We all have the same 24 hours in the day, right? Well … we all have our own responsibilities and needs, and even though you may have that best friend who manages to run their own company — and take care of their three kids — while you’re still yawning on the train to work … please don’t take that as a sign you mismanage your time.
After all, we all have different responsibilities and things to do! However, if you do feel bad about your daily productivity — there are lots of little ways to squeeze a bit more time and energy out of your day. Here are some easy yet effective tips to squeeze more time out of your day.
Set Up A Nighttime Routine
A nighttime routine is great for so many things: it ensures that you take care of yourself before bed; it gives you the chance to unwind from your screens and your day’s events; and it also makes sure you get to bed at the same time each night. This last point is absolutely crucial when you want to squeeze more time out of your day — you need to get yourself into a timely routine that’s beneficial to you.
When you head to bed at the same time each night, you keep balance with your circadian rhythm. You can then get up earlier in the morning — and feel much more energetic throughout your day. When you’ve got more energy — you can get more done — and focus a lot more. And when you get more done, you feel better about yourself — it’s a positive feedback loop that starts with hitting the hay at a regular time!
Cut Down On Daily Travel Time
The amount of time you have to spend heading back and forth each day is more important than you realize! If you spend two or more hours commuting to and from work, you still have all your usual errands to run as well. You may go to go back and forth from stores; pick up your kids from school; head out to visit friends; and even fit in some time to see your parents too — all these events add up to taking a lot of time out of your day!
So, what can you do? Find ways to cut down on your travel time. Maybe you can carpool with a co-worker to save some time, instead of using mass transit. Perhaps you could start using a simple online pharmacy to order any medications — and save those trips to the store. Similarly, ordering groceries online and having them delivered can keep you out of the supermarket. The more time that you can free up, then the more choice you have over what to do with your day.
Exercise Hard And Fast
Exercise is something that we think we have to spend ages doing — people love to spend a couple hours at the gym each morning — or go for a half-hour run before work — and then fit the rest of their daily schedule around that. For most of us, that time frame just doesn’t work! Either we cut out other things we want to do — or we don’t get to exercise as much as we want to, which can make us feel bad.
This is why short and snappy exercise routines exist — the more we can raise our heart rates — and the shorter time it takes — the more beneficial an exercise can be. You can take a look into HITT workouts or Zumba classes — and see how these workouts might gel for you. You don’t even need to do either of them for long periods of time; 10 to 15 minutes works wonders for both the way you look and your cardiovascular health.
Time Your Showers
Finally, make sure you’re timing your showers — and how long you take in the bathroom in general. Not only will a quick 5 to 10 minutes in and out help you to get your day started faster, but it’ll help to keep the water bill down as well! If you already listen to music or the radio in the shower, you don’t even need to set an alarm — use song lengths (typically 3 minutes) to keep track of how long you’ve been in the bathroom.
If you want to get more out of your day, you need to take a close look at your daily habits. When you deeply examine how you are spending your day, you will find ways to squeeze more time — so you can focus on the things that bring you more joy on a daily basis.
