Time management expert, Laura Vanderkam, gave a controversial tip on her new podcast, Before Breakfast—don’t prep the night before. Her reasoning? It doesn’t save time, just shifts it, and most likely costs more time due to switching costs between tasks. Packing lunches at night takes just as long as packing them in the morning and robs you of the downtime post-kid bedtime. Her solution? Find ways to simplify your morning routine, so you save time. If the kids can never find

I love any tip to prevent or improve meetings. They are such a suck of our most valuable asset—time. Today is simple. Before meeting with someone, ask the person to send over a few bullets on what they want to cover. This helps make the meeting more efficient by both allowing you to get the ‘update’ part of the meeting over via email and making sure you are better prepared to discuss the meat of the meeting. Or, better yet, it might prevent the meeting from happening at a

The number one thing moms want is more time. Here is my favorite analogy around time from Stephen Covey, author of The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People. A professor shows a class a gallon-size glass jar. He brings out a platter of large, fist-sized rocks and dumps them into the pot until they reach the top. Is the jar full? The class replies, yes. Then he brings out pebbles and pours them into the jar. The pebbles settle in all the spaces between the big rocks. Is the

Inspired by Cal Newport’s new book, Digital Minimalism, I’m seven days into a 30-day digital detox of no podcasts, social media or blogs. It’s amazing. I even have started going on evening or morning walks—by myself, sans headphones. These 30-minute sessions with just my thoughts made me recognize how rarely I just think. Guess what? Thinking is good. I’m finding myself making better decisions and being less stressed overall. So today, risk being bored a bit. Put away you

In this week's spending to save series, we've been showing how you can spend more money to save you time, buying you happiness. Today's tip is simple: Each time you open your wallet (or hover over the Buy Now button on Amazon), ask yourself, "Will this purchase change my use of time in positive ways?" Pause if not. Do you really need this? So often, when we buy something, there are so many hidden time costs—unpacking, storage, maintenance, and disposal. How would your life

As a mom of two and a founder of a busy start-up, I throw money at software that saves me time. Here are some of my faves: Docsend ($10/month): Simplifies document sharing. I can see who has visited and for how long. I can also update the document behind the link as I make changes in real-time. (Biggest insight, people spend very little time reading documents! Xtensio ($15/month): Beautiful predesigned document templates that prevent me from hiring a designer to layout

I am a sucker for a good deal. I mean, I am the rare breed who loves going to Costco. But, today I'm throwing this out the window. My tip? Do less comparison shopping. When you look at the total cost of comparison shopping—including your time, not just the sticker price—you'll find it's rarely worth it. The time it takes to go to multiple stores, drive to the cheaper gas, or spend hours browsing online is more valuable than your savings. So, don't overthink it. Find so

The number one stress we hear from moms is getting dinner on the table, so what better place to spend money to save time? To spend smartly, first identify what part of the meal is causing stress. Is it getting the food ready? Clean-up? Grocery shopping? Then try to spend to reduce that stress. For example... If you stress about planning: Order groceries online. You can shop from old orders or put items on repeat, saving you having to go to the store. This might even sav

Ashley Williams, a professor at Harvard Business School, has studied over 100,000 people to understand the relationship between happiness, wealth, and time. She found that the happiest people (even at lower incomes) use money to buy time by working fewer hours, outsourcing, or spending out. This week, we'll dive into advice on how to make this all-too-important trade-off of money for time. Her findings show that spending as little as $40 on time saving measures can buy

Deadlines have been identified as the most common cause of work stress (with 30% of folks citing it). Not only that, it decreases creativity and proactiveness. Today's tip: Ask for an extension. A new report over ten studies shows that employees are afraid to ask for an extension from their manager for fear that it will make them (especially women) look incompetent. Yet, most managers don't perceive this. Think about the last deadline you stressed about. Would having an extra

My big household project this year is to find everything a home. I've decluttered before but never finished this step, which is vital for it staying that way. It sounds crazy, but this process is incredibly creative. It pulls on my product design skills -- I'm trying to throw out preconceived notions and ask what makes the most sense for the user (usually me). I've started moving things to where they are most convenient instead of where they 'should' be. For example, th