With the holidays fast approaching, things might be getting a little busy around your house. Some people are able to back off a little bit from their home based businesses during the holiday season and focus on holiday activities. People with seasonal home based businesses are likely to be putting in as much time and effort as they can right now. Either way, you are likely to be feeling a little bit crunched for time.
Of course, there are only so many hours in a day. While we can not create additional hours, we can employ a few strategies to make sure that we make the best possible use of the time that we do have. Tis the season for effective time management.
One way to free up some time that you can use for doing a holiday activity or craft, or getting some more work done, is to use a crock pot to cook some of your meals. If you already spend time in the kitchen in the morning making breakfast and cleaning up afterwards, why not stay in there just a few minutes longer and get dinner taken care of. There are tons of easy, nutritious, and budget friendly crock pot meal ideas online. As an added bonus (as if not having to cook at the end of the day wasn’t enough of a treat), depending upon the size of the recipe and the size of your crock pot, tomorrow’s lunch might also be taken care of. There may even be enough left to freeze a portion or two for later.
Also, you are likely to be spending more time than usual out and about running errands, shopping, and going to various activities. Try to plan ahead as much as you can to group things together so that you make the best use of each trip. Less time spent on the go means more time that you can spend working or playing at home.
Having a basic daily routine is also a good way to make good use of your time. It provides a basic structure that kids and adults alike can appreciate, and it can serve as foundation around which you build your days filled with work, family activities, and all of the other things that you do. By having routines in place, you spend less time thinking about what you have to do next, or arguing with the kids about when bedtime is, and more time doing the things that you want to do and need to do.
What are your favorite ways to use your time efficiently?
Photo by aridna on morguefile.com.