There is an old saying that time is money. It is the most precious thing we have because it is the substance of our life. Wasting it is never a good idea, yet our lives are increasingly frenetic and full of commitments.

Technology is both a blessing and a curse when it comes to managing our time. If we don't use it well, it makes us waste a lot of it because it bombards us with information, often useless to us. But if used correctly, it is a great ally, which can help us make our life easier. There are many apps and services that allow us to better manage our time. Let's look at five of them.

No more queues at the post office

The other day I was at the post office to send a package. I was patiently waiting for the endless line to thin out. My turn was almost here, when a girl comes in, heads towards an empty counter and asks if her number has already come out. I immediately thought of someone who had picked up the number, to then go off to do other errands, but I was wrong. The girl had a reservation for a specific time. In fact, her number came out at the next shift.

I had no idea that it was possible to book. Intrigued, I turned to the omniscient Google and discovered that Poste Italiane has made available to its customers an app that allows you to book. Now the Italian Post Office may often be despised for its poor service, but this app is definitely a fantastic idea. It's called Post office It not only allows you to book a shift, avoiding the queue, but also to carry out other operations directly in the app, such as sending registered letters, letters and telegrams, paying bills and booking parcel collection. A must-have on your smartphone.

Cooking without problems

Once upon a time there was the recipe book of our mothers and grandmothers. Today there is no need to keep bulky books at home, much less copying into a notebook all the recipes we find around, because the recipe book moves online. With the advantage of being a infinite database of recipes for every taste and every culinary need. The offer is almost infinite, but in Italy the site of Saffron Yellow, which is also available as a handy app.

And if cooking is not your forte, you are not destined to remain empty-stomached because there is a solution for you too: home deliveries. Apps like Deliveroo they allow you to have dinner at your home without any problems.

All the music and books you want in seconds

When there was no internet as we know it today, appropriating culture was not an easy thing. Music and books they were not as readily available as they are now. Today we can have them much more easily.

I am a great reader and have long since switched to digital. No regrets about paper books. When I need a book I just go on Amazon or on the Mondadori and Feltrinelli websites to buy it in a few minutes.

The music discourse has an even bigger advantage. Today we can access any song through apps like Spotify, but we can have even more thanks to apps like Shazam, which solves one of the biggest problems for music consumers: the drama of accidentally hearing a song we like but being unable to find it again because we don't know the title or the author.

Getting around the city, but not on foot

It is well known that in big cities traffic leaves no escape. Moving by car or public transport can take time. The solution comes from the services of bike sharing, now widespread everywhere.

Not only bicycles, but also electric scooters, allow you to reach any point in your city much faster. You can find them parked everywhere and with a simple registration via smartphone you can use them whenever you want.

The service is very cheap and in some cases even free. Find out if this service is available in your city and you will discover a whole new way of getting around.

Travelling has never been easier

When it comes to traveling, an activity that I love, I find that technology has simplified our lives in an impressive way. Just 15 years ago, if you wanted to organize a trip, you had to go to an agency and settle for what they had to offer. Today, you can do everything yourself and with a few clicks a whole new world opens up to you.

Travel by plane has never been easier and faster than now since we can book directly on the websites of the various airlines or through dedicated search engines. But technology also opens up a world of alternative and even cheaper possibilities such as bus travel, of which the German company Flixbus is undoubtedly the leader in Europe, or the car sharing, with apps like BlaBlaCar which allows you to find car rides at super cheap prices.

Same thing for accommodations, where they reign supreme Booking for hotels and Airbnb for accommodation in private homes.

This also explains why people travel more today than in the past.