Another Way to Stop Wasting Time on Mundane Tasks

Okay, this post might seem a bit off topic, but it's really not.  It's all about TIME…or more importantly, using it most effectively.

One of my personal pet peeves is grocery shopping.  I don't know why, but for some reason I just don't enjoy it.  Maybe it's the long lines, the time it takes to load everything up in the cart, haul it home, unpack it, etc.  Or the fact that now I even have to "clock in" and bag up my own stuff.  Kinda' nice how they added those self-serve checkout lines, have fewer people at the other registers, yet the prices are the same.  Hmmm…

Anyway, being the good little online business owner that I am, I decided to bypass all of that this time and just order it all online.  Actually, this is something I've done in the past, but as we roll into 2008, I'm more serious about guarding my time - may as well start a month early.

So that's one of the things I did this past weekend.  In fact, I wrote the draft for this post right after I the delivery guy left and I put away my stuff (no, they don't do that for you).  I have to tell you, this is the best idea ever.  Well, maybe not ever.  Maybe that was just hunger talking. But it's still a pretty good idea.  First of all, the delivery guy was super nice, a missing ingredient these days most places I go (how about you?).  Everything came nicely packaged/bagged, probably better than I would have done myself. 

The ordering process was incredibly simple.  One of the larger grocery stores here in Maryland offers online ordering and delivery.  You just login, choose a delivery date, add your stuff to the cart and checkout.  Yup, just like ordering on Amazon or elsewhere except instead of categories like books, DVDs, or electronics you choose from deli, breads, frozen foods and so on. 

But here's the kicker.  Say you need bottled water or some other item where cost per unit volume is more important than brand.  It's easy to do.  Just sort by cost/pound, cost/ounce, etc and go down the list 'till you find the one you want.  Imagine being able to search all the different versions of "whatever" in some particular isle at the brick-and-mortar store in order to find the one that's the best value - and to be able to do so in SECONDS.  Hey, not that I'm a cheapskate, but no sense in paying more than necessary for some stuff either, right? 

You can also save everything to a list so the next time, re-ordering only takes a couple of clicks and you're done.  NICE!  Oh, and yes you can still use coupons, discount cards and all that stuff too…if you were wondering.

So you're probably wondering how much extra did it cost me?  How much did the gouge me in order to have my stuff picked out by their own crew of personal shoppers, then delivered by their delivery guy?  And my gosh, what about gas prices…or tipping the delivery guy?

Looking at my invoice:

Delivery fee:        $6.95
Fuel surcharge:   $0.58
Total extra cost: $7.53 + optional tip (of course I tipped him! )
Total time saved: At least an hour and a half, possibly a bit more

That was for about $140 worth of stuff.  I think they have a $50 minimum.  But who doesn't spends at least 50 bucks on groceries?

So the question is this - Are there things like this you can implement in your life to take back more of your time.  Other things that could be on this list include cleaning house, laundry, most car stuff, lawn maintenance, snow removal and so on…things that need to get done but probably, HOPEFULLY, not by YOU.  Some of my friends would think I'm nuts for having FOOD delivered, but to me it's a simple matter of putting a higher value on my time.  In the hour+ that I saved, I took care of a few orders that came in via my online store and wrote a sales letter for a new product. 

Good trade off?  You tell me…

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