How to Save Time in Daily Life and Be More Productive

Inside: Simple strategies for how to save time in daily life and be less distracted and more intentional, productive and fulfilled.

Life in our complicated, modern world operates quickly. It seems there is always something to do and somewhere to go. Even when you do your best to be intentional with your time.

Perhaps you feel this stress…chasing after your to-do list, easily distracted. Before you know it, the evening has rolled around and you reflect wondering how did the day go so fast? You want to slow things down a bit and reclaim more time in your day, so you can go to bed feeling productive and satisfied (not rushed and exhausted).

Saving time in daily life starts with becoming focused on what is essential to you and your family, what is your priority and avoiding unnecessary distractions.

Let’s start with two key ideas about saving time in daily life. Keep these in mind as you read the time saving strategies below and begin to apply them in your day-to-day.

2 Key Ideas for Saving Time in Daily Life

The person in control of your time, ultimately, is you. Not your phone, social media or outside influences. You get to decide what receives your attention. Yes, you have responsibilities towards others (employer, co-workers, family, children), but ultimately you get to determine how your day unfolds.

Seconds can add up (to minutes or more) very quickly. Time has a way of snowballing — something you think only takes a few seconds or minutes turns into much longer. This idea of small changes compounding to big ones is not new. James Clear writes in his New York Times Bestseller “Atomic Habits: An Easy and Proven Way to Build Good Habits and Break Bad Ones” about exactly this in regards to habits and the same idea can be applied to time. Even by shaving off seconds on a task you can add valuable minutes to your day.

In addition to the key ideas, below are 11 simple strategies you can apply to saving time everyday. By implementing these strategies you will reclaim precious minutes (likely more), spend your time wisely and feel more productive at the end of the day.

11 Simple Strategies for Saving Time In Your Day-to-Day

1. Turn off phone notifications

Turn off phone notifications to save time in your day. There is no need to know every time so-and-so posted on Facebook or that the Amazon package is 10 stops away. Most daily life events do not need updating in real time, if at all. The package will still arrive and the “friend” will not lose sleep if her reply, like or post right wasn’t seen right away.

By turning off notifications, you avoid the distraction of the “ding” or even the visual of your phone sending you a message. Each ding creates an interruption in your brain and, therefore, upsets the flow of the task you were engaged in.

And while you may have the discipline to turn away, you still took precious seconds from your current task and switched your brain to something else. This distraction can send you down a rabbit hole, thus you lose momentum to complete what you had already started.

2. Put a ring(tone) on it

Our phones are big enemies of time. Another phone-related strategy for how to save time every day is assign ringtones to the important people in life (i.e., your spouse, children, or office for example.

When you are focusing on something (or someone) else and your phone rings, you don’t worry about who is calling unless it’s the known ringtone. Naturally, if it’s a ringtone deemed important, you pick up. You can apply this idea to temporary important calls too, such as from a co-worker for an important message or the plumber about when he’ll be arriving at your home.

By not picking up your phone every time it rings, you save seconds throughout the day that can add up to minutes. Distraction is one of the biggest enemies of time. Staying focused on the task at hand will save you time in the end.

3. The early bird gets the worm

Even 30 minutes of getting up earlier allows you to accomplish more and save time before the day takes off. Basic tasks such as unloading the dishwasher, starting the coffee or fluffing a load of laundry only take a few minutes and, poof, they are done. Morning is also an excellent time of day to exercise, have a spiritual practice, journal or be in nature. All these activities are beneficial to creating a productive, less-stressed day.

4. Limit social media

This is tough, but you likely agree and have experienced how much social media scrolling depletes your time and focus. While social media can serve a purpose, it can also rob you of precious time in your daily life. It is easy to get distracted by these platforms, which are built to keep you on them, and lose valuable time.

tips for limiting time on social media:

• Set a timer on your phone for how long you’ll allow yourself to scroll
• Use a mobile app to monitor and manage your time spent on social media platforms (i.e., Offtime or Freedom)
• Recognize and resist triggers to check social media (i.e., boredom, procrastination, lonliness)
• Replace social media scrolling with another activity (i.e., a walk, a call to a friend, read a book or magazine, nap, go to bed early)
• Hide social media apps on your phone so they are harder to access

5. Plan your day

Save time with a daily plan and identify your MITs (Most Important Tasks). Write down your plan in the morning or the evening before each day. This does not have to be an elaborate strategy session. A quick review of your calendar or a brain dump will help you prioritize and free up minutes that are often used in a tailspin of what to do next.

A daily planner keeps you focused and intentional with your time since writing it all down organizes your thoughts, saving precious moments in your day-to-day.

6. Unsubscribe from emails

Managing emails can be a big distraction and time depletion. The best way to avoid spending unnecessary time culling through emails is to unsubscribe from senders that don’t provide any value or service to you.

Take a few minutes each month to review your inbox and remove yourself from unwanted senders (Unroll.me is a popular service for this). Now when checking email you avoid the extra clicks and distractions emails require, thus saving time.

If you don’t want to totally unsubscribe with certain emailers, set up a secondary email account for online shopping, subscription services, and other non-urgent messages. This helps tremendously with email send-and-receive busywork as it won’t interfere with your primary, more important email account.

7. Stop replying to text messages

Yes, you read that right…don’t reply to texts. This may sound rude but instead of hearing the ding and starting to reply right away, utilize something called “batch messaging.” This is when you respond to non-urgent texts all at once in one sitting versus stopping and replying constantly throughout the day.

Text messaging throughout the day can deplete you of valuable time, because when we receive a text we feel a need to respond immediately. When we do so we are pulled away from our current task to meet the needs of someone else’s timeline — remember you are in control of your time, not the other way around. While there are reasons to reply to a text in a timely manner (work-related matters, situations regarding your kids, etc); often texts are personal conversations that are likely not urgent.

Certainly when the time is right and a fun text exchange is going with a friend, have at it, but as a general rule you will find batch messaging saves significant time in your busy day.

8. Batch your work

You can also batch your work with other tasks such as email, phone calls, or a specific project. This is known as “task batching” and is a strategy that groups similar tasks together instead of switching back and forth between different ones.

Jumping from one thing to another is a major disruption to your brain and workflow. Save time in your daily life by focusing on one set of tasks at once, not multi-tasking, which truly we are not built to do. 

9. Delegate what you can

Save time in your day by assigning chores or tasks to family members. When asking for or assigning help, consider who is better at different tasks. For example, my husband is a much better cook than me — no comparison. We established long ago he would be our family’s main dinner chef while I did the meal planning and grocery shopping. This delegation has save me tons of time and we eat much better!

Determine who is better at certain household chores and make assignments accordingly. Use a chore chart for kids or the whole family in keeping track of who does what.

10. Declutter your calendar

The easiest way to save time is remove what is taking it away from you. If you have too many social obligations or responsibilities that are weighing you down, declutter your calendar, even just for the next month, so you can slow down and open up your free time.

tips for decluttering your calendar:

• Say “no” to two invitations for next month
• Reconsider your priorities of time spent outside of your home or with others
• Avoid social media for a period of time so you don’t get triggered by FOMO (Fear Of Missing Out) or envy other’s activities

11. Declutter your home

Are you and your family often rushing around the house, looking for car keys, phone charger, shoes, etc.? This daily “search-and-find” costs you plenty of valuable time. Keep your home decluttered and tidy so you can locate things you need and be organized with your belongings.

Looking for a basic roadmap to decluttering your home? Get the free Declutter 30 Day Plan here!

Finding More Time in Your Day

Modern life is complicated and every day can feel like a race around the clock. Keeping up with the responsibilities of work, kids, and home life is also exhausting! These how-to-save time strategies are meant to free up some of that “busy” feel and open up space in your day.

A big motivation behind this website is to realize we don’t always have to be “busy.” It is vital to find a healthy balance in life in order to be intentional and enjoy our days.

Tonight when your head hits the pillow hopefully you can relax. You’ll rest easy knowing you didn’t just check a date off the calendar but were purposeful with your time, slowed down the pace and accomplished priorities for you and your family.

Recap of How to Save Time in Your Daily Life

• Turn off phone notifications
• Assign ringtones to your most important callers
• Get up earlier
• Limit time on social media (use an app to help)
• Set a daily to-do plan
• Unsubscribe from marketing emails and set up a secondary account if needed
• Use “batch messaging” for replying to non-urgent texts
• Batch your work
• Delegate what you can
• Declutter your calendar
• Declutter your home