How to Spend Less Time Cooking

One of the biggest lies you see commonly in books and online is that you can cook a meal in ten minutes.

 

How often have you seen books with titles like ‘Ten Minute Meals’?

 

There are a few things you can cook in ten minutes but really these don’t get much more ambitious than beans on toast or ‘an egg’.

 

If you want to make an actual meal though, you’ll spend a lot more time in the kitchen.

 

The perfect example of this is when you see an instruction like ‘take your chopped onion’. Hang on a second! Where did this onion come from? Who chopped it? The onion fairies?

 

But even the books that don’t use these little tricks fail to acknowledge that you will spend more time clearing the surfaces, washing up afterward, finding the food in the cupboards and even shopping for those things. A ten-minute meal in reality takes 30 minutes if you’re lucky!

 

While I can’t promise to completely solve this issue though, there are some ways you can get around it and spend a little less time preparing meals. Here are some shortcuts that are free for you to use…

 

Cook in Bulk

 

One of the best things you can do to spend less time cooking is to cook in bulk. This way, you cook a large pot of food that will provide more food than you need. Then, instead of dishing it all up, you put some of it away in the freezer or in the fridge.

 

This then in turn allows you to get it out on evenings when you’re in a rush and heat it up ready for dinner!

 

Use a Slow Cooker

 

A slow cooker can save you a ton of time in the kitchen because it cooks your food when you’re on the way home. You prepare the food that morning or the night before then leave it in the cooker. It turns on at about 4pm and cooks slowly without risking a fire. When you get in at 6pm, the food will be ready to eat!

 

Get the Right Appliances

 

Many appliances can save you a lot of time and effort. One of the best examples is a food processor. But another good one is a waste disposal unit for your kitchen sink. This lets you throw anything down the sink without risking blocking it!

How to Workout in 10 Minutes

One thing you need to learn to do if you’re going to get more time back in your life is to work out in a small space of time. Why? Because exercise is crucial to giving you more energy which in turn will allow you to get more out of the time you do have. At the same time, exercise normally takes a very long time. If you are currently doing a 40 minute workout at the gym, commuting there and back and also washing up a bunch of your clothes, then chances are that you are spending 1.5 to 2 hours each time you train!

 

This will show you how to genuinely work out in ten minutes.

 

The Routine

 

This routine is a bodyweight resistance routine. That means you’re using your own body to provide the weight in the form of push ups and pull ups. At the same time, the routine is going to be a circuit. That means you’ll be going straight from one exercise to the next with no break or pause in between. You have 1 minute at the end to catch your breath and then you go for it again for a total of 3 rounds.

 

The workout is simple:

 

• Push ups to failure

• Pull ups to failure

• Sit ups to failure

• Jumping squats to failure

 

‘To failure’ means you stop when you physically can’t do one more repetition. If you do this right, then your muscles should be aching and you should be able to do fewer and fewer each time around.

 

But if you want to take this further and make it even more effective then try using ‘mechanical drop sets’. That means that if you can only do 5 reps on the last round for your pull ups, you make things easier for yourself for reps 6-10. That means you might put your feet on a chair and pull yourself up with a little help from your legs. Or it means you might let your knees touch the floor.

 

The Benefits

 

This works very well because it is ‘resistance cardio’. You are burning fat and improving fitness while simultaneously building muscle and strength. What’s more is that it can be done so quickly and shouldn’t cause you to sweat too much. That means you can do it without needing to shower after – or if you do it in the morning you can do it before your regular shower. Not 10 minutes plus travel: literally just 10 minutes.

 

Stop Deferring Your Happiness – You Can Already Do the Things You Want to Do

One of the biggest wrong assumptions that the vast majority of people on this planet make is that they aren’t able to do the things they want to do. To clarify, the assumption that many of us make is that we don’t yet have the means to live our dreams and that the only way to do so is to work harder.

 

Thus we put off doing the things we want to do and we end up taking on more and more work until the point where eventually we are spending every waking moment either working or feeling stressed about work. 

 

I’m here to tell you that it’s time to stop putting off your happiness and to embrace it. Here’s how…

 

There’s Never a ‘Good Time’

 

One of the most common arguments people make for not travelling the world, starting their own business or building their own home is that it’s not a good time. Right now they have too many financial commitments, they don’t have enough money or they have too much else going on. You probably are all too familiar with this!

 

But now think back to all the other things you’ve achieved so far. Was it ever a good time? If you’re a parent, then was it a good time to have a baby? Was it a good time to get married? A good time to start a relationship? A good time to buy a house?

When we have to, we make things work. There’s never a good time so if you really want to enjoy living your life to the full you only have one option: do it anyway.

 

It’s Easier Than You Think

 

And actually, many of the dreams we have are much easier to fulfil than we might initially think. For example, if you want to travel then you don’t necessarily need to spend a fortune or take a year off work.

 

How about identifying places a little nearer that you can travel to and then using budget airlines to go there for long weekends? How about a year of visiting the capital cities you can reach on short haul? That would be a fantastic year and doesn’t need to upend your life!

 

Want a better home? You don’t need to spend millions – just empty out your property of things you don’t need or redux your kitchen. You’d be surprised what a different small tweaks can make!

 

Top Ways to Automate Your Lifestyle

Automation is a business term that basically means you set up a system to handle a part of your job for you. This in turn allows you to spend more time doing other important things and at the same time to exponentially increase your output and scale your production.

 

The obvious example is to use an automated assembly line to create a product rather than doing it by hand. This saves countless man-hours and means in theory that you can produce 10x or 100x the amount of product to sell and scale up your profits in accordance.

 

You can also do this in your personal life and in just the same way, it can hugely increase your free time.

 

Here are some ways you can do that:

 

Shop Online

 

Shopping online and setting up standing orders is a great way to save time that you would otherwise spend going to the shops. At the very least you should use this for your regular grocery shop and this way you can get a weekly shop delivered directly to your door every day without having to head out! This can save 2, 3 or 4 hours a week!

 

You can also set up standing orders for gifts. Want to make sure your partner gets sent flowers every year on your anniversary? That’s actually quite easy to arrange! Or how about using a ‘product as service’ such as one that will supply you with all the shaving products you need every week? There are plenty of these that can save you a lot of hunting and shopping.

 

Robotic Vacuum Cleaners

 

If you can’t afford a cleaner, then consider hiring a robotic vacuum cleaner. These will move around your home all on their own making sure to reach every small patch of floor to vacuum up crumbs, dust, dirt and anything else that gets on your carpet or wooden floor.

 

You can also get robotic lawn mowers that do the same job but outside!

 

Cooking

 

In the kitchen there are tons of things that can save you time. A food processor for instance can automate the peeling process for you if you get one that is good enough.

 

Or if you want an even more automated service, consider signing up to a company that delivers healthy meals to your door every day. These exist and can actually save you hours while improving your health and energy levels!

 

Why You Need to Rethink Your Job

Right now, your job takes up the vast majority of your free time. You probably spend 8 hours a day at work and at least 1 hour a day commuting. Sometimes you’ll clock out late (most times in fact) and then there’s the time you spend getting your lunch and clothes ready for work. In short, you don’t really spend 8 hours a day at work… you spend 10 hours at least. You spend 8 hours sleeping too, so that means you have 6 hours max to yourself. 

 

Oh dear.

 

And here’s the thing: your job is only likely to get more stressful. As most of us try to gain a better salary, we are forced to take on more responsibilities and this ends up meaning we work longer hours and feel more stressed and more burned out at the end of the day.

 

The problem is that many of us don’t realize we have a choice. We assume that the only way to feel like we’re accomplishing something is to work harder. We feel like the only way that we can make more money is again to work harder.

 

The Alternative

 

Here’s an alternative: how about you aim to make your 9-5 job as easy as possible and in the meantime, you get your fulfilment and extra income from a hobby. 

 

Would you like to be a painter? Then you can work any job during the day and spend your evenings painting. The painting is where you can try and ‘achieve’ something and get the satisfaction, not your data entry job. And if you can sell a couple of paintings then you’ll be able to supplement your income as well!

 

Instead of looking for the job with the best salary, look for the job with the most flexible time. Time is worth more than money in terms of freedom and this will ultimately lead to greater happiness. 

 

Now you have a new aim: instead of working hard to get more work, work hard to reduce your work. Ask your boss about flexi-time, or if you can work from home one day in order to gain back more hours. You might be surprised how flexible they can be and if they’re not? Consider looking elsewhere.

 

Remember, even if you’re taking a pay cut, you can always make that money back in other ways and you can always find fulfilment in the things you’re really passionate about!

How to Get More Value From Necessary Tasks and Chores

Getting back time is all about having more time to do the things you enjoy in life. This means that you stop spending time working in the office and you cut back on washing up and commuting.

 

Instead, you’re going to try and start spending time doing things you love such as being with your family, watching great TV and pursuing your personal goals/projects.

 

But the way you go about this might be a little different from what you expect. Forget all the strategies you read about that tell you how to save ‘ten minutes a day’ or ‘an hour a day’. These cut off a little time at best and few of us stick to them.

 

Instead, ask yourself how you can get more value out of the time you’re currently using up. That means doing two jobs at once, or just enjoying the time you’re ‘wasting’ that little bit more.

 

Read on to see what on Earth I’m talking about…

 

Multitasking

 

One of the best ways to get more from your time is to multitask. You can’t multitask with jobs that require your full attention and creative awareness. But any job that can be done ‘mindlessly’ can be paired with any job that doesn’t require use of your body.

 

For example, you can catch up with correspondence or make important admin calls when you’re driving (if you have a hands-free system), when you’re walking to the shops or when you’re washing up! By doing two jobs at once, you free up one ‘slot’ to use yourself later.

 

Making it More Fun

 

At the same time, you can also multitask to make a boring job fun or rewarding. For example, if you’re washing up then why not watch your favorite TV show at the same time? You’re getting just as much out of that time and now washing up isn’t as dull.

Another great strategy is to do things with friends. Staying in touch and maintaining correspondence takes time. So instead of worrying about fitting it in, why not turn a boring job – the weekly shop, your workout – into something you can do with a friend?

 

If you commute on the train, then you can absolutely make more use of this time. How about using it to learn a language, read a great book or even start setting up your own side business using a laptop?