Have you ever wished that a day had more than 24 hours? Or that your house would magically clean itself? Yes?  Then congratulations, you are perfectly human! Lucky you, cause if you were superhuman I would be seriously jealous right now. I think I would most definitely pass on other superpowers like flying, extra strength, or being unbreakable, if I could only get more stuff done in less time. Either way, what I’m trying to say is that getting life done requires some serious strategy and tricks up your rolled-up sleeves. Here is a collection of some easy strategies that I have developed over the past years that help me juggle life as a full-time working, part-time creative, neat-freakish, active person, and loving mother.

1. Keep moving while you are already rolling: It is always harder to get stuff done on a completely free day without structure. Vacation days or Sundays are typically very unproductive for me even though there would be plenty of time to finally get to that laundry list of things to be done. So I don’t even try anymore. But on a regular weekday when 80% of the day is already occupied with daily duties, it is not hard to come home from work and just keep doing and cleaning and running errands until I fall asleep. Inertia is the magic word. Picture an elephant getting into motion – it starts very slow and with lots of effort to get the body masses moving, but once the big guy moves, he is hard to stop.

2. Divide chores into smaller chunks and do them as you go: I used to do my house-cleaning all in one big chunk on Saturday, because there was not enough time during the week to do it all. Until I realized that spending half of your weekend cleaning is not cool. So I started splitting up the whole house cleaning process into smaller bites and eat them up during the week. Floors one day, laundry other day, bathrooms third day, picking up toys every time Milo sleeps, wipe the bathroom sink after you use it while it is already wet, etc.

3. Plan your days: This might make me seem borderline OC, but here you got, I admit it – there was a time when I put every single event, chore or thing to do in my weekly calendar. Even things like: make breakfast, get ready for work, go grocery shopping, have me-time, or do something crafty. Sometimes seeing it all fit in a week will make you believe that it’s actually possible to get it all done. Not that you have to rigidly stick to the schedule, but it just helps in order to get into a routine and after a while you might not need the calendar anymore.

4. Prioritize: This is a no-brainer for any sort of time management. Define what is really important to you and be aware that your priorities might change over time, so listen to your inner voice to find the balance between duties of life and duties to your inner self. This is the hardest part for notorious achievers: Schedule at least half an hour of me-time in your daily planner and spend it doing whatever makes you feel great.

Do you know any other great tricks to get life done? Are you an over-achiever or a lazy bum? Confess here and share your thoughts on how you roll.