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We live in a fast-paced world. For most working parents it’s a constant struggle to cover all the bases and every day turns into a tiring, frustrating race against the clock. The biggest problem with that (besides its effect on your mental health) is that it robs you of the valuable time you should be spending with your family.
We all know by now how important it is to family stability and our overall sense of well-being that we find ways to share quality time with our loved ones. The good news is that a little bit of effective time management and a helping hand from some of the latest technology might be all that you need to tip the time scales in your favor. Here’s a look at how you can leverage online services to free up enough time to be there for the moments that matter most to you and your family.
Automating Routine Financial Tasks
One of the easiest and most effective ways to free up some of your valuable time is to take steps to automate as many of your routine financial tasks as possible. Most of the time, a great deal of automation is possible without ever leaving the confines of your own bank’s online banking portal. To start with, make a list of any recurring payments you make on a monthly basis, and use your bank’s bill pay service (where available) to put them on autopilot. That alone will save more time than you might expect.
If you’re feeling particularly intrepid, you can even automate tasks like retirement account contributions, donations to your favorite charities, and even routine transfers into savings accounts. You can even take on more complex financial tasks, like finding a mortgage through a variety of easy online finance brokers. There’s almost no limit to how many of your financial management tasks you can relegate to online providers, saving you all kinds of time. Just make sure you check in every once in a while to make sure that there haven’t been unexpected changes to the amounts of any of your bills, so you don’t get penalized for underpayment.
Meal Kits and Online Grocery Delivery
Another quick and easy way you can save a big chunk of time in your schedule each week is to use an online grocery delivery service or a meal kit provider. Doing so will reclaim much of the time you spend walking up and down aisles in the grocery store or waiting in lines at the checkout. Depending on where you live, you might be within the Amazon Fresh delivery area, and they carry a food selection that is without equal. If not, most regional chain supermarkets now offer at-home delivery, so make sure to ask at your local store to find out.
If you want to save even more time, you can also consider turning to a meal kit service, so you’ll receive exactly the ingredients needed for a variety of tasty and nutritious full meals. Options like Green Chef and Sun Basket take the guesswork out of healthy eating and feature organic and sustainable products to suit any taste. The best part is that you can even turn the preparation of the meals into a family-time event, because they come with easy-to-follow instructions that make cooking a breeze, and you might even be able to convince the kids to help!
Online Errand and Project Services
Juggling work and family is challenging enough, especially when you’re also dealing with the myriad tasks of keeping your household running on a daily basis. If you take a moment to consider where most of your free time actually does end up getting spent, there’s a good chance that you’re going to come up with a laundry list of little errands (including doing the laundry) that add up to more time than you thought. Why not turn that time back into time spent with your family by making use of an online errand service?
Online services like TaskRabbit offer on-demand help to take care of just about any errand you can imagine, like post office runs, furniture assembly, and yes, even laundry. If you have a bigger project in mind, you can also turn to online portals like Thumbtack that will do all of the legwork to find qualified professionals for just about anything you need to get done. The best part is that these services also offer satisfaction and property protection guarantees, so you don’t have to worry about damage or problems with the work you need done.
Use Your Time Wisely
If you’ve taken steps to offload some of your routine tasks or automate some of your monthly financial responsibilities, you should be left with some openings in your busy schedule that you can now use to spend time with your family. The most important thing to remember is to take care not to waste the valuable time you’ve freed up, and to resist pressure from others to fill your free time up with even more responsibilities and work. Doing that would make all of your efforts an exercise in futility. Remember, you don’t need to schedule complicated events or expensive activities to make the most of your newfound family time. Just make sure to be there, listening, sharing, and caring. They, and you will be better off for all of your efforts.
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This content is sponsored by Andrej Kovacevic.
Photo by Maxwell Ridgeway on Unsplash