Productivity sounds like a corporate buzz word – but in reality, learning a few tricks to be more efficient by having some strategies in place will give you more free time.
More than that, using these hacks to stay organised will help you get on top of your finances – without it feeling like a dark cloud of a chore that we all feel sometimes when it comes to money. So, if you want to find ways to have more time to do the things you love, while also being more organised with your finances, read on.
Why will productivity hacks make you richer?
Money is time! And while these hacks could save you literally hours every day – meaning you could have time to finally start that side hustle – it could also simply help you balance your life better.
More than that, the stress of managing your finances will be reduced as you will be able to stay organised and aware of your spending, income, and financial goals. It’s easy to keep a rough running tally of your expenses in your head, but when you sit down to study your actual spending and income, you could be surprised at how much extra you spend on things because you think you don’t have time.
For example, if you order takeaways a few times a week, is it because you can afford to – or because you feel like you don’t have the time to cook? You could save hundreds or even thousands of pounds every year if you simply create more time each week to cook from scratch. So, let’s take a look at some productivity hacks to save yourself time – and money…
Create a filing system that works for you
Storage for letters and banking information might be a shoebox or it might be a separate file for every account. Whatever works for you, create a filing habit to go with it. Put your filing system somewhere you’re going to see it or can easily access. Shoving letters in a drawer is the worst way to handle your finances, especially when you need to find that important information later on at short notice.
Choose a storage type that works for you – go to a specialist organisational company like A Place for Everything because you’re more likely to find something that suits your exact needs. Make sure you also invest in some labels for your filing system; you might remember what’s what now, but will you remember in six months’ time?!
Make filing a habit. Set a calendar reminder every week at a time you know you usually have a spare ten or fifteen minutes. That’s all it takes, at most! Make a point to file any bills, and mark them as paid, as well as sort any bank or credit card statements in order.
Set up a digital filing system
How often do you save your monthly statements from your banking app? What about keeping notes like your To Do lists or a running budget total in a way that you can access it from any device? We’re so digital these days, but file management isn’t something we often think of when it comes to online paperwork. However, if you can’t access the internet, or an app stops working, how do you find your details (and how much time do you waste trying)? Make sure you save things offline regularly – having a dedicated USB stick can help with this, as it’s a portable offline storage system which can be password protected, too.
Use apps to save time
There are so many ways to use apps to save time on boring tasks or to stay organised and motivated. Banking apps now make it easy to set up your regular payments and manage your money. Productivity apps like Time Bandit help you stay on top of your To Do and prioritise tasks so you’re always ahead of schedule.
Apps can also help you save time – and money – by helping you go through your accounts to create a budget and identify unused or excessive subscriptions. For example, the Emma app will help you find regular payments that you might not even notice going out each month – like Amazon Prime’s £2.99 ad-free add-on – to save money by cancelling them.
Use auto rules
Set up automatic rules for your banking so that every month or week, your regular financial requirements are handled. This might be making sure you sweep a certain amount into a savings account the day you get paid, or setting up a Direct Debit to pay your credit card off in full each month.
Set up regular payments with standing orders if you don’t want the amount to vary. For example, if you want to pay the same amount to your energy company each month, you can choose to pay a standing order rather than a Direct Debit – because a company can change your Direct Debit amount by their decision, but they can’t on a standing order. This helps you retain control over your finances.
Reduce computer time
If you find yourself mindlessly scrolling on your phone or surfing the internet window shopping for things you don’t need on your laptop, it’s time to step away from the computer. Scrolling wastes so much of your time every day – just limiting your hours will make you more productive. In fact, it’s one of the first things people stop doing when they want to create more time to set up their own business, as it is such a time suck. You could reclaim literally hours every day if you stop mindless scrolling.
For those who like to type up their inner thoughts to get organised, staying away from a computer might seem impossible. However, the digital age brings with it the wonders of paper tablets like the Remarkable Paper Pro. It’s a tablet, but with a screen that’s easy to write on with the provided digital pencil. You can handwrite your notes wherever you are, and convert them to text files – saving them to the cloud (via the Remarkable Connect app) to access on your phone or computer later on.
Technology like this will help you reduce your mindless screen time, improving your productivity but also giving you time to find your creativity. If you’ve been thinking that 2025 is the year you start a business, writing things down away from your computer could really help you focus your plans and achieve your goals.
Enlist a buddy
If you have tasks that you put off every week or month because they feel daunting, a productivity buddy could be just the trick. This is also called body doubling, and it’s when you ask someone to come over and do the same or a similar task as you at the same time.
Often, the mere idea of someone coming over to do the thing will inspire you to get it done ahead of time – meaning you have time to socialise instead! Tasks might include doing your expenses or budget, opening letters you’ve been ignoring, or even actions for your new business such as creating marketing materials. Things that you don’t like doing, but need to do, will be much easier and faster with a productivity buddy.
It doesn’t have to be in person, either. If, for example, that pile of clean laundry has been staring at you from across the room for weeks, get on FaceTime with a friend. This is a great way to catch up with people who live too far away from you to see regularly, too! Calling a friend and both agreeing to do a task like tidying up or folding laundry at the same time will motivate you. You’ll probably find you get the tasks done much faster, too!
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