Be clear about what you want to achieve. Putting your goals in writing, helps to keep your thoughts straight. Then prioritise your individual goals. Start with whatever is most important to you and work your way downwards. This way, you can make sure that you will get what you really want.
Focus on objectives, rather than activities. Your most important activities are those that help you accomplish your objectives.
Try setting at least one major objective each day and achieving it. While you are still getting used to the “new rules”, set small, easy to achieve targets. The sense of accomplishment will act as a major motivator to you.
Start writing a scheduled diary or record a time log periodically to analyse your daily habits. Use your diary to identify bad time-habits and ban them from your life (both privately and professionally.
Always keep your objectives at top-priority and analyse all your activities accordingly. Find out what you do, when you do it, why you do it. Ask yourself what would happen if you didn’t do it. If the answer is nothing, then stop doing whatever it is. You will be surprised by the “surplus” of time you suddenly will have available only by getting rid of unnecessarily used-up time.
Eliminate at least one time-waster from your life each week.
Plan your time on a weekly basis and write out your schedule. Ask yourself what you want to have accomplished by the end of the week and what you will need to do to achieve those results.
Have a to-do list ready for every day by the beginning of the week. Be sure it includes your daily objectives, priorities, and time estimates, not just random activities. And don't forget to leave yourself enough time every day for “the unexpected”. If you plan your days too tightly, you will put yourself under unnecessary stress – your goal is to master time-management, not to take on more than you can manage.
When planning your day, try to put the activities you are not too fond about higher-up in your hierarchy of things-to-do. By accomplishing those, you will boost your motivation – and find it even easier to keep going because whatever comes next, you don't mind that much anyway.
At least in the beginning, make sure to schedule EVERYTING you want to (or have to) get done till the end of the day. Remember that things that are scheduled have a better chance of working out than things that are unscheduled.
Set time limits for every task you undertake and take enough time to do it right the first time (then you don't have to go back over it = TIME SAVED). It sometimes works out better to spend 5 more minutes on project drafting it out and thinking of all possibilities than get stuck into it straight away only to find that, by rushing it, you have overlooked something crucial.
Develop the habit of finishing what you start. Don’t jump from one thing to another, leaving a string of unfinished tasks behind you.
Make better time management a daily habit. Set your objectives, clarify your priorities, plan and schedule your time. Do first things first. Resist your impulses to do unscheduled tasks. Review your activities.
Take time for yourself—time to dream, time to relax, time to live but never spend time on less important things when you could be spending it on more important things.
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