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Good time management, a key factor in achieving a work-life balance, will allow you to regain control of your life, both professionally and personally.

Some of the many benefits of learning and practicing good time management in your daily life include:

1. reducing the stress in your life which can lead to serious health problems,
2. leading a more balanced life with more time for leisurely activities,

3. having more focus on each of the daily tasks that need to be accomplished,
4. becoming more reliable to the other people in your professional and personal
life,
5. experiencing less pressure and feeling more in control, and
6. achieving more in your career .....

When these benefits are present, it makes getting what you want out of life easier to achieve.

Before you can learn how to manage your time, you need to be aware of where the time goes. There are 24 hours in a day, 7 days in a week, and 52 weeks in a year - that is a lot of time. Yet there are people who just can not manage to get done what the need to get done and still have family time or time for themselves. Are you a time waster? Ask yourself the following questions:

1. Am I a procrastinator? Do I put off tasks that should be done now until a later
time and why do I put them off?

2. Am I a perfectionist? Am I afraid to begin a task because I am afraid that it will
not be completed perfectly, which will cause me to feel rejected; do I start a
project and then refuse to pass it on to someone else for the same reason?

3. Am I overloaded? Am I a "do-it-all" person, or do I know when and what tasks to
delegate to or to pay others to do?

4. Am I a time waster? When there id a project to be done, do I spend my time doing
something that is not useful instead.

These common hurdles, procrastination, perfectionism, overloadedness, and time wasting, are the most common amongst individuals with time management issues.

Some examples of time wasters from number 4 above are:

Television and the Internet
Commuting
Maintenance (appliances, vehicles, sports equipment)
Other people

There are some basic time management fundamentals that can help you to get a handle on your time and your life. Whether you just need to get organized now, or you have long term plans that you need to get prepared for, starting with these basic steps will get you going in the right direction.

Know Your Dreams - without these, you cannot make yourself a road map to achieve them

Set Some Goals - medium term (6 mos. to 5 years), short term (1 week to 6 mos.), and
even goals for every day

Know Where You Are - to get to where you want to go, you must know where you are right
now

Make a Road map - break down your dreams and goals into manageable tasks - the dreams
and goals start to appear more doable

Set Priorities - rank the tasks in order of importance

Be Realistic - if there are tasks on your list that seem to never get done, ask your-
self if they are really important - if not remove them from your list

Do One Thing at a Time - try to keep multi-tasking to a minimum, as it sometimes
causes people to us more time then simply doing one thing at
a time

Reward Yourself - when you have accomplished all the tasks you have set out do to in a
workday or workweek

Remember, time management skills just don't happen, you must work at it on a daily basis. Following these few simple tips will get you going in the right direction.

Learn more about this author, Jill Sznajder.
Click here to send this author comments or questions.

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