1. Write down how you use your time and how much of it you use in certain areas.
2. Decide on your optimal time usage and compare it to your current reality.
3. Look for activities to cut out or cut back on in order to make time for more important endeavors.
4. Plan ahead and stick to your schedule.
5. Leave some blocks of free time for fun and relaxation.

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• by Maggie M

• Most people have heard that they are supposed to sleep eight hours a night, exercise three to five times a week and eat three healthy, well-balanced meals a day. This sounds simple enough, until you factor in your 40 hour a week job, hobbies and social life. For people raising children, it's even more difficult to get everything done in a day. Is it possible to have it all? Yes, but not unless you learn solid time management skills.

• Before you can figure out how to manage your time more effectively, you first must study the ways you are spending it now.

1. Start writing down how you spend your time in a journal, calendar or electronic device such as your Palm Pilot.The Boston Globe: To Keep Organized, Mixed the Old and New (December 16, 2007)
2. Don't worry yet about trying to use your time more efficiently. If you normally watch two hours of television a day, keep doing so and write it down.Web MD: 6 Tips for Better Time Management
3. After two or three weeks, you should have a good idea of how you spend your time. Break your life into categories and write down the average hours per week you spend in each of them. Examples of categories are work, family and home obligations, exercise, leisure activities and sleep.University of Queensland: Time Management
4. To make sure you account for them, write down the activities you normally do under each category. For example, the category family obligations might contain the following items: family dinner, school pick-ups and drop-offs, house cleaning, kid's soccer practice. This will give you a better idea of how much time you're spending in each compartment of your life.
5. Also include activities you'd like to add to the schedule. For example, if you've been thinking it would be nice to start a book group, add it to your leisure activities so you can figure out how to make time for it in your schedule.Web MD: 6 Tips for Better Time Management

• What would you like to accomplish during a week? Writing this down will help you figure out how to make your actual week look more like your ideal one.

1. For each of the areas mentioned above, write down how much time you'd be spending per week on each if you were managing your time in an ideal way. For example: Work, 40; Family Obligations, 10; Exercise, 5; Leisure Activities, 10; Sleep, 56.
2. Remember, there are only 168 hours in a week, so make sure your tally is under that.
3. Take the principles of work-life balance into consideration.MayoClinic.com: Work-Life Balance: Ways to Restore Harmony and Reduce Stress While your paycheck might look better if you try to work 80 hour weeks, other areas of your life will undoubtedly suffer.
4. Now contrast your ideal schedule against your present reality. Note in each area where you are spending more or less time than you'd like.Web MD: 6 Tips for Better Time Management For example, although you believe that you should be setting aside 10 hours in which to enjoy your leisure activities, you might find that you're not spending more than two or three a week on your hobbies.

• Chances are you'll find some places in your schedule where you're spending more time than you should be. Decide how you can cut these areas down in order to open up more time.

1. See if there's anything in your schedule you can get rid of altogether. That soap opera you watch everyday could be replaced, for example, with the exercise program you've always wanted to start.Time: How We Spend Our Leisure Time
2. Decide what can be cut back. While going out to happy hour three nights a week with your friends might be a great way to unwind after the work day, it's also a major time suck. While it's a leisure activity you needn't cut out altogether, perhaps you could go out on one designated work night instead.
3. Double up on some activities. Look through your schedule and see if you can create more time by multi-tasking. If you have to do reading for work or school, take it along to the gym and read while you peddle the stationary bike or walk the treadmill. Buy a hands-free device for your cell phone and return business calls while stuck in rush hour traffic. However, don't overdo it as too much multi-tasking can be counterproductive.CNN: Multitasking is Counterproductive (December 6, 2001)
4. Determine whether you can outsource any activities. If you're spending too long at the office, while other team members leave early everyday, maybe you're taking on too much of the burden and can delegate some of your work to others. Similarly, at home you might be able to open up time by hiring someone to clean your house or do repairs you've taken on yourself. And personal assistants can do everything from buying your groceries to checking your email.Four Hour Work Week: How to Outsource the Inbox

• Remember, you're not a robot who can be productive all the time. If you make your schedule too rigid, you'll only be bound to fail and disappoint yourself.

1. While some jobs require more than a 40-hour work week, being overworked all the time will have negative effects on your physical and emotional health.The New York Times: Always on the Job, Employees Pay With Health (September 5, 2004)
2. While sleep needs vary, most function optimally at between seven and eight hours a night.WebMD: How Much Sleep Do You Need? Though it takes up a significant amount of your weekly schedule, cheating on sleep will only leave you drained for the rest of your activities.
3. Don't schedule something in every possible hour. Leave a few gaps to have a cup of tea, chat on the phone and so on.
4. If your schedule lacks leisure activities, find a way to put them in. For weeks that look especially hectic, make time to utilize some relaxation techniques to keep your calm and focus.MayoClinic.com Relaxation Techniques: Learn Ways to Calm Your Stress

• Don't let your planner become relegated to the junk pile after a few weeks. Keep using it on a regular basis.

1. Every Sunday, write out your obligations for the week ahead and write in your personal commitments, such as choosing three days to go for a run after work or reading a novel for an hour before bed. Planning ahead is a key way to meet your goals.WebMD: How To Reach Your Goals
2. Notice the things on your schedule that you're not completing. For example, if you don't go for that run after work, it might be because you were too tired.WebMD: What's the Best Time to Exercise? If this is a reoccurring problem, then you might need to move your schedule around a little a bit and run three times a week before work.
3. Be flexible about changing your schedule around.PositiveArticles.com: The Benefits of a Flexible Attitude Think of it as a blueprint for the week, not a Bible. If a friend you haven't seen in a year comes through town on the night you're supposed to attend your painting class, don't miss out on a fun visit because you're clinging too rigidly to your schedule.
4. Keep tweaking your schedule for optimal use. Pay attention to your natural rhythms to figure out which activities to do when.Nova Magazine: Unleash Your Inner Energy If you feel most creative in the morning, schedule time to work on your writing or drawing then, not at four in the afternoon when you feel the most lethargic.

• The best way to ensure that you use your time effectively is to make yourself accountable. Though scheduling out your time takes a good amount of planning and effort, doing so will lead you to feel more organized and confident that you can accomplish your goals and achieve balance.