Product Review: HealthyWomen Time-Saving Tips

Daylight Savings Time is this weekend.  Ugh.  (I’ve waxed poetic about this magical time of year before.)  What better time to implement as many time-saving ideas as we can?  Thanks to Mom Central, I am sharing a list of the 12 top time-sharing tips compiled by HealthyWomen following a survey they conducted of over 1000 women to uncover their busiest hours and how they deal with them.  Here are some tried and true gems for making the most of our time.

Domestic Duties
1.  Make Fridays left over night – you will clean out the fridge and save time and money.
2.  We know you want to be watching TV, but how about making that personal time a bit more productive? Use commercial breaks to squeeze in some of the end-of-day chores – sort laundry, start the washer, vacuum a room, unload the dishwasher, organize the kitchen counter.
3.  Sign up for free automatic bill-paying services for all recurring bills such as utility bills, etc. Then set up an online bank account for free, one-click payment of all other bills - saves time, postage, and gas!
Running Errands
4.  Combine as many errands as you can into one outing – grouping them by location and reducing travel time.
5.  Ask for help!  Keep a list of your errands and an ear open in case your spouse, relative or friend is headed to the same place.    
6.  Ride your bike, walk or run to run local errands – eliminating the need to take time to exercise later.     
Communicating with Others
7.  Set a schedule and establish boundaries throughout the day. For example, at the beginning of each conversation, tell others how much time you have available.  It’s as easy as saying, “I’m glad you called, but I’ve only got about 10 minutes to chat…”
8.  Make email more efficient – spending the time to unsubscribe for all the junk emails will give you an inbox with just the information you want, and less time deleting the stuff you don’t.
9.  Take public transportation to work, and use that time to read, update your to-do list, or answer personal emails.  
Health and Beauty
10.  Reconsider your definition of clean and don't shampoo every day - your hair will be healthier and shinier and your shower will be shorter. 11.   Keep your period light – at least packing for it.  Wear a menstrual cup all day and save time packing up other protection.  
12.   Tried and true – set your clothes out the night before. Women who don’t can waste time trying on different outfits or having to iron at the busiest time of the day. 

Here are some of my own time-saving tips:

When you come home from the grocery store, don’t just throw the meat in the freezer.  Go ahead and prepare it for meals before freezing.  Put some chicken in a Ziploc with a marinade for a quick grilled dinner.  Brown some ground beef and freeze in one pound portions to use in tacos, spaghetti, sloppy joes, etc.  Mix up some meatballs and a meatloaf now and cut 1/2 hour off your prep time later.  This tip really helps keep dinner time less hectic for me.

Keep two email accounts;  a free one for signing up for newsletters, freebies, coupons, etc. and use the one your internet provider gives you  for family only.  Don’t give it out to anyone else!  That way when you are pressed for time you can quickly check for important messages and not have to sort through spam.  (And be picky about which family members you share with as well…my “funny email forwarding” mil and uncle don’t make the cut lol.)

I hope you enjoyed reading these tips and feel free to share your own in the comments.  Do stop by the HealthyWomen site, it is full of informative and timely articles.

“I wrote this review while participating in a blog tour by Mom Central Consulting on behalf of HealthyWomen and Softcup and received a $30 gift certificate to thank me for taking the time to participate.”