10 Small Things That Saved Me Time, Money, and Sanity in 2022
2022 has almost come to an end and part of my end-of-the-year routine is to reflect on some of the small ways I have improved my life in the past 12 months. Here are 10 small ways I saved time, money, and sanity in 2022.
1.) Wireless Phone Charger
I bought a wireless phone charger that sits on my end table. No more am I hunting for my wired charger, finding a place to plug my phone it in, and putting it away once the phone is charged.
I simply throw the phone on the charger at the end of the night and take it off in the morning. This doesn’t seem like a big deal but the wireless charger saves me 5 minutes per day, 35 minutes per week, and 1820 minutes per year which equates to over 30 hours. Kind of mind-boggling if you think about it.
2.) Credit Card Rewards
I got serious about using credit cards this year for the cashback rewards. I opened a couple of new cards, requested credit line increase on a couple of others, and started using them for monthly expenses to maximize those rewards.
By using cards for everyday expenses like groceries, gasoline, cell phone, and internet I have been able to earn $40–50 dollars each month in cashback.
3.) Notion
I started using Notion a couple of years ago but I never truly dove in. This year I systemized my entire life using Notion and solved several problems I was struggling with.
In Notion, I track things like personal finance, meal planning, weekly to-dos, my quarterly plan, and my publishing schedule. Having everything in one place has been a game changer for productivity and my sanity.
8 Problems I Solved Using Notion (With Screenshots)
4.) Tracking Waste
I made a conscious effort to see where there was waste in my life this year and of course, I started tracking it in a Notion database. Each area of waste included actionable plans to reduce, eliminate, delegate, or automate.
Along with helping to streamline my life, I also found myself starting to recognize waste much easier. Some things I cleaned up include wasting time on social media, grocery shopping, digital distraction, and household chores.
5.) Templates
If you find yourself creating the same documents repeatedly or writing the same emails over and over it is worth the time investment to create templates for these types of things.
Templates are a pain to create simply because there is an initial time investment but in the long run, they end up saving a lot of time.
6.) Reduced Belongings
I prefer a minimalist lifestyle however, like any normal human, clutter inevitably infiltrates my life. This year I made a direct effort to reduce my belongings as much as possible which entailed me jettisoning over 500 items.
Outside of having fewer things to maintain, by reducing my possessions I was able to create breathing room in my life. I find that owning fewer possessions makes me feel lighter while allowing me to focus on more important things.
7.) Going Paperless
I can’t stand paper clutter and if you own a business, you’ll end up collecting and storing a ton of documents. This year I went paper-free saving all personal and business documents to my laptop and backing them up to cloud storage.
By keeping all of my papers digital, I actually feel like I am more organized than I was when I was keeping a filing system and the extra space is a huge bonus. Plus, when documents are ready to be shredded I can simply hit delete. Keeping 7 years of tax records is no longer going to involve tons of boxes sitting in storage.
How To Go Paperless and Unclutter Your Life
8.) Social Media
Twitter is my go-to for social media but I also had a Facebook account. And for the most part, I found myself scrolling through Facebook when I was procrastinating or killing time. I can’t say it added any value to my life and for the most part, it was a giant waste.
So I deleted Facebook and never looked back. I also started using Twitter more responsibly by scheduling tweets and checking the app at set times instead of mindlessly scrolling. All in all, if you don’t use social media intentionally, it ends up using you.
9.) Changed Cell Phone Carrier
File this under money saving. I switched from my big legacy carrier who I had been with for almost 20 years to Mint Mobile. My cell phone bill is now a fraction of what it was and because I can pay for the entire year upfront, it saves me time too.
The service has been good and I haven’t noticed a difference from my old carrier. If you feel like your cell bill runs on the high side, Mint Mobile is worth looking into.
10.) Meal Planning
I am once again plugging Notion. I used to meal plan but somehow it became less and less of a priority. This year I started meal planning in Notion and stuck to it. This not only saved me time but reduced the stress of trying to figure out what was for dinner last minute.
Through meal planning, batch cooking, and more efficient grocery shopping I was able to simplify the dinner-making process. Not to mention, I saved a couple of hundred bucks each month.
Final Note
A lot of the changes I made this year were small yet offered a compounding effect. A small change here or there can end up meaning huge savings over the course of a year. Something to think about going into 2023 is: What small changes can I make that will end up being big wins at the end of the year?
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