8 Productivity and Time Management Hacks to Save You Hours!
Aren’t we all looking for those extra freed-up minutes throughout the day to finally be able to do whatever we want to?
Maybe you’re even thinking bigger. Knowing those extra minutes could add up to hours. And just imagine what you could do with a few extra hours in your week:
Read the latest New York Times bestseller
Take a long, uninterrupted bubble bath
Take your dog to the dog park
Go on a date night with that special someone
Netflix binge the latest Love Island UK season (or, you know, whatever your preferred flavor of smut is)
Finally organize that old filing cabinet
Aw. So many possbilitilies.
In my never-ending pursuit to help us all to be able to spend our time exactly how we want to, it’s time for some hacks to save you minutes, and maybe even hours, every week!!
Oh boy, I love a good hack. Here we go!
1.Avoid interruptions
Interruption is the enemy of productivity.
Interruptions break your flow of concentration and reduce your efficiency. Time is wasted trying to get back to where you left off as you juggle the switch in focus from the task at hand to the interruption and back to the task.
Interruptions also lead to errors or mistakes as they disrupt your train of thought and attention to detail.
Okay, we got it? Interruptions = bad.
The hack? Give yourself at least one hour of productive focus time by turning on all those ‘Do Not Disturb’ features across your digital interrupters:
Turn off computer notifications for one hour.
Pause IM notifications for one hour. You can even update your status message to let your coworkers know you’re in “Focus Time” and won’t respond immediately.
Turn on Do Not Disturb on your phone. Don’t neglect this one. While you might promise yourself you won’t jump to a new text message that comes your way, even that soft “ping” in the background can be enough of an interruption to break your concentration.
2. Speed up your content consumption
I love this one.
You probably have a long list of must-reads or a pile of podcast recommendations you long to get to. There is a vast amount of content out there that you want in your brain.
But who has the time?!
You do!
The hack? Listen to your audiobooks and podcasts at 1.25 speed. You’ll get through the same amount of content in less time so you can fit it all in.
(Bonus hack? Listen to this content while you’re doing other tasks that don’t take the same level of brain interaction such as while you’re cleaning or working out. Then you can check off double from your to-dos!)
3. Try batching
Batching is grouping and working on similar tasks together.
This method helps minimize context switching to increase efficiency.
A good example of this in the real world is laundry. You don’t wash a single sock as soon as it’s dirty. You group together all the dirty clothes and wash them at once.
The hack? Well, um, I guess we just covered it. Batch similar tasks together!
Here are some examples to get you started:
Respond to emails in one sitting rather than checking them throughout the day
Set aside an hour to make phone calls
Complete data entry tasks in a single sitting
Schedule meetings together in the morning or designate specific days as meeting days
4. Share calendars with your spouse
Do you struggle enough to keep track of your own time much less trying to keep track of what your spouse is doing?
No problem.
The hack? Share your digital calendars with one another and keep them accessible on your phone.
This way, you’ll always know what your spouse has in their plans as you schedule your week. You don’t have to waste time trying to track down the details or trying to remember what they told you was happening next Tuesday. It’s all at your fingertips!
5. Learn keyboard shortcuts
Knowing keyboard shortcuts can significantly speed up your work.
Now, this may just save you some minutes. But, remember, those add up!
The hack? Learn and practice shortcuts for your most common tasks.
Here are a few of my favorites:
Search for Text: CTRL/Command + F
Trying to find a specific section or reference in an article or document? Use CTRL/Command + F to search and jump right to what you’re looking for.
Highlight Text: Shift + Arrow
This can be especially helpful for anyone navigating the digital world with a click pad. To highlight text with your keyboard, hold down the Shift key as you move the cursor with the arrow keys. (You can also hold down CTRL/Command to highlight whole sections rather than individual characters with each arrow press.)
Go Forward/Back in a Browser: Alt/Option + Right/Left arrow
This one was a new one for me! Most of us probably hit the back button in our web browsers a dozen or more times a day. Now we can save ourselves some mouse action and do this straight from the keyboard! Use ALT/Option + Left Arrow to go back and ALT/Option + Right Arrow to go forward
Paste as plain text: CTRL/Command + Shift + V
You’re writing an email or document or presentation and need to paste some text from the web or a separate doc. And there it is, all kinds of wacky fonts and strange formatting. Fortunately, there's an easy solution. Hit CTRL/Command + Shift + V to paste the content as plain text that matches your working document.
Restore a closed browser tab: CTRL/Command + SHIFT + T
Alright, this one kind of blew my mind. I am the queen of way too many open tabs. Sometimes I go a little crazy with clean-up and start a closing frenzy. And inevitably, I realize I just closed the tab with important reference material I needed. Drat! But there’s hope! Just hit CTRL/Command + SHIFT + T to restore the last tab you closed. Mind. Blown.
Bookmark a webpage: CTRL/Command + D
You’ve found a helpful web article or page you know you’ll want to reference again at some point. Time to bookmark! Once again, you don’t have to navigate around a clunky browser menu. Hit CTRL/Command + D to open the bookmark dialog box.
Create your own shortcuts!
Not seeing what you’re looking for or want to get faster at the actions you take over and over? Did you know you can create your own shortcuts?! Here’s how:
6. Leverage ChatGPT
It’s here, people. Gen AI. Whether you love it or are trying not to spiral into visions of a reality that looks a little like another Terminator sequel… there is a spot for Gen AI to save us some valuable time.
The hack? Try a few of these prompts to speed up your day-to-day work.
Note: These prompts are meant to speed you up, not to eliminate the work altogether. You still bring your own voice and knowledge and brain power to create the most valuable end product!
Ask ChatGPT to write the first draft or outline of a document or report. This can get you out of your own way in just getting started. Then you can jump into edit mode instead of just staring at a blank document.
Example prompt: “Write a 1500-word report about [insert your topic] for an audience of [insert your audience].”
Ask ChatGPT to gather information from various sources, summarize articles, and provide relevant insights. This can cut down your time spent on manual research.
Example prompt: "Can you gather information on the benefits and risks of [insert topic]? Summarize at least three articles and provide relevant insights on the topic."
Ask ChatGPT to summarize long articles so you can get the main points faster.
Example prompt: “Summarize this paragraph/article into bullet points that a beginner would understand: [Insert the copied text to be summarized].”
Ask ChatGPT to play editor by quickly editing the writing style or tone of your document (such as converting to first person.)
Example prompt: "Change the writing style of the text below to [style]. [Insert text]”.
7. Simplify meal prep
While career success or more time with family and friends are probably top of the list in your goals for improved time management, I’m guessing most of us also probably have some sort of health goal on our minds. What good is any of that extra time if your body is going to feel exhausted and stressed?
So, a healthy body fueled by healthy eating is likely often top of mind.
The good news is you don’t have to choose between an elaborate healthy meal prep that takes hours upon hours in the kitchen to cook and clean up vs. ditching all health goals and going the route of a drive-through every night on the way home from work.
The hack? You can still stick with a meal prep strategy. But keep it simple!
Buy a few bags of frozen vegetables and some pre-made protein of choice. Take 15 minutes to throw a little of each into your Tupperware containers of choice. Voila! You have meals prepped for the week.
Here are my favorite Costco finds that keep my meal prep quick, easy, and still delicious:
Frozen Vegetables
Meat/Protein
8. Stop Procrastinating
Procrastination usually leads to hours and hours wasted with…nothing. Just those meaningless tasks or scrolling or organizing projects that suddenly became urgent. But nothing that really moves you forward.
And sometimes that avoidance comes from just not knowing where to get started or how to tackle the task at hand. Especially if it’s something you’ve been successfully avoiding for months!
The hack? Check out the 7 Days: Consider it Done! guide to finally stop procrastinating and check any project off your to do list. (Alright, shameless plug. But it’s FREE! No excuses. Let’s get it done, off your list, and onto your next time well spent.)
Productivity and time management hacks can help speed you up and make you more efficient throughout your day.
But I invite you to use these opportunities not as a way to shove more on your plate, but as a way to free up time to devote to rest, passions, or maybe even a little nothingness.
Remember, life should be enjoyed instead of viewed as a race to see who can get the most done!
7 Days Consider it Done! Workbook
Check any project off your to-do list in just ONE WEEK!
