Here’s a few more ideas in my time saving tips series that you can use to help you lose pregnancy weight by giving you more time to spend on yourself. Unfortunately there is and will only ever be 24 hours in a day and of those hours, we need to sleep for some of them.

You can’t make more time… that’s a fact, but by getting yourself properly organized you can get more out of the time you do have.

4. Make Notes and ‘To Do’ Lists

Always, keep a notepad and a pen handy. When you think of something you need to do, write it down to give yourself a gentle reminder.

Allocate some time each evening for planning the things you need to do the next day as this saves time the following morning.

You should also prioritize each day’s tasks with the most important ones at the top of the list or highlighted in some way. Write your lists down on a new page of a notepad and cross them off when you have completed each task.

This can be a very rewarding process as well as really organizing the things you need to do each day. You may not be able to complete your ‘to do’ list each day, but don’t worry, simply add anything you don’t get done to the following days list. You can also write down any extra tasks so you can do them if you find you have any unexpected free time.

You could also attach a plain sheet of paper to a notice board in the kitchen or on to the fridge and start making a list of all the things you run out of such as baby wipes, nappies, foods etc. When you next need to go shopping it will be a much easier job to simply take the list and buy what you need.

5. Don’t Waste Precious Time

Do a time and motion study on yourself for a few days and carefully analyze how you use up your precious time. Do you waste time by:-

• Laying in bed for an extra 20 minutes in the morning after you have woken up

• Spending time searching for missing objects

• Repeating the same tasks but never really doing them completely, like the washing up or ironing

• Forgetting to buy something every time you go to the shops.

Keep track of all the ways you waste time and then write your findings down

6. Buy Yourself a Diary

An extremely effective way of becoming more organized is by writing down all your appointments on to a calendar or a diary each day. This way you will easily be able to plan out events, meetings, social days out etc. Write down your appointments for everything such as doctors or midwife visits, hairdressers, dentists, meeting friends etc, so you don’t have to leave it floating around in your mind.

To your diary you can add all your telephone numbers, addresses, email addresses, birthdays and special dates or events etc. By keeping all these details in one place, you won’t have to search through pages of books or loose scraps of paper to find the information that you need.

Look out for some more great time saving tips to help help in quest to lose pregnancy weight in my next blog post

In your quest for losing weight after pregnancy, you’ll need to structure your life as much as possible around your needs as well your babies.

Getting the balance right can sometimes be very difficult.

Here are a couple more tips in the series of time saving tips.

2. Plan in Advance

Think of ways that you can combine jobs or appointments to make the best use of your time.  If there are any tasks that require you to be in the same place or area or need the same tools or equipment to do then try to do them all together so you don’t have to spend time repeatedly getting things out and putting away again or making multiple trips out.

For example if you always go to see your mum or a friend on a certain day who lives close to the supermarket then use that journey as a time to buy your shopping.  This is a much more efficient way of doing things.

If you have older children that need packed lunches or clean clothes each day then you can prepare these the day or night before.

Any meals that will survive a morning in a locker or classroom will survive a night in the fridge.  If they have lunches at school or nursery you could put their lunch money into envelopes or in book bags the previous evening

3. Draw up a Schedule

Design yourself a schedule that you can use to allocate certain tasks to different days.  If some days you know you’ll be short of time, plan to do a short task on that day.  Select one day each week to clean certain rooms in the house or to tackle the ironing. Stick to your schedule and then forget about these responsibilities the rest of the week.

Initially take a plain sheet of paper or open a worksheet such as excel on your computer and draw a chart with each day having a box of its own, then split each day in to mornings and afternoons.

Next, take some time to think about all the tasks that need doing each week for example cleaning, washing, ironing, gardening, meetings, appointments, preparing meals in bulk (you might choose one day each week to prepare the rest of the week’s meals and then freeze them), walking with the baby etc.

You should also plan in some relaxation time, but whilst sitting watching television can be very therapeutic at the end of a tiring day, if you are watching three or four hours of it every evening then this is probably time better spent doing something else instead.

Don’t throw out the whole concept of a schedule just because you may need to change it occasionally.  The idea is to create a system that allows you to be flexible to some degree and that encourages you to get things done in a systematic and time saving way.

It’s simply a tool to help you achieve what you want to accomplish.  If playing with the children is something you want to include each day, then there is no reason why it can’t be added to your schedule, even if you have to cross off other things to make space for the task.

You can always add the things you haven’t managed to do to the next day’s list.

Look out for more time saving tips that will help you when losing weight after pregnancy in my next post…

Losing weight after pregnancy is a challenge both physically and emotionally for a number of reasons and lack of time will be one of your biggest challenges.

For this reason I thought I’d write a series of posts about saving time. This is the first post in this series…

For all new mums the list of tasks and jobs that need to be done each day can seem endless, combine this with your own low energy levels and tiredness through lack of sleep during the first few weeks and you have a big challenge in front of you.

If you want to get anything done at all let alone start losing weight after pregnancy and fit regular activity and healthy eating in to your life, then you’re going to have to juggle a few balls at the same time.

In the first few days after having your baby it is quite normal to feel like resting and taking things easy.  You do need to allow yourself this recovery time. You’ll probably want to get up when you naturally wake or are awoken by your baby as opposed to setting a given time, this is the way it should be at first.

After the first few weeks however, you should try to start getting some order and structure in to each day.  This can be a very empowering action as you start to take control of your life again, your health, shape and fitness will also start to improve as will your confidence and energy levels.

Obviously if you want to return to any kind of shape and size that your proud of after having a baby it is going to be important to manage to fit both activity and healthy eating in to your lifestyle. The best way to do this is to break these down in to small chunks that can be spread throughout the day.

Try to combine tasks, such as walking instead of driving to appointments or to do chores, this not only allows you to complete these tasks but also helps you to burn off calories and improve your fitness at the same time (plus babies tend to sleep when they’re in the fresh air)

Your energy levels will naturally be quite low, with your body in a state of recovery and this is another reason why exercise should be done in small chunks.

Think little and often. As you recover you will be able to increase the amount of activity you do.

Everyone gets lost with lack of time in our busy lives, time to spend at work, with family, friends, doing the housework or just relaxing.

Unfortunately there is no way to create more time or hours in the day, but there are many ways that you can become more efficient in the time that you are given.  I hope you will find some of the ideas in these posts useful.

1. Get Yourself Organized

This is one of the most important aspects of saving time.  It really can make the difference between having some spare time or permanently chasing your tail in a never ending loop of time wasting.

If you spend any amount of time each day looking for clothes, keys, paperwork, toys, or just about anything, then the first step you need to take is to designate a place for everything.

So for example if you are constantly searching for your keys, give them a home.  It can be anywhere, just as long as this is where you put them each and every time you aren’t using them.  Place them on a hook in the kitchen, in a certain drawer or on top of a particular table etc.

Spend some time getting organized and find a place for everything.  You will be amazed how much time this saves you each day.

Let all the family know where everything should be stored and returned to when not in use and encourage them to put things back.

Getting organized really can help you to start losing weight after pregnancy because you will have more time for ‘you,’ so instead of running around aimlessly and getting nothing done, you’ll be able to accomplish many tasks at the same time.