So many times when I’ve heard time-saving strategies, time management lessons, tips, tactics, hacks, whatever it is, they’re not super applicable, especially when you are maybe working from home, when you have kids, when you have a life outside of business. I once heard one of my friends say that he wouldn’t take time management tips or strategies from someone who didn’t have kids, and I think that there can be a lot of wisdom in that. But I’ve spent the last few years looking for fantastic ways to become more efficient with my time, more productive, and ways to make time management work for me. A mom of three. And so I’ve compiled a ton of strategies that are super, super helpful for actually effectively managing time.
Now, quick disclaimer I am a mom of three. I am not full-time home with my kids while I’m working at home. We do have a nanny, and I share that because I know a lot of times we see people giving us all of this advice, and they don’t share that they have support. So I wanna be super transparent that I have a lot of support when it comes to watching the kids.
However, I chose ten fantastic time-saving strategies, time-management strategies, and productivity strategies that work even if your kids are at home. All right. So I wanted to share these today. I know this is gonna be so powerful for so many people. So let’s dove on in.
Number one
This is huge. Set a timer for tasks, and do sprints.
Now I have ADHD. I’m personally this my own personal choice. I don’t medicate. I’ve learned how to manage, cope, and deal with it on like a day-to-day level. It is a struggle for me because it’s like “squirrel!” every 2 seconds, and I wanna do all the things all the time. And these little Pomodoro timers have been so helpful for me.
One of my favorites is the Pentagon Pomodoro timer, and you turn it to the amount of time that you want to have the timer showing you. So, for example, if I turn it to 5, it’s gonna show me a countdown to 5 minutes and give me a little beep when it’s done. And having this visual representation of how much time I have to do a particular task has helped me to get tasks done faster.
So, for example, while recording this, I might give myself 15 or 30 minutes to get it done. And so this way, instead of accidentally getting lost in the rabbit hole of research and planning and all of those things, this timer is gonna ensure that I get it done. And you can decide if you want to reward or punish yourself, depending on how you are motivated with a carrot or a stick.
So, for example, I might say, okay, I can watch TikTok once I finish this video or this podcast episode. Or I could say if I don’t finish this in 30 minutes, I can’t watch TikTok today, and my team will change my password. So that’s been super helpful.
Number two
Time block, everything. There’s this really powerful principle called Parkinson’s law, which states that work expands to fill the time it’s allotted. I talk about it a lot for a major reason – it’s true! Time blocking has been so helpful for me because when I have things on my to-do list, and you may experience this too, sometimes it feels like an open-ended task. Like, could I get this done in the next 8 hours? Do I have the next three days to get this done?
But time blocking and then combining that time blocking with a 60-minute timer can be a really helpful way to get things done more effectively. So, for example, I might time block an hour for recording all my video content for the day, so I’m gonna turn my timer and set it. But that time block is essential so that I don’t accidentally double-book myself or schedule a call when I’m supposed to be recording. So time blocking is huge for kind of assembling the big tasks of your business before everything else fills in because everything else always will fill in.
Number three
Multitask on things that are routine. For example, listening to books and podcasts while you’re on walks, brushing your teeth while doing swipes. This has been something that’s been really helpful for me. I learned about this in Atomic Habits. It’s the idea of habit stacking or doing things that are second nature to you while doing something else. And I like to think about that a lot. For example, I’m a huge fan of walking. It’s one of my favorite forms of exercise. I usually (almost every day) do about 60 minutes of power walking on the treadmill or outside if it’s nice outside. And something that really helps me is thinking about the fact that I don’t have to think about walking. So, for example, I can learn a language on Duolingo, I can brush up on a podcast with YouTube, I can engage with people on Tik Tok, I can record podcasts if it’s not too loud.
There is so much that we can do while we’re multitasking, and it can be super helpful for us to kind of like stack those habits. So pair something you don’t have to think about with something that takes a little bit of brainpower and watch how your brain allows you to do both simultaneously, and it’s gonna save you a lot of time.
Number four
Learn how to say no. This one is so hard for me. A lot of times, people think I don’t check my email because I’m lazy. The truth is, I don’t check my email because I would say yes to absolutely everyone and absolutely everything. So my team is amazing at reminding me of the power of saying no to things.
You cannot say yes to everything. And here’s a big hint– saying yes to one thing is saying no to another. And it’s been something I’ve had to work on over the years. But I tend to recommend learning the power of saying no.
Number five
Start batching similar tasks together. Now, the studies on this particular topic are really, really interesting to me, with some experts estimating that you lose as much as 80% of your productivity simply by switching contexts or changing tasks repeatedly. But most experts seem to agree that you lose 20% of your productivity simply by context switching. (Context switching means going back and forth between tasks over and over and over again.) However, when you start batching similar tasks together, you can actually speed up even beyond that extra 20%. So, for example, if I need to record YouTube videos, if I sit down and record them all right in a row, I’m gonna be on a roll and getting them done so much faster than if I try to each day record a YouTube video, record my TikToks, go do podcasts, go engage in groups, respond to all my notifications. So, start batching your similar tasks together.
Number six
Every Sunday night or Monday morning, review the week that’s coming, and feel free to cancel appointment calls that are not a good fit or don’t make sense at this time. Enough said.
Number seven
Take calls when you’re on walks to get steps, and this is one of my favorites. No one can really hear that you’re outside unless you live by a train. So what’s really cool is you can take your calls while you’re on a walk. I do this a lot on the treadmill. I’m a huge fan of getting those steps in. A little kind of cool rule of thumb, you have to calculate this for yourself, but I discovered that about every 10 minutes of my power walking is approximately a thousand steps. So if I take a one-hour call and I’m power walking, that is the equivalent of about 6000 steps, just simply for taking that call while walking. And it’s a great way to sneak in a little extra exercise.
Number eight
Now, this one has nothing to do with business, but you need to be blocking out family time. Don’t accept calls during family time. Have two or 3 hours dedicated to family every evening, especially on the weekends. Sometimes we focus so much on productivity and making time for everything in our business that we forget about the power of intentional unplugged family time.
So, for example, my calendar is blocked out every day after six. You’re not gonna be able to get me on a call. I almost never do any work after 6 p.m. because it’s family time, and we family hard. We do no social, and no one can get in touch with me or my team, for that matter, in the evenings.
But blocking out family time can actually allow you to work more effectively and efficiently because you feel like you had some really great face time with those that you love and care about the most.
Number nine
Get dry shampoo and wear comfy clothes. Now I say this because there is something so powerful about literally just being able to whip off a sweater and quick whip on a workout tank.
Feel free to judge if you want. But I always feel like washing my hair takes so long, and I just don’t wanna spend that much time washing, drying, and styling my hair. Plus former hair stylist here, it can cause a lot of heat damage, so I use dry shampoo regularly.
I actually have it like literally at my desk every day in case I need a quick touch-up. You also, in a pinch, can use face powder depending on the difference between your hair and face color. I’m a huge fan of this because this saves 20, 30, or 40 minutes almost every single day, and then wearing comfy clothes allows me to transition from day to evening better. So instead of taking 10 or 20 minutes each day to transition from work clothes to work out or family comfy clothes, I like to wear a layer of comfy clothes underneath whatever it is I’m wearing for work for the day.
Number ten
This one is a game-changer. Turn off all your notifications. Notifications are literally running and ruining your life. Turning off notifications was one of the single best decisions I ever made. I was so afraid. Like, Am I gonna forget to check? Am I gonna forget to stay on top of things? Am I gonna have miscommunications? And the truth is now I time block for checking all my notifications, and this has been a huge time-saving strategy for my entire business because the truth is, the more notifications you get, the more impossible it’s gonna be to break the never-ending notification loop.
Now, if you wanna do something kind of fun or like kind of transform some of your money beliefs and you have like passive products or small-ticket products set up with Stripe or PayPal. You can leave your Stripe and PayPal notifications on so you can see those coming in on your screen, and it can motivate you to create more and market more and share more and give more value.
I hope you have enjoyed these ten powerful time-saving strategies if you need support with boundaries, time management, and growth as a social media manager, funnel builder, copywriter, or ad strategist, you might just be ready for the next level of mentorship and mastermind. My amazing program. The Social Clique could be the right fit for you. Visit Cliqueforlife.com to get started!
Don’t worry. My team is not pushy, they’re wonderful and helpful, and they will help you to make the best decision for you and your business as a freelancer. I’ll catch you guys later. Bye for now.
Check out my Youtube video on this topic!
