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Life is never simple. And this statement seems to grow more true as each passing year graces us with more possessions, more relationships, and more responsibilities—without actually giving us more time to take care of them. Here are 44 ways to detangle hassles, save time, and get what needs doing done, done, done!

Friends
1. Spot a fake smile and a fake friend fast, then ditch them. When a person gives an honest smile, the eyes crinkle, says non-verbal communications counselor Raymond C. McGraime, author of The Body Language for Business videos. A counterfeit tooth-flasher’s mouth stretches, but that’s it.
2. Stop haggling with pals over where and when to meet. Set a monthly Saturday-evening date and make it a standing engagement. “Whoever is available shows up,” says Adele Scheele, Ph.D., author of Skills for Success (Balantine, 1996).
3. After you say no, say no more. “The more you explain, the more room you give others to poke holes in your excuses or suggest alternatives,” says Tina Tessina, Ph.D., author of True Partners (Tarcher/Putnam, 1995).
4. Don’t ask for opinions if you don’t want them, says Pamela Walker, Ph.D., a clinical psychologist. “If you don’t really care, all you’re having is a meaningless conversation.” You may end up acting on others’ opinions or explaining why you didn’t take their advice.

Relationships
5. Separate the men from the boys on your first date. How? Ask him to tell you about his best friends. If all of them are from high school, he’s mentally still back in high school. If they’re mostly friends from adulthood, he’s past the varsity-jacket phase.
6. Don’t wait until your relationship is dead in the water to realize it’s over. Move on when his calls are shorter, your dates less frequent, and he stops caring about your opinion.
7. Pare down on personal commitments. Don’t waste time on “mercy dates” or “friends” who backbite you, don’t keep secrets, and are never around when you need them.

Beauty
8. Learn to love the hair you were born with. Ditch curlers and straightening solutions for a haircut that works with your hair texture.
9. Choose a hair color close to your natural shade. “The more you move away from your natural color, the more the maintenance,” says Kendall Ong, manager of the Vidal Sasson Salon in Washinton D.C. Try highlights, which need updating every three to four months, versus standard color, which needs redoing every four to six weeks.
10. Do the finger test to choose eye shadow that will last all day. Dennis Chaplin, makeup artist for the Peter Coppel salon in New York, suggested rubbing eye shadow between your index finger and thumb. “If it feels gritty between your fingers, stay away from it. The smoother the finish, the better it will adhere, and the longer it will last.”
11. Just one tool can brighten your whole face. Use as lipcolor, or dot smudges on eyelids and cheeks and blend.

Home
12. Bulk up. Buy in quantity what you’ll never stop using: toilet paper, soap, shampoo, deodorant, toothbrushes, toothpaste, stockings, detergent, tape and lightbulbs.
13. Borrow a runway trick. Store shoes in their boxes, stacked on closet shelves with a Polaroid of the shoes taped to the box.
14. Stock your toolbox smartly. Buy a tape measure, pliers, flashlight, hammer, electric screwdriver, and a selection of batteries—you’ll be in great shape.
15. A simple doormat can reduce the amount of dirt tracked into your home by enough to shave at least 100 hours off cleaning time per year.
16. Use your computer to preprint blank supermarket shopping-list forms. Type in subheadings (like Produce, Paper Products and Frozen Foods) that move from the farthest right aisle to the farthest left aisle of the store you frequent. Fill them in when needed and shop in timesaving style.
17. Pitch junk mail unopened. “If you didn’t ask for it, you don’t need it,” says Stephanie Winston, author of Stephanie Winston’s Best Organizing Tips (Simon & Schuster, 1996).
18. Keep anything that needs fixing in your car. From unhemmed pants to broken lamps, toss them in the trunk. If you pass a repair shop (or tailor), you can drop it off.
19. Combine your cooking and socializing. “I used to get together with friends on Sundays,” Scheele says. “We’d cook for the week, maybe chili and a whole turkey, then divide it up and take it home. It was a lot of fun.”
20. Separate the screws from the pins. A silverware divider in your junk drawer can go a long way toward keeping everything in its place. Tip: a plain old ice-cube tray on your night table will keep earrings from going solo.

Work
21. Choose your battles wisely. Stand your ground when it’s important, not when there’s little to gain except other people’s animosity.
22. Clarify your goals. Have lunch once a month with a few close friends, all of whom want one another to succeed. It’s like a breakfast club for corporate climbers which saves you the trouble of agonizing over your future alone.
23. Make the 80-20 rule work for you. Since you end up using only 20 percent of your work materials 80 percent of the time, that’s the stuff you should keep on, in, or near your desk. Consider putting the other items on higher shelves or in storage. Less clutter = more clarity.
24. Stop playing telephone tag by making a phone date. Leave a message giving the other party a specific time to return your call.

Time & Stress Savers
25. Make a list of all your credit-card, passport, bank-account, and emergency phone numbers. Keep one copy at the office in a locked drawer, the other at home. One stolen handbag, and you’ll be glad you did. 26. Start the new year right. Mark every special occasion on your calendar. For each date that requires a gift, use a red pen to remind yourself 10 days earlier. 27. When busy, rely on restaurants to do the work for you. Keep favorite take-out-restaurant numbers in your office Rolodex. Then remember to call before leaving work. Dinner will be waiting for you on your way home. 28. Schedule ahead. Never leave your doctor, hairdresser, or auto mechanic without setting up your next three dates, if possible. 29. Post a magnetic board on your refrigerator door and keep an ongoing list of errands that need running. Before leaving the house to do anything, consult the fridge to see if you can’t piggyback errands. Nothing is more frustrating than running out for milk only to get home and realize you need a flyswatter…from the very same shopping complex. 30. Don’t finish a boring book, movie, or project just because you started it. “It’s like a bad marriage,” says Carole Lieberman, M.D., coauthor of Bad Boys (Dutton, 1997). “We try to stick it out to find the one part that will justify all the rest of the time we spent on it.” But you have to know when to quit throwing good time after bad.

Money
31. Buy 40 blank tasteful greeting cards. Pen in the appropriate inscription for each occasion as needed…and say good bye to last-minute sprints to the card store.
32. End the endless should-I-buy-it indecisiveness. How to tell if you want something costly? Go home. If it still calls to you the next day, then buy it.
33. Pare the plastic. Keep two credits cards, one with a low interest rate, for major purchases. The other card you must pay in full at the end of each month. This will reduce your temptation to spend, plus cut the statements you review each month.
34. Centralize all your accounts and investments at one institution. That way, you’ve got one bank, one phone number, and one statement. It may also improve your chances of getting better service and loan rates.

Clothes
35. Keep an ongoing clothes-shopping list, so if you’ve got time to kill, you can focus on what you need.
36. Wear hose and a body stocking when you clothes shop, so you can try things on without waiting for a dressing room.
37. Apply the In-Out rule to all purchases. For every piece of clothing you but, pitch one or give it to charity.
38. Keep three pairs of hose, in every color you wear frequently, in your desk drawer at work.

Fitness
39. Keep a gym bag in your car trunk with sneakers, shorts, T-shirt, towel, and water bottle—so you can exercise any time you get the chance.
40. Maximize circuit training, no matter how short, by performing each move slowly and with control, says personal trainer and Today fitness consultant Kathy Kaehler. Fifty sloppy reps of an exercise won’t be nearly as effective as 20 that are correctly performed.

The Best Time To…
41. …schedule a doctor’s appointment is first thing in the morning, before other appointments run overtime and leave you rotting in the waiting room.
42. …visit the hairstylist is Wednesday, when customer traffic is traditionally at its lightest for the week.
43. …reach important people on the phone is usually before 9 A.M. or after 5:30 P.M. “Most corporate types—especially the successful ones—get to the office early and stay late,” says Alison Brisco, a Houston investment banker and vice president at Lehman Brothers. And they are much more likely to answer their own phone at those times since their assistant tend to work the straight 9-to-5 shift.
44. …go grocery shopping is on Tuesdays and Wednesdays. The beginning or end of the week is always busy.