Hey there lovely readers, how’s your year been thus far? Stupendous? Tremendous? Crazy? Lazy? My first half had us spinning wildly out of control before finally settling into a state of gentle chaos – triggering a determined focus on streamlining productivity and restoring work/life balance (roll-on holidays!). And I bet I’m not alone.

Thing is, after years spent dedicated to finding ways to do more and be more productive, it’s no secret that we’re all now trying to do the opposite and regain precious time for ourselves.

One area I want to simplify is work. You too? Well you’ve come to the right place baby ‘cos I’ve been sleuthing and here’s my top 10 for snatching back precious moments. Hats off to you if you’re already implementing!

Jane’s top 10-time reducing productivity hacks:  

1) Create email templates. If sending similar pitches or responses, creating a basic template for each will save you endless writing and editing. My team love mine so much, they’ve adopted them too.

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Implemented a few of those productivity hacks yet? Feeling empowered?  I’ll confess sweet readers – I had 20 fabulous hacks for clawing back precious hours in that last post but hey, we’re meant to be reclaiming time not losing it reading lengthy blogs! Ready for the next ten now?  These are focused on personal well being, tried and road tested and worked a treat.

Ten more fabulous time saving hacks

1. Always wondering what to eat? Choose the same thing for lunch for one week, then pick something new the next. Great for saving time pondering the menu board at the local foraging station.
2. Lost your favourite cup? Keep a decanter and glass, or water bottle, on your desk. Same with a coffee vessle. One less cup to find each day.
3. Cluttered desk doing your head in? Clean your desk once a week. Friday afternoon’s ideal for this and damn it feels good! Happy hour your reward while Monday launches with a whole fresh start.
4. Noisy work neighbours? Download noisily, white noise or rain rain if having trouble concentrating. Perfect for drowning out the hubbub of open plan offices.
5. Needing playlist stimulation? Download Spotify and take the thinking out of searching for playlists to listen to. Spotify creates ones especially for you based on your existing preferences.
6. Sugar lull just kicked in? Have a sealed container of healthy nibbles on hand – keeps said hand out of the cookie jar.
7. Oops, just remembered someone’s birthday? Keep several neutral greeting cards, on hand. Perfect for those last minute gifts.
8. And emergency pressie? Add gender and theme neutral wrapping paper and ribbon to the card stash.
9. Mobile phone dying at that critical moment? Drop a spare charger in the drawer, charge via laptop.
10. Headache? Blister? Cold? Keep a personal emergency kit at work. Doesn’t need to contain everything for an earthquake, just everyday things that make life easier…

Goodies for the emergency kit

• Medicine you may need plus basic emergency items including pain killers, flu tabs, UTI relief sachets, band-aids, eye-drops, lozenges, mints –  ah! sweet relief.
• A scarf if you get chilly – I’ve had grown men borrow my Pashmina when the air-conditioning over compensates!
• Primary cosmetic duplicates – ‘course I’ll be there (refreshed) for post work drinkies!
• Mini manicure set – farewell hangnails
• Mini nail polish remover or wipes – sayonara chipped and tacky nail polish
• Mini sewing kit – goodbye wardrobe malfunction
• Wet wipes- ciao clothing spills and sticky fingers
• Hand cream – hooroo stocking static, bye scratchy hands
• Spare pair of tights – murphy’s law and all that
• Pair of neutral earrings – forgot to put them in this morn, feel half undressed!
• Pair of comfy back up shoes – oh hallelujah, praise your lord!

Have any fantabulous hints to share? Why not drop them in the comments column? Love hearing from you dear readers.