Daylight savings time is fast approaching. For spring 2011, Daylight Savings Time officially starts on Sunday, March 13 — so that’s when we’ll have to turn our clocks forward an hour if we want to stay on the same schedule as the rest of the country.

I’ve always hated Daylight Savings Time – because frankly, it takes an hour away from my schedule, and I already don’t have time enough to do what I need to do. But since the choice is not in my hands, I’ve devised some ways to adapt.

Here are my ideas for recouping that all-important hour we’ll all lose due to Daylight Savings Time:

1. Do Stuff Faster

Make a list of the commonplace things you do every day — then do them faster.

Let’s say you have 12 things you do every day, and each one takes you 10 minutes; that’s 2 hours total time. Now take a day and cut the time you spend on each of those 12 items in half. You’ve just saved an hour!

Sound too hard? Split your time-cutting efforts over 2 days. This way, you’ll only need to cut the time spent on each item by 25 percent (for each of two days).

2. Sleep Less

You can try cutting your sleeping time an hour on Sunday night — or, you can sleep half and hour less for the two nights prior to the start of Daylight Savings Time. Let’s face it, this is what most of us do. Don’t do this. It makes you feel crappy — I would know — and there are plenty of alternatives.

3. Skip Chores

There are some things that we habitually do every weekend — or maybe nightly — that we really don’t NEED to do as frequently as we do. Is anyone really going to notice if you skip dusting for a weekend? What if, instead of ironing clothes this week, you just wear clothes that don’t need ironing for a few days? (You’ll need to convince the rest of your family to do this, too.)

4. Eat Out

My regular readers know that I like to support cooking at home – but this is one of those situations where I support picking up a quick dinner at a semi fast f00d restaurant — preferably one like Chipolte or Subway, where the food is healthy as well as fast. Eating out will cost more than a home cooked meal, but it will also help you get that hour back that Daylight Savings Time so rudely snatched away!

5. Shower Instead of Bath

OK, I am much more of a bath person than a shower person. (I don’t think I’ve taken a shower for the last 10 years.) But not everyone is addicted to baths, so for those people, taking a shower instead of a bath would be an easy and time-saving substitution.

6. Skip Optional Activities

Maybe have the kids skip and hour of video games. Or you can skip watching that TV show that wasn’t really your favorite, anyway.

7. Combine Errands into a Single Outing

Got errands? Of course you do! By organizing your errands into one trip during the weekend instead of multiple outgings, you can likely save that lost Daylight Savings Time hour — and then some!

8. Shop at Fewer Stores

Do you absolutely need to buy stuff from three different food stores this weekend? Or can you make do with buying your stuff from just one or two? My local Target has a grocery section now that sometimes lets me skip a trip I might have needed to make to Giant — and I can get my normal Target shop done, too.

9. Shop Online

Instead of spending an hour or longer searching the mall for that birthday party gift, why not buy it on Amazon.com, instead? It’s easier, almost always a lot cheaper, and a HUGE time saver! You can find so much stiff at Amazon, you can save a substantial amount of time by shopping for groceries, paper products, and medicine supplies, as well as lots of other stuff. And you won’t even have to plan ahead by too much if you hook yourself up with a free Amazon Prime account and get free 2-day shipping.

Once you start saving time, it can become addictive. Because when you discover that you can save 10 minutes here, 15 minutes there, and maybe an hour over there, you’ll have that much more time to do fun stuff — for yourself and with your family — later!

If you have more thoughts on ways to save time, please share your ideas~!