I’ve often struggled with too many tasks and never enough time. There’s way too much to want to do with life. However, before I could get to the stuff I want to do, I had to get through the stuff I just -had- to do. Like laundry. And cooking. And work.
Tired of being tired before you get to the fun stuff? Here’s a few ideas on getting around all the boring stuff.
1. Work from your own home office. Many of us spend a lot of time at work. If you spend 8 hours a day in an office, two hours on the road, and time showering, getting dressed, breakfast, getting your mind set for work, shaking off work after work… work takes a lot of time. Instead convince your boss, or convince another boss, to let you do your work from your own home.
2. Work part time hours. Learn to live on less income, and you can live comfortably on working those hours part time. This is especially great if you can work freelance, and you’ll spend even less time working, and you are in complete control of the money you bring in. Earn $50 an hour, or more. Choose your hours, choose your pay, choose your job. Think about it. Does what you really want to do require more money, or more time?
3. Cut back on costs, to reduce the need to work a lot. Even if you love your job, and want to keep it, reducing what you spend your money on can relieve some wallet stress.
4. Rethink tasks at home, like laundry. Do you really need to wash sheets every week? Couldn’t you push it back two weeks? Or longer? Many tasks that we tend to do every day, sometimes we really don’t have to do them every day, or there are better ways to do them. Behind in laundry? Take them down to a laundry service. It may cost a few dollars, but it’ll save on hassle. Once it’s caught up, you can start on a regular, not-as-often laundry routine.
5. Become a food hack pro. Food takes up so much time. Unless you love cooking, there’s usually some cooking hacks people can follow in order to reduce time in the kitchen. For example, you can learn how to identify if a recipe is worth cooking in five easy steps.
6. Let your tastes evolve, and move on. Sometimes we do things only because they are routine, and not because we enjoy them. For example, maybe you used to enjoy a certain rubber chicken blog, and would follow the blog every day. Now, you no longer have an interest in rubber chickens. You know all about them, you’ve had your fun and now you want to learn about something else. Learn to let go.
7. Get help. When you’re overwhelmed with a task, like taxes, or house cleaning, or organizing, it’s so much easier to give the burden to someone else, someone who may enjoy doing those things. It does cost money, but when you save money by working at home, or save on the utility bills, that few extra dollars on getting someone else to do the hard stuff may be well worth it.
8. Get free help when possible. Many people are often stumped by daily problems, sometimes the problems are specific. A generic list like this one may not be able to help everyone in every situation. Find a forum, a group, a person (I have email!) and ask, “How can I…” and get direct answers. Spend less time researching when a pro or other people can point you in the right direction. (Google when possible, but when you don’t know where to start, or need extra help finding just the right keywords to search, try asking.)
9. Eliminate email, phone calls, television, etc. I used to spend $50 a month on cable television that I never watched. I’d turn on a DVD or watch Netflix before I’d watch the 300-channels-with-nothing-on cable tv. Learn the tricks to cut down on emails (using folders, deleting junk before you get it), eliminating phone calls (voicemail) and save money on cable, unless you really, really, really enjoy those things. All those hours are yours again.
10. Find that project you do want to spend all your saved hours on. I work part time hours, live well doing so, and I ended up with so much extra time, I decided to go to school for a degree in physics. Finding something to do gave me a whole new reason to push back other projects that weren’t in sync with my goal, and do what I feel I want to do with my time. Believe me, when you find something to do that you are really passionate about, you’ll find ways to make time to do what you love.
