Do you remember the Sesame Street song that went, "one of these things is not like the others, one of these things just doesn't belong. Can you tell which thing is not like the others by the time I finish this song"? This is a great song to remember when your goal is saving time and being organized.
What I mean is that you're more likely to remember where things are and where you keep them if you put similar things together. Put all your pots and pans together. Put all paper goods together. Schedule similar tasks at the same time, and if you have tasks on your list that are similar in nature, do them together. This is a real time saver. Say you have 3 projects you're working on and each project requires you to do some writing, some research and some number crunching. Schedule your time working on these projects not separately, but together. Schedule the writing for each project together, schedule the research for all 3 together and the same with the number crunching. Although they are separate projects, writing is writing and when the creative juices are flowing, it's far easier to keep up momentum if you're staying within the same type of task.
If you schedule one project at a time you're instead jumping around far more than you would by scheduling these like tasks together. The best part for those of you who thrive on variety, you still get variety by scheduling your tasks this way because the nature of these projects will probably be different, but again, allowing yourself to work on one type of task will be a time saver and help you to be far more productive.
Continuing to lump like things together, whether you're organizing items in your home, projects you need to finish or tasks you need to accomplish is a time saver. You will know where your items are because you can relate the box of extra pens to the supply of paper and envelopes you placed with them. You have then saved yourself the time it would have taken to remember where you put the paper and the search it would have taken to locate the pens. You know where they are from now on because you placed them near related items.
Another time saver: lumping errands together that are near one another. If I have to schedule an appointment, go to the bank, pick up food and stop by the pharmacy, I know I can do these in one trip because I know that all of the places I need to go to finish these errands are near one other. I then plan to do them in a practical order. I would first stop off at the pharmacy to drop off my prescription because I know it usually takes 30 minutes to fill. I then would stop by the bank to deposit a check because it's the next location on my way to grab food. I then schedule my eye appointment because it's next to the food shop, then grab my hot food and stop by the pharmacy, which was my first stop and closest to home on my way back.
Again, this time saver tip of planning and scheduling a little ahead and lumping like things together will go a long way toward creating a more simple life, which will enable you to be more productive and use less time to accomplish your goals, tasks, errands and projects.
