6 Time Saver Tips for People with Diabetes

Do you have more to do than you have time to do? You’re not alone. People with diabetes need time to monitor glucose, prepare healthy meals and add physical activity. Even when life throws difficulties knowing how to find creative ways to get things done will get you out of tough situations. 

Regardless of how much society advances with new technology that’s supposed to enable us to do more in less time, there never seems to be enough time to do everything that needs to be done. Have you ever thought, where did the time go? Finding time to formulate a solution will help save time.

What if you could essentially add another hour or two to your day? How would you use that time?

While you can’t actually add time, you can free up additional time with these techniques:

Eliminate unnecessary tasks. Maybe you just have too many things to do! Take a detailed look at your life and determine if there are any tasks you’re doing that are simply unnecessary. There are bound to be a few things you can eliminate from your life without suffering any negative impact.

• Stop and think about your day. Can you identify one unnecessary task you can stop today? It might be a task a family member or friend can do. 

 Turn off social media. Social media platforms can be valuable, but they are also great timewasters. Set aside a time in the evening to catch up with your friends and family but avoid wasting too much time on this type of activity. It’s a huge mistake to engage in social media during work hours. You have more productive things to spend your time on. Have you looked up a new healthy recipe or cleaned up your bedroom?  

• Consider deleting your social media accounts and picking up the phone occasionally to check in on your friends and family the old-fashioned way.

Disable notifications. Do you really need to be notified of every text, email, and app activity in real-time? Turn all of it off and take a quick peek every few hours to see if you’re missing something important.

• Track your cell phone notification time. If you added all your cell phone checking time up in a day and replaced it with another activity that could improve your health, what would you do? 

Avoid perfection and replace it with creative thinking. Some tasks require a high level of attention. Others do not. Ask yourself how well a task really needs to be done and perform it at an appropriate level of effort and detail. Overthinking or overdoing a task will rob you of your time and cause worry. Have you ever felt like you just do not have enough time to care for yourself? Even when life throws difficulties, choose to avoid worry.  

• Consider thinking creatively to get yourself out of a challenging situation. If always running late, try preparing your meals or setting up your medications and monitoring supplies the day before you go to work. 
• There are always time-saving alternatives to how you can do things. Look for those options and use them to figure out your solutions.  

Schedule your day. A decent plan is lightyears better than no plan at all. Think about what you need to accomplish and make a list. Stick to your list, and you’re bound to get more done in less time each day. 

Track your time. Where are you wasting time? How are you spending all of your time? You might be surprised where your time is going if you’ve never taken a hard look at it. 

• Spend a couple of days logging your tasks and how much time you spend on them. Pay particular attention to the time spent on electronic devices and other amusing activities. 

Timesavers add up to give you more time to monitor, prepare meals, and exercise. Take a detailed look at your life and determine if there are any tasks, you’re doing that are simply unnecessary.  

Stop and dig deep to develop a workable plan that allows creative thinking to replace worry and rob you of time to care for yourself. Micro-steps are my formula for healthy, effective change. 

Can you free up time for self-care actions, or do you need assistance controlling your diabetes? Reaching out for help will also save time.