single time. I just don't think that's necessary. Maybe that skeeves some of you out. I don't know, but we clean them every few days and for me that just seems to work well and cuts down on clutter.

Okay, so that's the third tip that I have. I'll give you a couple of tips that are also similar in terms of clutter. The fourth tip is that We each kid has a water bottle that we use and that is they they like to sleep with water at night too Which I totally can relate. I like to sleep with a big bottle of water next to me every night So they have a nighttime water bottle and they have a daytime water bottle and that's it So their water bottle that they use for the day is there and then Their nighttime one is there, they get washed regularly, and it cuts down on the number of glasses that are sitting around every once in a while when, for whatever reason, this, we kind [00:10:00] of deviate from this, and there's a million cups and glasses sitting around my kitchen and the dining room.

I, I, it drives me nuts. And it just creates more clutter. It creates more dishes, more things to clean. So everyone has their own water bottle. That's it. Just keeps it really simple. Similarly, I'm going to give you some for that are related to cooking, which I hate cooking by the way, and I'm not good at it at all.

But when it comes to cooking food, what I like to do to save me time is laying out the ingredients, the non perishable ingredients, ahead of time. Because for me, when I get home, if I'm cooking dinner and there's four kids running around, and it's noisy, and we're in a rush, and I'm overwhelmed, it is.

Sometimes it can feel impossible just to get dinner going to even like have to have the [00:11:00] brain Uh, energy and focus required to get the meal going is incredibly difficult, but if I spend two minutes before I begin cooking, get, gathering what I need, getting it all ready, having it out, huge time saver because it just builds that momentum and then I can get right into it.

Cool. the cooking. Now, this, again, like so many of these other tips may seem incredibly obvious, and maybe that's how you always did it, or always do it, but I can assure you, I do not. That is not how I would always do it. I would just sort of start going without thinking through what needs to, what do I need, and how is this working, and, What ingredients, what materials, I would just go and then I would find myself backtracking and rummaging through, trying to find something, so on and so forth.

So if it calls [00:12:00] for six spices, I get the six spices out and they're sitting there. I get the measuring cup. spoon or the measuring cups out. I get the plates out or the pans out. I get the non perishable ingredients out and they're sitting there and then it's so much easier for me to start. So laying out the ingredients ahead of time, that would be your fifth tip.

The sixth tip related to cooking actually is when you can double up on what you're making. So for example, I know My little guy loves this sausage pasta meal. It's his favorite. He'll ask for it all the time. And so what I will do is when I'm making that for him, I'll double the recipe and then the second You know, batch of it can either go in the freezer or it can stay in the fridge if we're going to eat it quickly in the next few days, but I'm only making it once.

I'm only getting all the ingredients out once. I'm only [00:13:00] getting all the pots and pans out once. I'm only having to wash them once. So I'm getting two meals essentially for the price of one. That's been a huge time saver for me. And I also do this when it comes to making lunches. I am very fortunate and lucky to work from home.

When I make myself lunch, if I'm eating something that I know the kids will like, I'll just make a double batch of it and prep it for them for their lunch for the next day. And that saves me a ton of time as well. Or when I am making lunches, I will try to double up. Okay. on what I'm making. So if I know they like turkey sandwiches for lunch, I'll make double the turkey sandwiches and then I'm only having to do the work one time, but I'm getting what I need out of it.

So that's sort of, uh, both, I guess that's five and six, tips five and six for you. Doubling up on your meals and doubling up [00:14:00] on lunches to help cut down time on dinner and help cut down time on packing lunches, which those are two of my absolute least favorite jobs, chores, as a mom. Alright, let's see, what else do I have for you?

Um, Uh, we've got three tips left, I think, if I'm counting correctly. The next one that I have for you, sounds like I am. Being an ag, I'm really not, but put everything in its home. Put it in its home. What is the designated home for the items in your house? And, like, where do they have to go? And when you're done using them, put them there.

So, I'm talking to those of you, especially, who have ADHD. I will often and my kids will do this too. We'll use the tube of toothpaste and it sits out on the sink or we'll brush, they'll brush their hair and then the brush stays [00:15:00] on the counter. And we're trying to get into the habit of where is the home and put it in its home once because if you can do that after you're done using it, it cuts down on the clutter tremendously.

And it is a lot more overwhelming to Look around and see everything out of place and feel like, oh my gosh, I have so much to do. I have so much to tidy. I have so much to clean. All of that can be avoided by just putting things back where they belong when you're done using them. So get into that habit. I did not realize, I think, for so long that that was something that I wasn't doing.

And so this might be something that you aren't doing and you might not even realize it. So pay attention to what you do when you're done using something and put it back in its home. Two more for you. I've got auto subscribe or [00:16:00] subscribe and save or auto delivery, whatever you want to call it, whether you use Amazon Prime or you use any other online shopping platform.

Being able to have your staples like toilet paper, paper towels, napkins, I don't know, they're like routine, uh, items that you use, toothpaste, whatever. Having those things just come on auto delivery is so helpful for me. It's less that I have to think about and I typically have found that it does save us some money when we're doing it that way.

I just, what I, what I found is that I have to kind of go in there every so often and Kind of update that list because sometimes we stop using things or we change products or whatever. So I have to go in and just update the list every now and again. But overall, it cuts down on so much time and it cuts down on the length of that list that I mentioned in the beginning of today's episode.

Um, about the grocery list in the notes app. [00:17:00] So some of the things that I, you know, used to buy in the grocery store. I now just have delivered automatically and it saves me time on my shopping as well. Okay. And then last but not least, my final tip for you for today's episode is when it comes to purchasing Gifts for people, especially gifts for if you have kids who have birthday parties, which in our family It feels like there's a birthday party at least one or two birthday parties every weekend So this can also work though for teacher gifts or holiday gifts is I will buy Things ahead of time, just kind of general gifts that I know that people would like.

And I buy multiple items of them, like multiple of them, and we have them stored in the gift bin in our basement. And they're there so that when we find ourselves in a position where we've got a party to go to, and I haven't remembered to get a gift, or I didn't have a [00:18:00] chance to get a gift, I just go down to that bin and I know that there's something in there.

So for, I usually do this too on prime days or if there's a sale at Target or in local businesses near us, if there's something that's on sale, I will stock up and buy them and then they just, that's what we give for price. for different, um, parties. So we had like three rainbow loom kits that were, that we, that I bought recently that are stocked up in our gift bin.

And then I bought, uh, five sets of charm bracelets because my girl's friends all love those kinds of things. So stuff like that, that I just stock up on when it's on sale, it stays in the gift bin. I buy duplicates of them so that I'm not, you know, Having to make more decisions than necessary. You just decide once and it's done and it's there for you.

And. You know, you never have to worry. So, all right, [00:19:00] there you have it. In under 20 minutes, 10 time saving hacks. I hope that that was actually 10. If I did my math right, I think it is. But we'd love to know if you are using any of these already or if not, which one are you going to try? What are you going to try implementing?

That is the key, right? You don't just want to take in this information. What are you actually going to take action on? So identify one or two that you want to test out, try them and let us know in the SLP support group, how they go. All right. I hope this was helpful. Talk to y'all soon.