More Life Hacks for the Busy Woman

I wrote a post last summer about life hacks for the busy woman. While there is really no way to "save time," (there are always 24 hours a day), I continue to look for ways to improve functioning in this busy life. Here are some additional ideas:

Bake in containers that have covers. No need to transfer food from cookware to container. Just cool, seal, and store.

Bake muffin foods in a large pan. It is quicker and the large pans are easier to clean than muffin tins.

Bake in lined muffin tins if you need single servings and/or need to store (or freeze). Use paper muffin liners, though. They are cheaper, take up last space in the trash, and are biodegradable. You still have less dishes, so so win!

Keep a few meals in the freezer. Pinch of Yum has a great list. Pinterest also has a wealth of resources. For that matter, keep staples on hand in the freezer: raw meat, grated cheese, and cookie dough balls. (I have frozen a variety of cookie dough balls. Handle the Heat has a good article about this.)

Cook once, eat twice. If you can, make a double portion of whatever you are having. Either freeze half for later, or eat it twice in the week. (We personally make two meals a week and eat them every other day until they are done, which usually carries us to the weekend.)

Have a spot for everything, and keep everything in its place. Looking for things takes a lot of time. If you take a few seconds to put them away right the first time, it saves lots of time and angst in the long run.

Keep several trash liners in the trash can. That way you don't have to hunt for a bag when you take out the trash. Just remove and reline all at the same time.

Put whatever you can on autopilot. I got this term from Tanya Dalton in her book, The Joy of Missing Out. Chores, meal plans, laundry, you name it. Things on a schedule reduce decision fatigue of trying to decide when to schedule them. Yes, sometimes this means I do something before it needs to be done (eg chores after a few days vacation), but then I don't have to think about it again until the next week.

Don't multi-task. Do schedule sequentially. I am learning this from my husband. Multi-tasking takes time because our brains are not meant to handle more than one thing at once. Doing things sequentially (like making one batch of granola after another, or taking care of all the laundry matters at once) saves time, because it reduces time taken moving around from task to task.

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I don't have this busy woman thing figured out. Ask my husband how often I complain that I need to be more productive! I do hope that I can continue to figure out ways to make life work so that I am faithful with what I have, though. Please share any tips or tricks you have on this subject in the comments!