Time is an essential commodity that cannot be trifled with. Notable American entrepreneur, author and motivational speaker, Jim Rohn captured it succinctly when he declared that: “Time is more valuable than money. You can get more money, but you cannot get more time.”

Nevertheless, your smart phone, when used effectively, can be a very useful tool for helping you use time more judiciously. The following tips from the Research and Development Unit of Yudala, Nigeria’s fastest growing e-commerce outfit – will help you become smarter in saving time.

1.Set up task lists: Most busy people always seem never to have enough time in a day. This is often due to clashing engagements and loads of crucial tasks to attend to. However, your smartphone can make life easier for you in this regard by helping you make smarter use of your 24 hours. One of the ways to achieve this is by setting up a task list. You can create a simple spreadsheet with the major tasks you have set out to achieve each day with timelines attached to each. You can even set a reminder for each task. With this list accessible on your smartphone, you can work smarter and maximize your productivity. When managed properly, a task list can be a fantastic organizer.

2.Create access to your documents: Today’s fast-paced, knowledge-driven economy has resulted in more mobility, with more time being spent on the move and away from work spaces or the office. Valuable time and potential business deals will certainly be lost if you have to get to your laptop or the office to take action or respond to important correspondence. With your smartphone, you can access your emails, save your important documents online and access them on the move, thereby reducing down-time. Whether at home or out of the office, you can still get crucial work done with apps such as Microsoft One Drive, Google Drive or Dropbox which allow you to store and retrieve your documents whenever you need them.

3.Online Shopping: Considering the crushing daily schedule most individuals pass through to earn a living, finding time to visit an open-air market or physical store for your shopping needs may be a tough ask. This is where your smartphone comes in. Online shopping is gradually growing in popularity and you can leverage on this to manage your time more efficiently. Interestingly, platforms such as Yudala combine physical stores with an online presence, thus offering the consumer more convenience.

As a result, you no longer have to physically visit a store for your shopping requirements. You can place orders online and have your items delivered straight to your door, with the additional convenience of paying on delivery. Interestingly, some supermarkets have also caught the online shopping bug and now offer home delivery for provisions and food items.

4.Digital Banking: The days of filling out numerous forms and standing in a queue in a crowded banking hall while waiting to carry out a simple transaction are decidedly over. Banks and other financial institutions are fully in on the digital revolution.  Therefore, you can save more valuable time by cashing in on the ease of digital banking. With your smartphone, there is no reason why you cannot carry out all the transactions you previously visited a bank for. You can check your account balance, transfer money, request a debit card, pay bills and even set up a monthly savings plan. All you have to do is subscribe to online banking and download and install your bank’s app.

5.Educational/Reading materials: The increasing convergence of technology has seen the world shrink to a global village. An amazing depth of educational, informative and other reading content is available on the internet. This is in addition to books and materials related to your career, industry or area of study. These can be accessed from the convenience of your smartphone in various formats including audio, video and written form. What’s more, you can save valuable time by using apps such as Audible or Librivox Audiobooks to listen to useful literature or other contents while carrying out other activities such as your daily workout, a long drive or while cleaning or doing the dishes.

6.Travel arrangements and hotel reservations: Gone are the days when making travel plans can be a time-wasting affair.  With your smartphone and in the comfort of your home, you can save time by booking your flight and making hotel reservation. Irrespective of your destination, this can be achieved with a good internet connection and the right app on your smartphone. With your smartphone, you can make payments, check in online and choose a seat without physically visiting the airline’s booking office. This applies even for trips by road to other parts of the country, as a number of transport companies now have their mobile apps with which you can book and pay for a trip.

Time Management Apps

You can carry out all of the tips given above without additional time management apps, your smartphone is already equipped with the features mentioned.  However, there are many fantastic applications available for Smartphones in this category.  If you choose to use one of these, ensure that it complies with your overall strategies for better time management. A comprehensive task management application or program might have many valuable features, but if you find that its complexity means that you are spending a lot of time using it, you will be defeating the object of having an application to help with your time management in the first place.  If this is the case, consider using one of the myriad of other programs available or simply use the features already available on your smartphone.  Remember, the point of a task manager is to make you more efficient with your time and reduce the stress in your life, avoid anything that adds to it!