What are your best time-savers?

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NorCalDad
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What are your best time-savers?

Post by NorCalDad »

Bogleheads, I'd love to get your best tips on how you save time. And when you think it makes more sense to pay someone to do a household task than DIY.

My wife and I have two young kids and work full-time, demanding jobs. We earn decent money and are on track for retirement and college savings, but we feel like we just don't have enough time in the day, so we're always looking for ways to save time. Mornings are spent getting the kids ready for school/daycare; nights are spent going over homework, getting the kids ready for bed and doing a multitude of household chores once they're asleep. Working less or having a parent stay home isn't an option at this point.

Thanks in advance for any advice you can share.
German Expat
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Re: What are your best time-savers?

Post by German Expat »

We have only 1 child but are (still are a bit) in the same boat you are with both of us having demanding jobs. On top of it I used to travel a lot. The good news is that things will get easier. Our son is now 10 and things are much easier, e.g. mornings is a 30 minute event and only thing he needs now is to put his breakfast food out. You will need to make sure though when they get a bit older that they are used to cooperate and do things independent.

Here are some things we pay for or try to do:

Cleaners
Yard work (not anymore, we are in a Condo now in Switzerland and its part of the fee)
I do all my phone calls on the way home from work (ok, that is free except for the cell minutes)
Grocery delivery
Eating out

Play dates with friends for our 10 year old, even if they are at our place they just disappear and show up maybe once to ask for food or a drink.

Used to sign him up for Swimming on Saturdays. Either stayed at the pool with a book or sat at a coffee shop, very relaxing and my wife stayed at home.

Was considering task rabbit in the US to clean up our walk in closets but then we moved :-).

In general we paid for somebody if either

a) can't do the job (I can repair household appliances, do electric work etc. but my skills to paint a room are awful)
b) it is below a certain amount, same example repairing our washer would probably cost 100$ but was only 10$ in parts and 20 minutes of my time, cutting our gras was 25 dollar but would have taken me close to 1 hour (and gas, new lawn mower etc.)
c) dislike doing this type of work
d) eats up too much into our free time, our cleaner works close to 4 hours every other week
CFM300
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Re: What are your best time-savers?

Post by CFM300 »

Do your pull ups between your squat sets. Saves a ton of time.
livesoft
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Re: What are your best time-savers?

Post by livesoft »

For the kids, don't bother with pajamas. After their baths, just get them dressed in whatever they want to wear for the next day. Thus, no dressing in the next morning. They simply wake up and are ready to go.

Also, minimal number of clothes for them. They are either wearing the clothes, the clothes are in the dryer, or the clothes are on the floor in the bedroom. Always easy to find.

Washing clothes: Buy only clothes that can be washed in hot water which is pretty much all clothes nowadays and put in the dryer. Just put clothes directly in washer (no hampers). Turn on washer when cooking dinner. Move clothes to dryer. Store clothes in dryer (no folding), so you just pull 'em out and put 'em on. Anyways, washing/drying clothes overlaps with anything else, so takes no time whatsoever.

Food prep/cooking: Always put stuff away as you use it. Do NOT leave it on the counter top. Example: When making cookies, measure out flour, salt, baking soda and put these items away. Measure out sugars and put the sugar away. Measure vanilla extract and put it away.

Always think about reducing number of dishes used. Example: Make oatmeal in big glass bowl in microwave. Eat out of that bowl. When measuring oatmeal, just use a glass (not a measuring cup) and use same glass to measure the water, milk or Dr Pepper used to cook the oatmeal. Use same glass for milk for drinking with the oatmeal.

When eating at table, do not have any serving dishes to clean-up. Simply serve from the stove or food prep area.

Get a dishwasher that is quiet and needs no rinsing of dishes. Do not unload dishwasher, but just use dishes directly from it when eating. There is no shame in running the dishwasher every day and even re-washing the dishes you didn't unload along with dirty dishes.
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GoldenFinch
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Re: What are your best time-savers?

Post by GoldenFinch »

livesoft wrote:For the kids, don't bother with pajamas. After their baths, just get them dressed in whatever they want to wear for the next day. Thus, no dressing in the next morning. They simply wake up and are ready to go.
HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! :D
ilovepiano
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Re: What are your best time-savers?

Post by ilovepiano »

I have a personal shopper that delivers whatever I need. (Amazon Prime)
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alec
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Re: What are your best time-savers?

Post by alec »

When my wife worked full time, we had a cleaning lady come twice a month. This forced my wife to pick up and put away her things.

Bathe kids together.

Sign up for food prep services like Let's Dish.

Have a routine for what you eat each day. For example, Thursday s we eat pasta. It requires less thinking, becomes automatic, and the kids know what to expect, which leads to eating more.

Don't be afraid to.have breakfast for dinner.
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sambb
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Re: What are your best time-savers?

Post by sambb »

By far, the biggest time savers for me are iphone and apple watch, that allow me to do so many things with so many apps. I would pay 10x the cost of the phone in a heartbeat, because it saves me so much time. There is an app for so many different things, and it allows me to think about the world in different ways. I can really push the productivity for corporate concerns with the apple ecosystem. Amazing products.

Second time saver: try not to argue with people
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FireflyGlow
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Re: What are your best time-savers?

Post by FireflyGlow »

We are also a two career family with two young children and four rental properties. We are in the same boat as you. Two career families with growing or high incomes need to maximize time while avoiding "convenience inflation" costs whenever possible. These are our best time saving tips:

1. Do calls in the car whenever possible. I drive 22 miles each way for my commute, 4 days a week (about 35 min each way). I talk to family, friends, clients, and get minor issues with the bank, insurance company, etc. done almost every day.
2. Grocery delivery for items you use all the time like milk, eggs, fruit, whatever. Ours comes once a week on Tuesday nights. No more trips to the store on a Wed. night at 9pm because you are out of milk.
3. Send things by mail instead of making an in person drop off whenever it saves time (ie mail a check instead of dropping it off).
4. We buy prepared meals at Costco every weekend. Find them in the deli section. It's cheaper than going out and for us saves time, as going out to eat can take an hour or more, especially for a sit down restaurant. (My spouse hates fast food).
5. We use a Google calendar to keep track of family activities and appointments; this reduces the incidences of miscommunication or double booking.
6. I also use an old fashioned paper planner to keep track of to do lists to get things done ahead of time, which reduces the need to run around at the last minute.
7. Buy things online whenever possible (we don't have Amazon Prime but I am looking into this).
8. When shopping for gifts, give the recipient a gift card whenever possible (we go to a lot of weddings and have gone to giving the couple gift cards for whatever store they are registered at, usually Target or Bed Bath Beyond, 100% of the time, huge time saver.)
9. We have a house cleaning service every other Friday.
10. Our kids have homework checklists that they have to do every weeknight. By streamlining the process with a checklist, we have reduced homework to about 30 min a night.
11. For us, Monday begins on Sunday. On Sundays, my spouse and I sit down for 10-15 minutes and go over our Google calendar and paper planner to discuss appointments, who's driving the kids to soccer practice, who has to work late on a given evening, who is responsible for making dinner, etc, etc.
12. Biggest one not mentioned yet: Learn to say NO more. This is huge. There was a lot of stress in my life and my spouse's life last year because we were overcommitted to volunteer projects, work related activities that were not work (professional organizations, etc.) It is not your job or your spouse's job to save the world. The charity auction will survive just fine if your spouse is not on the committee, especially if he or she is already on 2 boards or committees. It's like the oxygen mask on the airplane theory. Put on your own mask before you help out the person sitting next to you. If you're not taking care of yourself, you can't successfully help out anyone else. Sit down with your spouse and the two of you agree, you will do x number of volunteer or extracurricular commitments. After that, make like Nancy Reagan. Just say no.

Hope this helps.
Last edited by FireflyGlow on Sat Sep 12, 2015 8:38 am, edited 1 time in total.
HoosierJim
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Re: What are your best time-savers?

Post by HoosierJim »

sambb wrote:There is an app for so many different things, and it allows me to think about the world in different ways.
Can you list a few of your best time saving apps?
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sunny_socal
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Re: What are your best time-savers?

Post by sunny_socal »

Fumoto Oil Valve for car oil changes. Changing my own oil is actually faster than driving to a dealer or lube place.

Macbook Pro for computing, both wife and myself. I don't need to play "IT guy" at home since I bought them (while PCs constantly have problems with internet connection, printing, wifi, viruses, drivers etc. )

Linux Mint for Windows OS replacement. On those older PCs and laptops, this is a great Linux version! It actually "just works" and makes those old machines feel downright snappy! Perfect for putting an extra computer in the garage.

Netflix and Hulu Plus for TV. Cable is expensive and makes you slave to their schedule.

Canon printer/fax/scanner for paperwork. This is huge at tax time and when doing a refi. Makes scanning documents to PDF a fairly effortless exercise and transactions take place via email or the web these days.

Honda and Toyota automobiles. Unfortunately their styling is hit and miss (as most auto makers these days), but their reliability is top notch. I can usually find a model that suits me and they are great value. More time getting things done, less time at the shop.
livesoft
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Re: What are your best time-savers?

Post by livesoft »

Another one: Never make the beds.
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IowaFarmBoy
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Re: What are your best time-savers?

Post by IowaFarmBoy »

Automate as much of your financial world as you can. Like utilities, cell bills, credit cards, etc
livesoft
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Re: What are your best time-savers?

Post by livesoft »

Biggest time saver for us was living near our jobs and schools. For many years, I took a 5 minute walk to work. Then my next job I had a 5 to 10 minute car ride with day care between home and work. Grocery store was between work and day care. Schools are 5 minute bike ride away. Kids could walk to school on their own. Since kids were about 10 or 12 could send them to the grocery store to get milk and other things, too.

So if you spend time commuting, think about how to reduce that.
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lightheir
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Re: What are your best time-savers?

Post by lightheir »

Definitely fast ship online buying line Amazon prime or Google shopping express.

One trip to the hardware store takes at least an hour total between the drive, checkout, drive back, even though the store is 2 miles away. Order it, and you've saved that whole hour.
livesoft
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Re: What are your best time-savers?

Post by livesoft »

lightheir wrote:One trip to the hardware store takes at least an hour total between the drive, checkout, drive back, even though the store is 2 miles away. Order it, and you've saved that whole hour.
Except the hardware store is next to the grocery store and your favorite restaurant. So you walk over and have dinner, someone grocery shops while the other pops into the hardware store, then walk home. The hardware store was 2 minutes, not 2 hours. Plus you saved a trip to the gym, too.
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mbk734
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Re: What are your best time-savers?

Post by mbk734 »

Online shopping (clothes especially), automatic invest/bill pay/credit card pay, try to have as short a commute as possible/ avoid rush hour if you can (go in early, leave early), wash clothes if they're dirty or smell otherwise you can wear 2+ days and shower every other day unless you workout everyday, wash hair once a week(European style), make easy simple meals, throw away your television, limit Internet use (turn router off at set times).
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slick_dealer_05
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Re: What are your best time-savers?

Post by slick_dealer_05 »

Plan simple vacations. Avoid flying with kids near peak holiday season with all the weather related delays and deal with poor airline customer service. Plan road trips to the nearest resort around town. Kids like a change of place even if it is a hotel with a pool just a few miles from home. Facetime with relatives rather than fly to visit them or ask them to visit you.
Hire help for basic tasks - lawn moving, house cleaning, baby sitting.
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Toons
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Re: What are your best time-savers?

Post by Toons »

1.The use of Technology in so many ways.
2.Simplify your life as much as possible
3.Less is more mentality.
:happy
"One does not accumulate but eliminate. It is not daily increase but daily decrease. The height of cultivation always runs to simplicity" –Bruce Lee
anonforthis
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Re: What are your best time-savers?

Post by anonforthis »

Telecommuting job.
sport
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Re: What are your best time-savers?

Post by sport »

TNL wrote: 1. Do calls in the car whenever possible. I drive 22 miles each way for my commute, 4 days a week (about 35 min each way). I talk to family, friends, clients, and get minor issues with the bank, insurance company, etc. done almost every day.
I would suggest that it is better to keep your mind on your driving. One mistake due to inattention will undo all your time saving, and might result in someone being injured or killed.
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FireflyGlow
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Re: What are your best time-savers?

Post by FireflyGlow »

My car has Bluetooth and I drive by myself. I find that I can focus much more when I'm on the phone than when I'm driving my two kids around. :)
travellight
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Re: What are your best time-savers?

Post by travellight »

I actually do many of the things on livesoft's list. I do empty the dryer because I don't want the clothes to wrinkle. I never iron; I empty promptly and fold so that they are auto-ironed. I rarely run the dishwasher because I promptly wash/rinse what I eat from as soon as I am done... it is super fast and less water and effort as it is not stuck on and dried up yet. Ten seconds and it is done and ready for reuse.

I also used to not make my bed in my younger days. I'd slither in and barely disturb it and slither out. I might take 3 seconds to smooth the sheets to look okay.

Clean the house not too frequently. Whether you clean daily, or weekly, or every other week, it ends up at the same level of clean so those multiple cleaning events in between were wasteful. I keep a pretty tidy house though.
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southbay
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Re: What are your best time-savers?

Post by southbay »

Eliminate email from your life as much as possible. Unsubscribe from anything you can. Use filters to prevent annoying stuff from hitting your inbox. I have worked on this and at this point most email I get is stuff I actually want to see.

Same goes for snail mail and phone calls. I give out a Google Voice number that goes straight to voicemail unless I want you ringing my cell.

I also turn off most notifications on my cell.
skepticalobserver
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Re: What are your best time-savers?

Post by skepticalobserver »

Verizon Ultra-call forwarding. When I'm out I forward my home phone to my cell. With the Ultra service I remotely turn the service on and off.
bigred77
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Re: What are your best time-savers?

Post by bigred77 »

I hire out housekeeping and landscaping. Money well spent.
Nicolas
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Re: What are your best time-savers?

Post by Nicolas »

sport wrote:
TNL wrote: 1. Do calls in the car whenever possible. I drive 22 miles each way for my commute, 4 days a week (about 35 min each way). I talk to family, friends, clients, and get minor issues with the bank, insurance company, etc. done almost every day.
I would suggest that it is better to keep your mind on your driving. One mistake due to inattention will undo all your time saving, and might result in someone being injured or killed.
+1. People think that if their phone is hands-free they're being safe, but studies have shown that it's actually just talking on the phone and your mind being somewhere else that causes accidents. Please either drive or talk on the phone -- not both.

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/20 ... 080944.htm
Last edited by Nicolas on Sun Sep 13, 2015 11:47 am, edited 4 times in total.
Cunobelinus
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Re: What are your best time-savers?

Post by Cunobelinus »

I could not disagree more with the statements about talking on the phone while driving. It's personal for me -- I spent many years taking a bicycle or motorcycle to work and had many near misses and a few not-so-near misses due to driver inattention (i.e., talking on cell phones, texting, or reading newspapers while driving). Though it may be legal in your state/country, it's a terrible idea. Take public transportation if you want to talk/read/knit at a high rate of speed while traveling. You're less likely to kill or maim someone else. To look at it time-wise, you'll spend time in jail, court, or community service for running someone over.

A few months ago, I started to schedule my life week-to-week. I set work hours, and if I couldn't find a way to fit something into my schedule, it wasn't that important. Facebook/social media didn't find it's way into my schedule on my home calendar. I do allot time for doing nothing or overrun, but I won't schedule something that I don't care for. I've found that I'm able to leave work at a reasonable hour each day (about the time I'm "scheduled" to be done), work out almost every day, and generally have more free time for things that I want to do. My biggest problem with this is that I use an air-gapped network at work, so I end up having to use two calendars: one personal and one for work.

Scheduling sounds simple, and I thought I was doing it before, but when I actually sat down on a Monday morning and spent an hour planning my week at work, I found that I could easily eliminate a lot of time-wasting activities. That allowed/forced me to delegate a number of things that I shouldn't have been doing anyway.

I'll also intentionally park some 10-15 minutes away from work. It gives me at least 20-30 minutes of walking each day, if I don't do anything else, and if I need to make a phone call, that's 10-15 minutes of conversation either way.

A roomba greatly simplifies cleaning up and vacuuming if you've got a shedding wife or dog (or both). Since it'll jam up on anything you leave on the ground, it forces you to keep stuff picked up. If I run the roomba while I'm at work, it also forces my dog to get some exercise each day when I'm not around, otherwise he's fine sleeping 14-18 hours per day.
lightheir
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Re: What are your best time-savers?

Post by lightheir »

livesoft wrote:
lightheir wrote:One trip to the hardware store takes at least an hour total between the drive, checkout, drive back, even though the store is 2 miles away. Order it, and you've saved that whole hour.
Except the hardware store is next to the grocery store and your favorite restaurant. So you walk over and have dinner, someone grocery shops while the other pops into the hardware store, then walk home. The hardware store was 2 minutes, not 2 hours. Plus you saved a trip to the gym, too.

Hah. I wish everything in my life was so well situated!

If I had time to take a 2 mile walk one-way, I wouldn't have to worry about time savers!
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ClevrChico
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Re: What are your best time-savers?

Post by ClevrChico »

Current:

- Online Grocery shopping and delivery. (Online ordering most everything else. Utilize neighborhood bodega to get us by when necessary.)

- Taking care of any errands during lunch hour. If there are no errands, power nap.

- In-sourcing car maintenance. It seems counter intuitive, but having the car in the shop is a big time waster.

- Wrinkle free clothing.

- Instant coffee.


Doable if I wanted to:

Laundry pickup/delivery wash and fold service.
Autonomous lawn mower.
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LiveSimple
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Re: What are your best time-savers?

Post by LiveSimple »

Purchase mostly from Costco, including gas
Order online on Amazon Prime, the purchase arrives at the doorstep.
Invest when you have the money, sell when you need the money, for real life expenses...
geekboy
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Re: What are your best time-savers?

Post by geekboy »

Lot's of great ideas already mentioned. I too use the car to call home or clients when I can - that overlap is really great.

Be very organized. disorganization is a time suck - make sure you make a file for taxes, bills, to do etc.

And since it hasn't been mentioned - there is a big following around Dave Allen's book - Getting Things Done. The inter webs even call it GTD. The advice is great for being productive at work but also applies to home life as well.

Two apps for GTD include Things and Omnifocus. Both are great - Things is prettier and simpler - Omnifocus can do more if you are needing something like that at work. It's a project/to do list tracker - I have found it has saved me huge time.

Also - make sure you have down time. Research shows you are less productive if you are burnt out. Sometimes resting up and "doing nothing" pays off in the long term!

Best of luck!

PG
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black jack
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Re: What are your best time-savers?

Post by black jack »

Cunobelinus wrote:I could not disagree more with the statements about talking on the phone while driving. It's personal for me -- I spent many years taking a bicycle or motorcycle to work and had many near misses and a few not-so-near misses due to driver inattention (i.e., talking on cell phones, texting, or reading newspapers while driving). Though it may be legal in your state/country, it's a terrible idea. Take public transportation if you want to talk/read/knit at a high rate of speed while traveling. You're less likely to kill or maim someone else. To look at it time-wise, you'll spend time in jail, court, or community service for running someone over.
I want to support this, and Nicolas' post citing studies demonstrating that talking while driving, even hands-free, is a dangerous distraction; some studies have found its impact on driving similar to driving while drunk (even people who are drunk are often able to drive without causing a crash - they just crash more often than sober drivers, all else being equal).

I'm not hopeful that anyone will pay attention, for four reasons:
(1) as several posters have observed, its just so d*mn convenient to make phone calls while driving;
(2) I think someone here has a quote from Bob Dylan as their signature, where he observes "People don't do what they think is right. They do what is convenient, then repent";
(3) almost everybody thinks they are a better driver than they, in fact, are; and
(3) sadly, and maddeningly, contrary to Cunobelinus's claim, if a driver runs someone over and is not drunk, there is almost no chance that the driver will spend any time in jail. In this country, at least , the safest way to kill someone without suffering any legal consequences is to run them over with a car.

Time-saving tip: commute to work by bike, then you don't have to set aside any other time for exercise. But make sure you have life insurance, because the roads are full of distracted drivers.
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rakaye47
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Re: What are your best time-savers?

Post by rakaye47 »

Brushing teeth in the shower
Barefootgirl
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Re: What are your best time-savers?

Post by Barefootgirl »

I was once in your spot. The first I did was get rid of any externally driven guilt about the way things "should" be and came up with my own system:

During the week: leftovers, delivery or take out meals - they can be healthy depending on what's available in your area

Weekends - homemade meals as a family

Housecleaning & lawn service

Kind of laughable now - but all household members had multiple sets of their own socks - for example my daughter had 10 pairs of the same white socks - when they came out the dryer - no need to be matched - just threw them all in the drawer together.

Organizing baskets for mail, homework & school papers, etc.

We always took our shoes and boots off in the foyer near the door - didn't have to spend time looking for them, coming or going.

Bought Hondas - they always start, never leave you stranded, require very little maintenance

Automated bill paying and investment related tasks as much as possible

We bought things in multiples when on sale - printer paper, toiletries, batteries, etc. no need for special trips to the store.

Every spring we went through our belongings and purged - gave to charity - life is easier when you don't own too much stuff

We built in some unplugged down time for fun every week.
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JoeJohnson
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Re: What are your best time-savers?

Post by JoeJohnson »

Reading this thread reminded me how much time I save each week by being single and having no children :D
Traveler
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Re: What are your best time-savers?

Post by Traveler »

Two things I did to free up time is move within a couple miles of work. I now have a 10 minute round trip commute vs 120+. I also got rid of my TV about seven years ago - while I still "waste" time on the internet, I'm usually researching a topic of some sort or looking up things I would have normally looked up in addition to watching hours of TV a week.
JustinTime
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Re: What are your best time-savers?

Post by JustinTime »

Multiple Monitors
NorCalDad wrote:Bogleheads, I'd love to get your best tips on how you save time. And when you think it makes more sense to pay someone to do a household task than DIY.

My wife and I have two young kids and work full-time, demanding jobs. We earn decent money and are on track for retirement and college savings, but we feel like we just don't have enough time in the day, so we're always looking for ways to save time. Mornings are spent getting the kids ready for school/daycare; nights are spent going over homework, getting the kids ready for bed and doing a multitude of household chores once they're asleep. Working less or having a parent stay home isn't an option at this point.

Thanks in advance for any advice you can share.
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bengal22
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Re: What are your best time-savers?

Post by bengal22 »

I DVR my Buckeyes and Bengals and start watching about 65 minutes into the games. Saves about 2 hours of my life every week during football season.
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fund
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Re: What are your best time-savers?

Post by fund »

I, too, want to support this. It's frightening how much distracted driving has increased since the advent of cell phones, and especially smart phones. And those studies that assert it's the talking, not the hands-free nature of the device, that is the danger are spot-on. black jack is correct: it's akin to driving while intoxicated. I'd like to respectfully disagree with black jack's fourth point, however. Many states are beginning to pass laws that criminalize distracted driving. So if you cause a crash and/or hurt someone because you were driving while distracted, including using a cell/smart phone, you may well do time. This is to say nothing of the civil penalties for which you may well be liable, irrespective of whether or not a state has criminalized such behavior. To tie all this into financial and actionable material: you can't save for retirement if you're in jail/prison, and if you are found liable for a hefty injury (tort) or wrongful death civil claim, you're going to set back your retirement savings in a big way -- to say nothing of the fact that you're going to have to live the rest of your life knowing that you are responsible for injuring or killing someone else.

If you're driving, put down the phone. It's that simple. And if you must talk, then pull over to a safe area to make or take the call. Again, it's as simple as that.
black jack wrote:
Cunobelinus wrote:I could not disagree more with the statements about talking on the phone while driving. It's personal for me -- I spent many years taking a bicycle or motorcycle to work and had many near misses and a few not-so-near misses due to driver inattention (i.e., talking on cell phones, texting, or reading newspapers while driving). Though it may be legal in your state/country, it's a terrible idea. Take public transportation if you want to talk/read/knit at a high rate of speed while traveling. You're less likely to kill or maim someone else. To look at it time-wise, you'll spend time in jail, court, or community service for running someone over.
I want to support this, and Nicolas' post citing studies demonstrating that talking while driving, even hands-free, is a dangerous distraction; some studies have found its impact on driving similar to driving while drunk (even people who are drunk are often able to drive without causing a crash - they just crash more often than sober drivers, all else being equal).

I'm not hopeful that anyone will pay attention, for four reasons:
(1) as several posters have observed, its just so d*mn convenient to make phone calls while driving;
(2) I think someone here has a quote from Bob Dylan as their signature, where he observes "People don't do what they think is right. They do what is convenient, then repent";
(3) almost everybody thinks they are a better driver than they, in fact, are; and
(3) sadly, and maddeningly, contrary to Cunobelinus's claim, if a driver runs someone over and is not drunk, there is almost no chance that the driver will spend any time in jail. In this country, at least , the safest way to kill someone without suffering any legal consequences is to run them over with a car.

Time-saving tip: commute to work by bike, then you don't have to set aside any other time for exercise. But make sure you have life insurance, because the roads are full of distracted drivers.
virgingorda
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Re: What are your best time-savers?

Post by virgingorda »

livesoft wrote:Get a dishwasher that is quiet and needs no rinsing of dishes. Do not unload dishwasher, but just use dishes directly from it when eating. There is no shame in running the dishwasher every day and even re-washing the dishes you didn't unload along with dirty dishes.
I'm with you on the quiet dishwasher, but do you put dirty dishes in with clean ones? If so, how do you tell the clean dishes from the merely rinsed if you are using your dishwasher as storage? Don't they start to smell after half a day if you haven't rinsed completely and the weather is warm? Or do you run it after every single meal so that dirty and clean dishes never comingle?
TravelGeek
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Re: What are your best time-savers?

Post by TravelGeek »

lightheir wrote:[

If I had time to take a 2 mile walk one-way, I wouldn't have to worry about time savers!
Gets you about 10,000 steps. Just what the doctor prescribed to live longer (thus gaining you time) ;)

I have an Ace hardware store about 1500 steps from my home. I always walk there. Another 500 steps and I am at the local grocery store. 100 more steps and my favorite coffee shop. Library: 1000 more steps.

I don't drive most days. My commute is 30 steps from the bed room to the corner office.
stoptothink
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Re: What are your best time-savers?

Post by stoptothink »

livesoft wrote:Biggest time saver for us was living near our jobs and schools. For many years, I took a 5 minute walk to work. Then my next job I had a 5 to 10 minute car ride with day care between home and work. Grocery store was between work and day care. Schools are 5 minute bike ride away. Kids could walk to school on their own. Since kids were about 10 or 12 could send them to the grocery store to get milk and other things, too.

So if you spend time commuting, think about how to reduce that.
This, and it isn't close. My #1 priority as we are looking for our first home purchase.
livesoft
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Re: What are your best time-savers?

Post by livesoft »

virgingorda wrote:
livesoft wrote:Get a dishwasher that is quiet and needs no rinsing of dishes. Do not unload dishwasher, but just use dishes directly from it when eating. There is no shame in running the dishwasher every day and even re-washing the dishes you didn't unload along with dirty dishes.
I'm with you on the quiet dishwasher, but do you put dirty dishes in with clean ones? If so, how do you tell the clean dishes from the merely rinsed if you are using your dishwasher as storage? Don't they start to smell after half a day if you haven't rinsed completely and the weather is warm? Or do you run it after every single meal so that dirty and clean dishes never comingle?
No, our dishes do not start to smell. The weather is always warm where I live, too. Maybe it has to do with what we eat?
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Jazztonight
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Re: What are your best time-savers?

Post by Jazztonight »

livesoft wrote:Another one: Never make the beds.
The latest on why NOT to make your bed:
http://www.theloop.ca/why-you-should-ne ... -your-bed/
"What does not destroy me, makes me stronger." Nietzsche
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FuyuKei
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Re: What are your best time-savers?

Post by FuyuKei »

1.) Workout at home. No need to drive to the gym and back, plus grabbing all your gym stuff. My stuff is always somewhere in the house already. You get sick less, since gyms are kinda gross which saves time. Plus that saved us $900/year on two gym memberships.

2.) Google Calendar keeps us organized. Less stress and brain power being put towards that = more energy to do other things.

3.) Got an apartment across the street from my job. It now takes me about 5 mins to get home if I walk. Down from 45 each way, this saved me 1.5 hours per day and I get a little walking in.
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JupiterJones
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Re: What are your best time-savers?

Post by JupiterJones »

FuyuKei wrote:Got an apartment across the street from my job.
Hands-down the biggest time-saving "trick" for us is careful consideration of where we live and work. While I'm not across the street, both my wife and I work at jobs that are with just a few miles. Heck, I biked in this morning!

We're also near plenty of grocery stores and other services. I'll go weeks without venturing outside about a three-mile radius. I gas up the car about once a month.

The trade-off in our case is cost, of course. We could live way out in the boonies and get the same size house--or maybe bigger--for about half as much money. We've definitely found the convenience to be well worth it so far.
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anonforthis
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Re: What are your best time-savers?

Post by anonforthis »

JupiterJones wrote:
FuyuKei wrote:Got an apartment across the street from my job.
Hands-down the biggest time-saving "trick" for us is careful consideration of where we live and work. While I'm not across the street, both my wife and I work at jobs that are with just a few miles. Heck, I biked in this morning!

We're also near plenty of grocery stores and other services. I'll go weeks without venturing outside about a three-mile radius. I gas up the car about once a month.

The trade-off in our case is cost, of course. We could live way out in the boonies and get the same size house--or maybe bigger--for about half as much money. We've definitely found the convenience to be well worth it so far.


Or get a work from home job, then live in a boonies and get bigger house and less property tax?
Greentree
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Re: What are your best time-savers?

Post by Greentree »

1. Wear underwear day 1, flip inside out day 2. (just kidding)
2. Already a few Getting Things Done posts (GTD) but it is a huge help. I read the book every few months. I use toodledo app to track, and evernote to keep a list of all the things in my house (what kind of light bulbs needed where, who to call for work, etc).
3. We have used instacart a few times for food delivery and it was pretty nice. They mark up some stores and some don't. The website lists the details.
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JupiterJones
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Re: What are your best time-savers?

Post by JupiterJones »

anonforthis wrote: Or get a work from home job, then live in a boonies and get bigger house and less property tax?
That could work too. Although you'd have to factor in how far away whatever non-work things you might enjoy having in your life are (restaurants, entertainment, shopping, airport, grocery, etc.)
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