How many times do you say that every day? Likely too many. Many of us keep wondering how we can squeeze in some extra time during our 24/7 work schedule to help reduce the long list of pending tasks.

Well, the number of hours in the day are not going to increase. So, it’s up to you to create that extra time you need. The following six tips will get you started on making the most of the time you do have.

1. Stop Multitasking

If you think multitasking will get things done faster, think again. Focusing on one thing at a time is a more productive thing to do. You’ll end up finishing tasks faster.

2. Outsource Your Non-Core Tasks

Learning how to delegate work is something I’ve already recommended. Don’t try to do everything yourself. Get help.

3. Outsource Chores

Outsourcing chores and errands would be a good idea as well. There are services like DoMyStuff that help you with it.

4. Simplify

Try to simplify all the areas of your life – be it your home, your office, the tools you use everyday, things you consume…everything. Focus on eliminating non-essential items that suck up your time.

5. Focus On Quality

As James Chartrand mentioned in a previous WorkAwesome post, being productive in the real sense means focusing on quality instead of quantity.

6. Work from Home

If your commute time is significant, you could ask your boss to let you work from home. If you can convince her that you’ll be more productive, she might agree.

Here are some of the strategies I picked up during my recent move:

Work (and Plan) Ahead

As much as possible, I tried to anticipate the projects I had coming up around the time of my move and complete them early. Depending on the relationship with the client, I might send it in early to wow them or hold off to give myself more time to proofread and polish the assignment. And for the sake of my sanity, I tried not to schedule any important deadlines close to my moving date. Packing and repainting is stressful enough without worrying about missed deadlines! I also made sure to schedule my wifi installation at the earliest opportunity so I wouldn’t be stuck without internet for long.

Keep Your Clients or Customers Informed

Obviously, if you have people snail mailing checks or other important documents to your home, you’ll want to alert them well in advance of your move and file a change of address form with the post office. This also gives you an excuse to reconnect with clients and see if they might have any projects coming up before or after your move. If you anticipate being unavailable for more than a day or two, then let your clients know and try to find a trusted colleague who can cover for you if necessary. Some people also include effective dates and new addresses in their email signature (for safety reasons, I only give out my address by request). If you’re worried about things getting lost between the old and new address, you can also set up a PO box to ease the transition. Since I had some overlap between my old and new place, I was able to go back to my previous apartment and check the mailbox one last time for peace of mind.

Clean Out

Most of us have extra home office equipment or supplies lying around that we don’t really need. Ditto on miscellaneous paperwork, magazines, and so on. Moving is a great opportunity to purge the excess stuff and set up your new space so it’s organized and tidy (not to mention that if you’re moving yourself, you’ll appreciate fewer boxes to carry). I sold a bunch of items on Craigslist so I could buy newer, nicer versions of the things I really need and say sayonara to the rest. Freecycle is also an option for people who have random home office supplies or old computer equipment they don’t need.

Label Office Essentials Carefully

When it comes to packing, the usual wisdom is to pack each room separately and label each box carefully. But the reality is that most of us pack in stages (or we find ourselves frantically throwing stuff into boxes at 2am the night before the movers arrive). I wanted to cram as much as could safely fit into each box, so if there was a hairdryer-sized space left in a box of books, I’d pack that baby with the books (after all, it’s all going the same place). The one exception was my office. The contents of my desk were packed last and lovingly labeled “Susan’s Office” so I could quickly find them later.

Prioritize Your Unpacking

Sure, it’d be nice to immediately find places for my colander or my cream-colored shift dress. But each time I’ve moved, my goal has been to minimize downtime, so I set up my bed (after all, a girl’s gotta her beauty sleep or she’ll be too groggy to please her clients) and office areas early on. First order of business? My laptop and printer/scanner. I also make sure I know where to find extra printer paper, business cards, pens, and paper clips so I don’t waste money buying extras. Even if your laptop is propped up on big brown boxes and your office supplies are stashed in a Tupperware container because you’re waiting for your brand new desk to be delivered, clients will never know the difference. If you’re one of those people who truly can’t work amidst chaos, then you might want to work in a coffee shop or a coworking space in your new neighborhood. That’ll come in handy as you get settled, too.

What about you? Have you moved recently or are you gearing up to relocate? How did you handle this situation?

Below you’ll find over 100 free and premium applications that will either fit right into your current workflow or revolutionize the way you get things done. Let’s take a look!

The Ultimate Collection of Productivity & Office Software for Mac

20 Strategies to Defeat the Urge to Do Useless Tasks
Ever find yourself refreshing Facebook or cleaning out your desk instead of doing what’s really important? Read this post!

Three Reasons You’re Not Charging What You’re Worth
Many freelancers and other self-employed folks sell themselves short, but this post shows them how to break this habit and start charging more.

5 Ways To Boost Your Best Business Relationship
These days, finding a job or getting promoted is all about relationships, and this post shows you simple ways to strengthen those contacts.

Freelance Decor: 6 Motivational Posters from the Movies
Lastly, we bring you a fun, light-hearted post from our sister site, FreelanceSwitch, with humorous motivational posters.

Do you think speed reading techniques should be taught in school?  Do you think or know if it really helps?

I wish all of that was true.

Despite the benefits of working from home, it is no less challenging than an office job. In fact, I’d argue that working from home is more difficult because it’s not always easy to alienate your family from your work. Also, since there’s no boss screaming all the time, you could easily fall into the procrastination trap. Haven’t you experienced that? I bet, you have. Being productive while getting things done from home isn’t as easy as it looks. In this article, I explore 16 ways that could help you work smartly if you are one of us. Most of the tips come from my personal experience of working from home for over two years. Hope you find them useful.

Scheduling

1. Routine is a must. Getting into a state of mind that you could work whenever you want and you don’t need a routine is the first step towards procrastination. Whether you are working from home or an office, a routine is a must. Of course, there are days when exceptions need to be made, but for most of the time, you have to follow a fixed schedule. That’s the best way to get things done productively, from home.

2. Know your best times. The good thing about working from home is that you can make your routine. It doesn’t necessarily have to be 9 to 5. It could any fixed time-frame in the 24 hour span. Hence, check what are your best working times, and make your routine accordingly.

3. Plan the day before. Making a tentative work schedule for the next day before you go to sleep is usually a fruitful exercise. The next day, when you begin work, you will have an idea about the things you need to accomplish (unless some urgent tasks need to be attended). For more on this, check what my fellow WorkAwesome contributor Andre has to say on beginning your work day at the end of it.

4. To-do lists. To-do lists give you a clear picture of the tasks ahead. And as you complete them one by one, checking them off the list is kinda satisfying too. Learn how to create effective to-do lists. Also, there are some nice online to-do list tools you could make use of.

Handling Distractions

5. What distracts you? Some people need pin-drop silence to work. Some work best when they’ve got music on. Some cannot work with people around. Some need people around to work. Hence, a distraction for one could be a good work environment for the other. So, what distracts you? You can handle them only once you know them.

6. Make your friends and family aware. Often you will find that friends and family fail to realize the seriousness of your work just because you are not going to an office. Your friends would stop by when they are free (doesn’t matter you are free or not), your family members would disturb often, and so on. You need to make them aware about your work schedule, and the fact that working from home doesn’t mean you are always free. The onus is on you.

7. Switch off, disconnect. You may need the internet to work, but being connected all the time might not be wise since there are so many tempting distractions (read Twitter and Facebook). If possible, disconnect from the internet when you are doing creative stuff like writing or designing. Also switch off your phones (or put them in silent mode) if that’s an issue.

8. Take breaks. It is very important to take regular breaks and take your eyes off the computer. Working for long hours in the same position isn’t good for your health. You could take small 5 minute breaks after each 20-25 minute stretch, or may be a 15 minute break after a 1 or 1 and a half hour stretch. But do take them frequently.

Monitoring

9. Are you measuring quality or quantity? It is important to monitor if you are actually producing a productive output while working from home. What are you focusing on? the quantity of work done or the quality? Are you able to follow your routine effectively? Is life happier or stressful?

10. Get a work buddy. If self-discipline or procrastination is an issue, may be a work buddy could help you out. Someone who would track your progress and give you feedback. Working from home doesn’t mean you stop collaborating with people. Talk to people online, make friends and ask them for suggestions.

11. Use RescueTime. We’ve previously talked about RescueTime here. RescueTime is web based time tracking software lets you know how you spend your time on your computer everyday. Once you know which sites you are addicted too, you could take steps to visit them less often.

12. Time your tasks. Whether you are writing an article, or browsing through your feeds, use a timer to time the tasks. For more on this, check how to time your tasks. Also, take a look at my previous list of web based time tracking tools for effective time tracking.

13. Set up daily milestones. Setting up daily milestones gives you an idea of the actual work you could get done contrary to what you think you can get done. Also, it lets you track if you are getting things more efficiently after you’ve implemented the productivity-enhancing steps discussed above.

Health, Fun & Life

14. Exercise. This is a no-brainer, but, worth repeating in every productivity related article. Why? Because people just don’t understand how important it is to stay fit and productive. Understand that you don’t need to visit the gym everyday. Half an hour of yoga, or a short run in the morning is enough. But do it consistently, everyday.

15. Spend time with family and friends. If you are being productive in your work, you should be able to take out time for family and friends on weekends. That’s the goal, isn’t it? Work-life balance has to be maintained. Dedicate a day each week for your loved ones. Set aside time. Try to get your work done in 5 or 6 days of the week. Take a day off.

16. Do things that make you happy. All productive work and no play would make you unproductive in the long run. Spending time with yourself is as important as spending time with your loved ones. Play guitar, draw sketches, go for a long drive. Take time out, free up your mind and indulge yourself. Be happy!

A colleague suggested several business coaching candidates, so I contacted a smaller subset of that group and discussed my needs over the phone. The first coach seemed friendly, yet professional, and we clicked almost immediately. As our conversation concluded, she agreed to send me a proposal of what our coaching relationship would look like.

The second coach seemed equally friendly and professional, but after we chatted for awhile, she did something that few self-employed professionals do: discouraged me from becoming a client. “It sounds like you have solid strategies in place, and the few issues you’ve had were unusual circumstances,” she said. “I hate to turn away business, but I’m just not sure you need this right now.” I told her appreciated her honesty and that I’d get in touch if I really did need her in the future. When the first coach got back to me with her proposal, I responded similarly. I’d also been thinking about hiring a personal assistant and that seemed like a better use of resources anyway.

Though I didn’t end up using a business coach, there are others who went the other way.

Have you hired a business coach or a life coach? What did you look for? How did they help you?

For some, a quick walk around the block is all it takes. Other people get energized by checking out their favorite blogs or listening to music. A steaming cup of coffee or a lively chat by the water cooler are other standbys.

So what’s your favorite pick-me-up? How do you get a quick jolt of positive energy?

Yes, I’m thrilled. It’s going to be a small wedding on the shore of the lake. Beautiful spot for a beautiful day.

I’m pretty busy with the wedding planning. Even though it’s going to be small, we still have almost all the elements and decisions that come with a big wedding. Perhaps this is as unromantic as you can get, but it seems to me we’re using project management skills to do all of this.  We have calendars, file folders, checklists and meetings.

This is a product launch to be branded as “Mr. and Mrs. Carl Natale.”

Here’s what we’re doing that you can apply to your next project:

Designate a Project Manager

That would be my fiancée. She has a head for details and an eye for design – and I’m more than willing to let her run with it. The decisions are ours but she makes them happen. Although she has final authority, she works with me on decisions and we have consensus.

Takeaway: Although someone needs to be in charge, the project manager doesn’t have to rule with an iron fist.

Outsource to vendors

We would like to handle as much as possible but we don’t have the time or skill to pull all this together. We’re bringing together a caterer, florist, photographer, officiant and invitation designer. To find them we researched the web, scoured wedding publications and asked for recommendations from our networks.

Takeaway: Now that they’re hired, we keep in communication to develop a relationship. As the big day approaches, we have become more familiar with each other. This should help keep things running smoothly.

Delegate

Since I’m a writer, I assumed we would be writing our own vows. But as we talked to our officiant, we found out we could create almost the entire ceremony. Writing is in my wheelhouse so my fiancee handed that off to me. I can’t bake a cake or arrange flowers, but writing the ceremony is my gig.

Takeaway: Make the best use of the talents and passions you have in-house.   Better yet, make use of their time as well.  You’ll likely have some people who are excited to tackle some major aspects of the project.

Sync Calendars

I’m a Google Calendar kind of guy. She lives by the month-by-month hanging in the kitchen. I keep an eye on hers for additions and add the appointments to the Wedding calendar I created online. That and constant communication keep us aware of deadlines and appointments.

Takeaway: People work best with different productivity tools. Make sure you can share information despite the difference in tools.

Stick to Deadlines

The wedding day is a deadline written in stone. It all needs to be done by then. We can’t move it because the flowers won’t be ready. Everything else before then may be kind of flexible. But every delay will make it harder to squeeze everything in before the wedding.

Takeaway: Having a hard and fast deadline is wonderful motivation for getting everything done in a timely manner.

If you take a similar approach to big project as we have with our big day, you’ll have great results and enjoy the path you’ve taken to achieve them.  With a solid foundation in place, they’re also more likely to have a lasting effect.

As a result, I’ve written another installment to our Google Reader tips which offers 5 cool links that have some great tricks and tools for this feed reader.

Better GReader For Firefox

A superb Firefox add-on for Google Reader developed by none other than Lifehacker’s founding editor, Gina Trapani.

Convert Partial Feeds Into Full-text Articles

A nice trick that utilizes a greasemonkey script to show the partial feeds as full articles in Google Reader.

Turn Google Reader into a Powerful SEO Tool

A comprehensive guide on using Google Reader to track backlinks, alerts and competitive intelligence.

Hack Attack: Getting Good With Google Reader

This is an old one but still quite useful. It explores various Google Reader tricks and tools to use it more productively.

How To Download Articles From Google Reader As PDF Documents

Yes, you could directly download important articles from Reader as PDF for reading later. The guide explains how to do it.

Feel free to add any Google Reader tricks and tools you have in your arsenal in the comments!