I ask myself this question every evening. My friend AJ asks this question usually starting about 4pm. Where did the day go? And the answer is always the same… Working. Doing stuff. Family. Errands. It always seems there’s just enough time to do one thing really well, and everything else gets thrown in the basket we use to tidy up the house each night.

Errands take up a whole day when you consider traffic and well, other people. Family takes up a good amount of time, if you like spending time with them, that is. Cleaning. Working. And then there’s being social and friendly and we may all have the same 24 hours in a day, but we don’t all necessarily have the same allotment for everything.

Yesterday I spent most of the day traipsing through stock photo sites trying to find new images for some covers I’m having re-done (I’ll be explaining that really, really soon). I’ve spent a lot of time working on, learning about marketing. Most everything requires me being chained to the computer.

Then, of course, there’s homeschooling. I’m more hands on with it. It’s not done online as much as it used to be. We talk, we work through things together, we interact. That takes times too. And it’s nothing that I’m interested in not doing. I might write a post about this one day.

I don’t know who I need to talk to about adding a few more hours to the day (and not in the manner of daylight savings time), but I would like to find that person.

As it is, I don’t have many ideas for time management. I know what I want to be doing. I know what is taking my time. And the two don’t always mesh…

My favorite time saving tools…

The crock-pot. If you don’t have one, I would highly recommend one. This is mine. It’s not fancy, but it does the job and I want to get back into menu planning (for us it was really basic and simple… Monday was comfort food, Tuesday was Italian, etc…). It really helps me to be able to throw things into the crock-pot in the morning and forget it. Dinner is done early evening. I love recipes on Pinterest and food blogs for crock-pot meals. I am also a lover of one pot or one skillet meals.

The other thing I use a lot, is my planner. I’ve told y’all about my Passion Planner and the more I use it, the more I love it and the more it helps me. I find myself making more appointments for personal things so that I don’t forget them. And I’ve been writing down the things for business that I want/have to do.

Writing is a big one that I just haven’t found a lot of time for lately, but that will be coming soon at the expense of ALL. THE. THINGS!

The other thing that I’ve been doing is…sort of a multi-task. The podcast episode I referred to last week from Entrepreneur on Fire with Rachel Cook had a lot in it about single focus tasks. This is my goal, my dream. This is not something I’ve accomplished even remotely. I try and try and yeah, I fail. Podcasts are something I’ve come to love, and while I’d like to sit down and sip my coffee and take notes on interesting and useful things all the time, it’s simply not possible yet. So, I multi-task. I pop in my Bluetooth ear bud and pull up the Stitcher app on my phone and press play. Most podcasts last about an hour so, I clean, do chores, cook, run errands, etc… All while listening. It’s been wonderful for me. If I hear something I want to know more about or want to jot notes down on, I’ll stop and do so or make a mental note of having to go back later to catch it.

But, relaxing with a cup of coffee and listening to a podcast does sound nice right about now. I might just do that. NOT. I might finish making dinner and listen, though.

As it is, the most important part of my business is writing. And as of now, it takes place after midnight. A few nights like that work fine for me, but every night? Not so much.

I hope to find more things to do to maximize my time, to become more efficient and more organized in my thoughts and deeds so that I’m not simply wondering day in and day out Where Did My Day Go?!?

I’ve added my Pinterest board, Deliciousness – Savory below for you.

Do you have any tips or tricks that are of value to you? I would love to hear about them.

~lissa

Follow Lissa Matthews’s board Deliciousness – Savory on Pinterest.