by Caroline Dalzell

Created on: February 21, 2009

I nearly had to cancel my last Time Management training: I didn't have time for it. Ironic as it sounds, it was true. I enjoy working under pressure and getting things done last minute, but it started to get out of hand. So, off I went to the training.

It was a complete waste of time. The training kicked off with a "get to know one another" session where we were asked to describe ourselves as a domestic appliance and give reasons for our choice. It was a moment straight out of Ricky Gervais's The Office! I compared myself to a dishwasher. At the time, I was working as a copywriter for a college, and my reasons to comparing myself to this machine was because I too cannot operate without input from various people. It made sense at the time. One person was a hoover, another a washing machine; there was a tumble dryer, and even a washing line (yes, there's always one who bends the rules).

As this session took quite a lot of time, we ended up rushing through the rest of the training. The course overran. Brilliant: a Time Management course that runs out of time!

The one benefit of the course was that it made me stop and think about how I can manage my time more efficiently. For one, stop going to ludicrous training sessions! I have made seven changes to my working day since then, and been rewarded by an extra two hours a day on average. I am no magician, I just make a lot more use of my time. My seven Time Management tips are:

1. Plan

Whatever it is you do, plan and be prepared. Before you do anything at the start of your day, pause and decide what you want to achieve. I write a list and a guesstimate next to each one on how long it will take to complete. If it is an essay or report you have to do, writing a plan which outlines your key points along with order and structure will save heaps of time in the long run.

2. Organise

The best ways I stay organised are by filing and keeping To Do lists. I used to think filing was another word for creating-great-piles-of-documents-and-leave-them-whe re-you-find-them. Suffice to say I wasted a lot of time trying to find the right document when I wanted it! Now, I file once a week which means I know where stuff is and can get to it quickly. With regard to To Do lists, I would recommend doing this in Word as it allows you to add to it and mark off completed tasks. Plus if you work for yourself, keeping track of what you have done each day will help keep you motivated and efficient. Back in the day, I swore by Post-It notes, I absolutely

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