• Schedule personal time first! If you fail to schedule the time initially, believe me, it won't be there later! Do not expect to work miracles in maintaining personal, professional, family and community obligations if you avoid taking the time to care for your own needs!

• You must plan to care for yourself, in body, mind and spirit. Pick a day, pick a set time, (it will be easier to plan regularly). Join an exercise class, get out and walk, meditate, read, work on hobbies. These are important aspects of your daily life that you must allow time for! You yourself need to continually re-charge - I can't emphasize this enough!

• Schedule time for yourself daily to work on important priority projects so they won't become urgent due to time constraints. You can also use this time to work on something that will bring you closer to a long-range goal.

• Operate from only one calendar system! Combine business, office, and personal calendars to ensure you are not over booking yourself! Plan as far in advance as possible. (See our resource section for product recommendations.)

• Schedule 10 minute staff meetings with your people on a daily basis. This will cut down on interruptions through out the day to clarify requests, problems or questions. This simple procedure allows you to stay on top of the progress of projects delegated, concerns, potential problems, roadblocks met the prior day and lack of direction or momentum in proceeding. It will also give you all a chance to clearly set the priorities for the day.

• Make sure you have a clock in your office to aid you in monitoring your time and avoid running late. This will aid you in maintaining a conscious awareness of exactly how long you are doing a particular task.

• Avoid multiple sets of calendars for every activity you are involved in. That is a prime way of "over- scheduling" yourself. You need to see ALL of your activities for the week at a glance to get the full perspective!

• Statistically there are times you do and do not want to be at certain places in order to make the most of your time running errands. For example: never go to the bank between 11:30 - 1:30 and on a Monday or Friday. You will waste more time in line!

• Doctors are always notoriously running late. Book your appointment well in advance and aim for the first one in the morning. They may still be late to some degree, yet not nearly as late had you booked later in the day!

• Book salon appointments for the first one in the morning. The later the day goes, the further behind they get (and a lot of the times this is from other clients running late). As the day goes on it could become a "bad day" and you might end up with a "bad-hair" month!

• Schedule more time for tasks than you think is necessary. If you have never performed a task, estimate the time involved and add on an extra 25%.

• Review your schedule daily.

• Write everything down!

• Plan ahead as much as realistically possible.

• Maintain flexibility. Avoid filling all your time slots. Allow for "Murphy's Law" so you can handle the unexpected calmly rather than stressed due to confusion or chaos. This is another good reason not to procrastinate. The time you may have finally decided to set aside for starting that project could be eaten up in an emergency. Then what?

• Confirm appointments prior to leaving.

• Utilize cancellation time slots wisely for business that has been left unattended due to "lack of time".

• Schedule time for physical, mental and spiritual needs.

• View the time you "spend" in dollars and cents. Live your life fully conscious of your mission, worth and goals.

• Plan for your success and set your goals and projects with this in mind. You wouldn't want to just aimlessly stagger from "dark Monday" to "hump-day" to "TGI Friday" through the weekend and back again.

• Know the priorities in your specific job function, short term and long term.

• Contain a list of all your "to do's" in a single pad. (See our resource section for product recommendations.) Avoid juggling all of this in your head. Make sure you are operating from only "one to do list." This will aid you in the efficiency of your planning and prioritization.

• Again, view the time you "spend" in dollars and cents. Spend it wisely. The same way you would spend money. Look for the best return on your time invested.

• Are you handing in imperfect assignments or projects because you haven't followed the above tips?

• Learn to say "no" pleasantly. Can you really expect to go to that party on Tuesday night and complete the report that is due on Wednesday, when it isn't even started yet? Is it time for a reality check on your priorities?

• Let your involvement in activities be aligned with your goals, not by the open slots of your schedule.

• Invest (or make) a good appointment book or calendar. You must know at a glance what you are doing in the present and what is nearing a future due date -- in advance. (See our resource section for product recommendations.)

• Get in the habit of helping others out when they are bogged down, especially if you are all caught up with your work assignments. "What goes around comes around" and you may just be the one that needs help someday. Maintain a "team effort" in your department.

Note : Delegation can be very healthy. There may be someone in your office group that wanted to learn exactly what you just may not have the time to do on a particular day. Of course this is not to be confused with laziness or lack of enthusiasm for a particular task.

Most Challenging Business Task:
Source: Home Office Computing - January 1995

• A reader survey revealed: 43% struggle with managing time and 20% struggle with organizing the office. There is a direct correlation between the two: a factor to managing time is having an organized work environment.