It’s 9 pm. As you look with weary eyes at a sink full of dishes and a pile of bills to pay, you ask yourself, “Where did the day go?” It’s not that you didn’t try to get everything done. You were on the go all day! You even skipped your daily workout (again) in an effort to make up for lost time. Tired of having so much everyday stuff left unfinished? Try these strategies to free up as much as 25 to 40 hours a month.

Leverage Your Time


Want more time? You can’t change the fact that there are 24 hours in a day. Instead, start implementing ways to make the most of every minute.

Prepare meals in advance. Companies such as Dream Dinners and Super Suppers invite you to spend two hours cooking up two weeks’ worth of dinners. They do all the prep work; you save time on shopping, chopping and cleaning up your kitchen, which could add up to as much as 15 to 20 hours a month.

Streamline your banking. Have your payroll check direct-deposited and save a trip to the bank. Take a few minutes every few days to check and balance your account, rather than spending an hour or more at the end of each month sifting through bank statements and receipts. Frequent peeks at debits and credits may also help you spot little blunders before they become big, costly, time-wasting errors. Pay bills online and save one to two hours a month (not to mention the cost of postage and checks). Get your bills delivered via e-mail and you’ll also spend less time opening mail and filing statements.

Get Connected


Running errands can eat up a lot of time. Kick up your heels and let the Internet do the work.

Ditch the shopping cart. Shop for groceries online and get them delivered to your home for about $10. National services include Peapod.com and Netgrocer.com. Many supermarket chains such as Safeway and Bashas’ also offer this service. You can save grocery lists of frequently purchased items to speed up subsequent orders.

Launder without the legwork. Eliminate trips to the dry cleaner. Companies such as 1-800-dryclean.com will pick up and deliver your dry cleaning for about the same price as a full-service dry cleaning operation.

Make postage a priority. Buy stamps at USPS.com to avoid long lines at the post office. You can also print postage for Priority Mail and Express Mail envelopes and packages from your computer, then just drop packages in a mailbox.

Delegate the Work


If you can’t delegate to a family member, consider hiring out your dirty work. Think you can’t afford it? Take a closer look at your budget. Find an item (or two) you would be willing to trade off to cover, or at least defray, the expense of hiring a professional service.

Hire a housekeeper. How much time do you spend cleaning your home each week? Hiring a professional cleaner can save you two to three hours a week. This service is well worth the money. Once you become accustomed to coming home to a clean house, you won’t ever want to give up this little luxury.

Don’t worry about windows. Let’s face it: A professional window-cleaning service will get the job done faster and probably better than you can. Put it in your budget; it’s one more time waster you can eliminate from your list of to-dos.

Put out a call for clutter help. Are you forever looking for your keys or important paperwork? A professional organizer can help you design systems to save time while also creating a more organized living or working environment. Find an organizer near you at www.napo.net.

About Our Expert: Organizing expert Donna Smallin, recipient of the National Association of Professional Organizers Founders Award, is the author of seven books on decluttering, organizing and simplifying life, including the best-sellers “Organizing Plain & Simple,” “The One-Minute Organizer” and “The One-Minute Cleaner.” She’s shared her expertise in guest spots on the CBS “Early Show,” HGTV’s “Smart Solutions,” and CNN’s “Open House,” as well as BBC, Lifetime and CNN radio programs.