Add an hour to your day without even trying

While many of us feel too busy, if you were to keep track of every minute of your day and write down how you spent each moment, you'd find many instances of unproductive time. Here are some tips on how to find extra time and add an hour to your day without even trying.

When you have errands to run, plan your excursions. Don't just drive to your destinations randomly. Plan a route that makes economic sense. Otherwise, you'll be going out, coming back home, going back out, and returning home.

Instead, you could have saved all that time by just heading out once, running all your errands, and coming back home once everything was finished.

Never just cook enough for one meal. Every time you cook, make at least twice as much as you and your family will consume in one meal. Making more portions doesn't take any more time than making fewer portions. Invest in durable freezer containers and freeze the extra portions. You'll end up with a freezer full of meal options that will free up the time you normally spend cooking supper each night.

Foods that freeze well include stews, soups, chicken pot pies, pizzas, casseroles, and burritos.

You may be the type of person who likes to do things themselves and make things by hand. But when you're trying to save time, you should let machines do the work for you.

• Using a riding mower instead of a push mower cuts your grass cutting time by two thirds.
• Use a food processor instead of cutting all your vegetables by hand. Make sure you keep it on your counter so you don't have to take it out each day.
• Fill your sink with soapy water so dirty dishes can soak while you cook and eat.
• When you're done, remove them from the sink and they'll be ready for the dishwasher.

Just by implementing these three simple changes, you could add an hour or more to your day.