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Who couldn't use more time in their day to do all the things that need to get done? This section is designed to help you work smarter, not harder, so that you can get certain tasks done more efficiently and then invest the time and energy saved in YOU. Use the time saved to treat yourself to a nice relaxing soak in the tub, have coffee with a friend or do something special with your family. After all, though we all need to live responsibly, that doesn't mean we should forget to live.

Becoming more efficient at the things we need to do gives us more time to enjoy life by doing the things we want to do. So here are some time saving ideas that may or may not work for your particular life situation. Take what works for you and ignore the rest.

Preplan (as much as possible, depending on your situation) what you will wear to work each week. Create an itemized list one evening per week (i.e. Sunday night after the kids are in bed) of what you will wear in terms of clothes, jewellery and other accessories. This can be for one or more weeks at a time. Keep your weekly lists and at some point you can recycle them (either one full week at a time or mix and match days from different weeks) which will really speed up the process.

Benefits:

You will always look perfectly turned out and thus very organized and in control to your boss, your subordinates and your peers. While they might not say anything to you, it will not go unnoticed. It's the consistency of your polished appearance that will impress everyone the most and solidify your reputation as someone who's got it together.
The time and energy you save by not having to think about what to wear each morning can be directed towards something else, whether it be a little more sleep, a few extra minutes each morning with your partner or your children, an opportunity to relax over a cup of coffee or the ability to arrive at your desk a few minutes earlier in order to better pre-plan your day.
If you do happen to sleep in, or something else has you running behind schedule so that you arrive at the office feeling frazzled, you certainly won't look it. And your outward appearance of calm will go a long way towards helping you regain your inner composure.

Preplan and make a detailed outline of your meals a week in advance.

Benefits:

You can look at your entire week as a whole and plan meals that collectively create a healthier, more balanced diet. You will only need to get into that mind set once per week and while initially this might be time consuming, once you've been doing it for a while old lists can be recycled to speed up the meal planning process.
You can also preplan to cook extra one evening so that leftovers can be frozen in meal sized portions for down the road or else taken for lunch the following day.
Your weekly grocery list can be prepared at the same time and preparing it will become almost a no-brainer. (For those of you who currently shop without a prepared list, using one really speeds up the shopping process. It also keeps your grocery bills down - since you already know what you plan to make for the week you won't need to purchase the additional items you would have in the past for "just in case" situations.)
When you arrive home from work tired and hungry, it will be easier to stick to healthier food choices if you already know what you intend to eat.

If you regularly pack a lunch to work, allocate time each week to prepare as much as you can in advance for the week ahead. Freeze meals in lunch size portions and store in microwavable containers. If you plan to take a salad, make a double portion that can be split in half to cover you for two days instead of one.

Benefits:

It doesn't take all that much more time to prepare for two or more days as opposed to one, so the more you do up front, the greater the total time savings overall in terms of both meal preparation and clean up afterwards.
You'll therefore be out of the kitchen that much faster for the rest of the week and can use the time saved for other more interesting things.

Pack your lunch the night before so you're not running around last minute in the morning and potentially forgetting something. Frozen items will thaw overnight in the fridge and be fine to eat by lunch time.
Try to clean as you go, i.e. keep a small hand towel under the bathroom sink and wipe down the taps and counter after each use. Keep a bottle of glass cleaner and roll of paper towels there as well to clean the mirror after brushing your teeth. Once you're into the habit it only takes a second to do and trust me, you'll feel so much better walking into a clean bathroom every day. Then at the end of the week your deeper cleaning will take less time because you won't need to pick up after yourself first.
Try as much as possible to have a place for everything and everything in its place. Eliminating clutter makes it easier to keep your house clean, and like the above bathroom example your weekly deep cleaning is much quicker and easier because you don't first need to do a surface clean. I myself am much more inclined to pull out my swiffer duster when I don't first have to clear away surface clutter before being able to start dusting. (And I can assure you that with 3 cats and a dog I do need to dust regularly!)
Here's one of my favourites: keep in touch with family and friends while doing other mindless things. I regularly use my cell or portable phone to talk to my parents while I'm cooking dinner or cleaning up the dishes afterwards. This makes these otherwise boring tasks much more pleasant. (However, I can sometimes get a kinked neck from cradling the phone against one ear and for those who are concerned about this you can always do your talking over some other task which requires only one hand, such as dusting or watering your house plants. I've even taken my portable phone outside the house and watered the garden while chatting to my mother and had no issues with reception.)
Here's another personal favourite, and something that is key to my ongoing sanity: keep a "to do" list. There are so many things to be done in one day and I personally find it very stressful trying to remember them all. My Blackberry phone contains a simple task list. Since my phone is always close to me, whenever I think of something that needs to be done I enter it into my Blackberry task list and once I've dealt with it I delete it. Before leaving the office each night I check the list to see if there's anything I need to pick up on the way home or anything specific I need to do once I get there. The rest of the day I'm free to concentrate fully on what I'm supposed to be doing instead of constantly reminding myself not to forget to do something. (For those of you who don't have smartphones or other electronic devices which allow you to record to do lists, you can get small purse size notepads at the dollar store for $.50 each, and they work just as well - I used that system myself quite successfully for years.)
I always try to keep clutter to a minimum, for two reasons. First, when my environment is cluttered I start to feel disorganized in general, which I find very stressful. Second, once a little bit of clutter accumulates, I tend to let it build into one huge mess and all the while my stress level is building with it. One of my colleagues gave me a great tip years ago and it really helped keep the junk off the kitchen table, one of the key areas where my clutter tends to accumulate. She told me to get a nice decorative basket large enough to hold all my incoming mail and flyers until I had time to sort through them. This has worked wonderfully for me. The basket looks nice, and my table (usually) remains relatively clutter free.

When you cook food that freezes well, where possible cook a little extra so that you can divide your leftovers into single (or multiple) serving sizes and place them in the freezer for use at a later date. The plastic containers for yogurt, cottage cheese, sour cream, etc. come in various sizes and stand up well to freezer use. Because they stack well they are also very space effective. To help you easily identify what's in the containers without having to first remove the lid, place a piece of masking tape on the lid and write the contents and date placed in the freezer. Including the date will allow you to use things up in the order you put them in the freezer and so avoid freezer burn surprises should you eventually get around to opening one that's been there for a while.
To help make the cooking process run as quickly and efficiently as possible, prepare all ingredients before you turn on the stove. That way you're not having to keep one eye on the stove while rushing to get all the remaining ingredients prepared in time. You can even prepare things earlier in the day so that when it comes time to start preparing dinner, half the work is already done. For example, if you're making a stir fry, you can cut the vegetables up in advance and store them in the fridge. This works well if you're having company because then you can spend more time visiting with them as opposed to rushing around in the kitchen while everyone else is having a good time.
If you like the idea of preparing home cooked meals but don't want to spend hours in the kitchen, some ingredients can be purchased in a ready to use state. For example, I use an bottled pre-chopped organic garlic product where one teaspoon is equal to one clove. It lasts forever in the fridge and this way I can cook flavourful meals without having to allow time for chopping the garlic (and I avoid the smelly fingers afterwards!).
You can also purchase ingredients and pre-prepare them yourself. When I buy parsley or cilantro to use fresh for salads or bruschetta, I chop up the leftovers and place them in the freezer in pre-measured portions. The little resealable snack pack bags work well. Once frozen, these items can't be used fresh, but they work just fine for cooking. (When you put them in the freezer, don't forget to write the date on a piece of masking tape to make sure you use the oldest packages first.)

If you know a great time saving tip, please email it to me so I can post it for everyone's benefit. You will receive credit for your contribution.

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