or

Does it seem like you’re not maximizing the amount

of time you can devote to writing your books to

inform/entertain your readers and hopefully make

good money doing so? I can relate to your dilemma.

As one who moved into my own house just

under a year ago, I have been swamped with

repairs and projects. Although I still

have a good ways to go before I’m fully time-efficient

as a content producer, I have learned a lot and will

share my tips on how you can create more time for

yourself as an author, beginning now.

 

More efficient bathing

• I recommend taking showers instead of baths. It

takes awhile for bath water to run, it’s hard to wash

your hair in a bath, you must rinse out the tub

afterwards and it’s a waste of water, leading to a

higher water bill. Instead of taking a shower/bath

every day, consider taking one every three days and

just washing up your private area on the days in

between.

• The best thing you can do for quicker showers is to

have a good shower head and a good bathtub valve.

After I replaced the shower head I inherited upon

moving into my new house a year ago, I immediately

began having warmer shower water but the water

still wasn’t fully as hot as I would have liked and my tub

faucet soon began leaking nonstop. Many weeks ago, I

had to have a plumber replace the cartridge in my valve

once I was no longer able to run any shower or bath

water. This has already paid dividends on my time in

which my faucet water is now so warm that I don’t have

to waste a minute or two letting the water warm up

before commencing my shower.

• Once you start your shower, wet your hair all over then

shut off the water then lather your hair then rinse your

hair then wet your underarms plus your private area and

buttocks then wet your washcloth, your back brush and

your bar of soap then shut off the water and keep it off

until it’s time to rinse your whole body. If you do all this,

you’ll lower your water bill and likely help the

environment but more importantly, you will surely

extend the lifespan of your shower head immensely as

you lower the overall amount of hot water you use while

bathing; the fewer times you must buy a new shower

head then install it, the more time you have.

 

Searching for items around your home and elsewhere

less

• It drives me crazy to waste vast time searching for

something. Besides being organized regarding the

placement of everything in your home, it helps to

visualize or verbally tell yourself where you’re

putting something you may not use immediately or

often such as paint, pet shampoo or insect spray.

• Stay aware of what’s on your person at all times.

While mowing my dad’s lawn lately, I had a small

book I brought along tucked inside my partially

buttoned shirt.

At one point, I realized the book was missing;

subsequently, I spent several minutes looking for it

around the front yard and back yard before finding it

on the western side yard behind a hedge. If I had

constantly felt my body for my book, I could have

avoided this predicament.

 

Making your socks last longer

Long toenails puncture socks. By always keeping

your toenails short, you should rarely have to go to

the store or conduct an online search to buy new

socks.

 

Smart refrigeration

• The most important step you can take to prolong

the life of your fridge is to keep it out of direct

sunlight and away from heat sources such as

radiators, stoves and microwave ovens.

• To ensure your unit works properly and to

keep the food inside it colder, make sure

there is five inches of space between this unit and

the wall behind your fridge and on the sides of

this appliance. Also, avoid keeping bags and boxes

alongside any part of your refrigerator. Don’t

overload any part of your icebox, including the

produce drawers, because food requires ample

circulation to stay fresh.

• While refrigerating items like blackberries and

raspberries, keep them sealed in Ziploc bags so

they don’t leak juice into your fridge and thus

make you lose time wiping up the juice as you

try to keep this spill from permeating the rest of

your produce crisper drawer.

• A living organism, mold requires the existence

of moisture in your fridge to thrive. If you opt to

rinse off produce before eating it, make sure to

dry whatever quantity of the produce you don’t

immediately eat before putting it back in the

fridge; if you want to immediately reuse a food

storage container like I often do, rinse it out

then fully dry it before putting it back in the

fridge with food in it.

In the event your unit has a natural tendency to

drip water from its ceiling like mine and you

can’t fight this by wiping up the water with paper

towels and lowering the coldness setting in your

fridge, I recommend freezing any leftovers you

want to have for another meal within the next

few days if you think the food will become moldy

in the refrigerator before you’re ready to eat it

again based on your gut or prior experience.

• Buy organic milk instead of regular milk which

generally spoils or turns completely watery

before the former. Refrigerate your milk

immediately upon returning home and make

sure it’s the first item you put away – adding a

pinch of salt to it can help. In the event it comes

out a little watery while pouring it into a bowl,

shake it up and it should be okay for staying in

good condition for at least two weeks. Before I

began buying organic milk a few weeks ago, the

regular milk I was buying in recent times would

always turn watery within a few days and stay

watery, no matter how much I shook the jug

and no matter its expiration date which I

paid attention to before making the purchase.

Now that I’m purchasing organic milk, I no

longer have to waste roughly twenty minutes

walking to my nearest convenience store to buy

more milk then returning home.

 

Fast internet speed/proper computer care

• If your internet speed is always slow, your

productivity can dramatically lag – for a fast

connection, please use Spectrum or AT&T.

• If you can make all your computers last

close to ten years or longer, imagine how

many more writings you can finish.

Refrain from eating and drinking anything

at your device which is sticky or likely to

get under one of your keys, protect your

device from direct sunlight and turn it off

if you’re likely to be away from it for at

least an hour, as excessive heat buildup

can shorten the life of your computer.

• Keep your blinds, curtains and shades

closed in the room you keep your computer

in while you’re away from home or while

you’re at home but out of your computer

room while there’s sunlight coming

through the windows there.

• When there is lightning and thunder in

your area, keep both your computer and

your radio turned off to protect these

devices.

 

Having good TV reception

• If you usually have to make too much TV

or antenna adjustment upon turning on

your TV set, you’re losing too much time. If

you use a SOLID SIGNAL antenna for your

your set like me, place it against the nearest

window for optimal reception. My biggest

problem is I don’t always get all the

channels I want. I’ve had this unit since

2015; when it stops working, I plan to buy a

big replacement for it then buy an antenna

that goes on the roof to consistently get

great reception.

• Never let your SOLID SIGNAL antenna

be exposed to direct sunlight. Remove it

from your window once you’re done

watching TV for the day or night.

 

Smarter Yard Work

• The most important thing you can do to

get the most of your lawn care is to spend at

least 400 to 500 bucks on a powerful, self-propelled

lawn mower which will likely last at least a few

years and makes cutting your grass quicker and

less strenuous upon your squeezing the third

handle which shifts your mowing from manual

mode to automatic mode.

• I urge you to mow any grass you can truly mow

rather than spraying it with weed & grass killer

because grass will often come back to life or

stay alive despite your spraying it. If there is any

grass on your lawn you just cannot mow because

it grows against a fence or any part of your home

or is otherwise just too deep to mow in some

areas, spray it as many times as it takes to keep it

out of commission for a while or to kill it altogether.

• Do not mow any part of your lawn when it is too

short, muddy or saturated – wait until grass is

about two to three inches tall before cutting it.

There should be times when you can skip mowing

your back lawn, your side lawn or parts of your

front lawn for about a week or two, easily giving

you at least 20 to 30 minutes of extra time in

your busy lifestyle.

• Besides cutting your portion of the side yard

you share with next-door neighbors, cut theirs

too, as it is irresponsible and doesn’t look good

if you only mow your side. Who knows? If you

do this for them, they may do it for you in

return, and this saved time may be huge for you

on any given day.

• Change the direction you mow your lawns from

week to week; if you mow from north to south

this week, mow east to west next week. This is

necessary to make your lawn grow evenly and to

prevent clumps of dirt from forming, which

makes mowing take longer.

• Always wear noise reduction headphones and

safety glasses while cutting grass. I recommend

buying safety glasses over goggles because the

strap on any goggles you get may come loose at

any point and you may then have too much

trouble fixing this. Before you don your safety

glasses, inspect them for cracks and scratches.

Wipe off any dust sitting on this eye wear.

• Don’t fill up your mower with gasoline indoors,

as this may cause carbon monoxide poisoning.

• Always keep a little bit of lawn mower engine

oil inside your mower and check to see that it’s

lubricated before you begin mowing each day you

cut grass. Putting in too much oil can lead to

smoke and an overheated mower and thus make

it too hard to resume cutting grass before you

can have a qualified technician fix your

appliance. A good way to see if you have the

right amount of oil is to pull out your oil cap stick

and check to make sure this stick only gathers oil

for about an inch starting from the bottom of the

stick.

• Before mowing, apply nonstick cooking spray

all over the circumference underneath your

mower, including the blade, to discourage

grass cuttings from adhering to your appliance;

before I began doing this, I lost as much as 10 to

15 minutes pulling out grass from under my

appliance on each grass cutting day.

• To prevent oil from running out of its

cartridge, particularly if your mower is a Briggs &

Stratton mower, lock your ignition cord by pulling

it toward your handle bar and slipping the top of

your cord underneath your handle bar key

which is shaped like a hook before tilting your

lawn mower to spray it or to remove grass from

it; always keep one hand off the handle bars

while pulling your cord with your other hand

when you want to lock it.

• Take a few moments to pick up any sticks,

pebbles, rocks, papers, bags and wrappers you

see on your grass before mowing over it; this will

save you time in the long run as you help preserve

your mower.

• When snipping off a tree or shrub branch, cut

off as much of it as you can so that it takes many

weeks to grow back. Before doing your trimming,

make sure there are no bees or wasps on what

you’re about to cut. Don’t leave any

wasp-containing structures dangling over your

lawn. If you accidentally knock one down while

mowing the lawn, wait til it’s vacated before

you toss it out of your way to a safe location then

resume mowing; if the wasps return, cut off your

mower and wait for the wasps to go away before

continuing.

• Never make my mistake of buying an aluminum

shed whose retail cost is about 300 to 400 dollars,

as it will probably break down soon. I recommend

investing in an expensive, quality shed like the

Woodbridge by Arrow shed I recently bought then

buy a Master Lock for your shed once you’re done

having someone help you assemble it – using a

cordless power drill will be of major help.

• If you use a shed instead of a garage, you run

out of gasoline while your mower is close to the

street and you haven’t brought your gas can close

to your front yard from your shed which you

may keep a long distance away in the backyard,

take your mower with you toward the back of

your house so nobody can run off with your

appliance.

 

Reducing your trips to places like The Home

Depot/expediting your store visit

When I go to The Home Depot to buy something

I’ll have to continue using for awhile like weed

killer, I buy four bottles of it so I don’t have to

return to buy more of it too soon. If I have come

to buy multiple items and I’m running out of

time to get out of there in time to catch my bus

and not have to wait an hour for the next one,

I’ll settle for just getting up to half the items I

came for then head to the checkout line.

 

Streamlined Grocery Shopping

• Try going grocery shopping every 2 weeks

instead of weekly. Besides gaining more spare

time overall, it makes sense to do this,

considering that you can often make milk and

produce last two weeks.

• You’ll get out of the store faster by bringing a

well-written grocery list for which you have

ample space between each item, you can

easily read your handwriting and you have

organized your list according to where all the

items in the store are located and in what aisles.

• As you get close to grocery shopping day,

check your cupboards, shelves and food boxes

to see if there’s anything you need to get now

because you eat it regularly or you may need it

for an upcoming dish. Cross off any items on

your list which you discover you don’t need to

get come shopping day or just before that day.

• Check to make sure you got all the cold items

you need before departing the refrigerated and

frozen foods section; it can be a big hassle to

check your list later in your store visit then

discover you must go all the way back to the

other side of the store to get a cold item you

neglected to get when you were just over there.

• Seek canned goods that come with a pull tab –

it often takes a lot of time and effort to open cans

that don’t have a pull tab, no matter how good your

can opener is supposed to be and no matter how

clean you keep it. Spend extra time seeking tabbed

cans once your chances for catching the bus

that’s due to arrive soon diminish.

• Before buying meats such as steaks and ribs,

make sure they have lots of white marble – the

more marble they contain, the less tough they

will be to cut up and eat.

• Split up your grocery store runs if you ride the

bus and go to more than two grocers. Every two

weeks, I go to Schnucks (where I buy many items)

late in the week then within the next two days, I

go to Dierberg’s to buy a few items then make a

7-minute walk to Goeke’s to buy many fruits and

vegetables or vice versa; when I did all my

grocery shopping at Dierberg’s and Goeke’s, I

usually either missed my bus going home then

waited an hour for the next bus or I had to catch

my bus, go home then soon leave back out to go to

the store I bypassed, only to have to wait about an

hour to ride home upon returning to the area. The

buses that run on the number 61 route near the

Schnucks location closest to me run 15 to 20

minutes apart during certain weeks or months, 35

to 40 minutes apart during other periods of time.

Check off all items you buy on the first leg of your

multiple day grocer run once you get home and

have put everything away.

• If you like to choose paper bags for your

groceries at the checkout line, ask the cashier

or grocery bagger to double bag your groceries

immediately at the beginning of your checkout

and pay attention to make sure your items

aren’t being put into plastic bags. Double-paper

bags are less likely to break than single-paper bags.

• Have your cash or credit card/debit card in your

hand while your items are rung up.

• Before removing your paper bags from

your cart upon exiting the store, grab them

by their sides or their bottoms rather than their

tops.

• Grab all your bags at once without

consolidating them if the expected arrival of

your bus is very imminent.

• Because I’m doing all this stuff for my trips,

I’m putting myself in a situation where I’ll

rarely miss my bus after having bought

food.

 

How to open cans and jars

• To open cans which have a pull tab, pull the tab

back fast then pull it up hard to reduce the likelihood

of the tab breaking off.

• When encountering tough-to-open jars, use a bottle

opener to pry open their lids.

• To open cans of refrigerated biscuit dough,

follow the directions on the can and simply

peel the outer label of the can along the arrow

until the lid automatically pops up; you don’t

have to waste time using a can opener for this

like I initially did.

 

Reduced cooking time

• Consider cooking two days a week then

having leftovers throughout the week. I cook

Fridays and Saturdays then have leftovers

from Friday’s meal on Sunday and Tuesday,

eat leftovers from Saturday’s meal on Monday

and Wednesday then generally microwave or

bake a quick meal on Thursdays – this makes

things so much easier on me, as I work outside

my home full time.

• I endorse the Oster food chopping machine for

chopping up veggies into small pieces.

• I recommend buying green or purple cabbage

regularly because it’s very nutritious, it’s likely to

last you a few weeks each time you buy it and you

can rapidly prepare it for cooking by tearing off

large chunks from your cabbage head.

 

Giving your dog a haircut every three weeks during

hot weather/retaining your grip

• Cutting my dog’s hair every 3 Saturdays during the

warm months provides a fine balance between

giving him too few hair cuts and cutting his hair

too often.

• To prevent your dog from giving you the slip as

you take him/her for a walk, use a tight leash whose

grip your companion won’t be able to wiggle out of.

 

Reducing the amount of flies in your home

• If you’re constantly going after flies in your home,

you won’t be able to do much pertaining to your

writings. You can pour bleach and hot water down

your sewer drain plus fight flies with a fly

swatter, bug spray and your bare hands but you can

foil them more effectively with the prevention

measures covered below.

• Look for where flies are coming from and

tape up cracks and gaps on your windows

and storm doors plus holes in your basement walls

and ceiling through which flies can enter your home

with Gorilla tape you can get from The Home Depot.

Ever since I taped up the gaps between the panes on

my basement windows many weeks ago, I have

stopped houseflies, which must be the most annoying

flies in existence, from invading my home.

• If flies are raiding your fridge

and the coldness inside it isn’t killing them, seal up

all produce and any other items you have in there.

If you cut off these pests’ food supply, they’ll surely

perish from food deprivation and stress overload

and thus be unable to keep reproducing.

• If a mosquito enters your home but it gets

away as you try to kill it, apply insect

repellent which repels mosquitos all over

your neck, your arms, your legs, your feet and

behind your ears. Spray your pets well.

• You can pour fruit-flavored vinegar and dish

detergent into a cup then wrap the top of the

cup with Saran Wrap then put a rubber band

around the cup but this method is likely to

only catch about 2 dozen flies at the most and

it isn’t likely to last that long. A better, more

permanent solution is to use Zevo spray over

the Raid fly spray; always push the nozzle

down rather than squeezing it.

• Another effective way to get rid of flies in

your home is to hang up Raid fly trap sticks.

 

Because I have taken all these steps, I have more

time to devote to my book writing. To get more of

my tips for authors, click here