1. Create a Things-to-do List

This simple trick works everywhere – at office as well as at home. This contains unfinished tasks or those that need your attention. It keeps you focused and don’t allow you to forget important things.

Add value to this list by rearranging things so that most important tasks figure at the top. Here use your skills to learn the difference between important and urgent things. Management schools teach you how to divide the tasks into categories and how to create an ideal order. But you don’t need a PhD to start using a list in your real life.

Another benefit of this list is that you can plan ahead of time.

2. Don’t be a Perfectionist

Perfectionism can spoil even the best time planning. You planned to do 5 important tasks before noon and discovered that your perfectionist mind did not allow you to go beyond the 3rd. Results: you began losing your cool and the rest of the day was gone rushing up through remaining things. You come home, still blaming yourself and rambling how stupid you are and how you missed a cool opportunity in the afternoon – when you were too busy finishing things.

3. Identify bad habits

Most time wasting activities are habitual or compulsive. For example, time spent before TV, on emails, chatting, networking sites, or other online activities. Talking endlessly on phone can be another time killer that can throw off all time management skills.

Not planning for the next day is a typical bad habit. For instance, do you always rush for car keys, cell phone, socks, or digital diary before leaving for work? You need to learn some personal planning.

4. Learn to say no

Many people can’t say NO and end up over committing and hence overloading themselves. So use this simple English word to stay clear of trivial tasks (favors).

5. Evaluate Your Performance

Develop a habit to evaluate your performance regularly, may be weekly and monthly. Try to figure out how better you could have planned or prioritized activities.

Also try discovering activities that waste time and serve no fruitful purpose.

You may like to read What is Time management?