The biggest irony of time management is that every one of us has the same number of hours and minutes in every day. And yet our biggest complaint in the struggle to get through ever-increasing workloads while trying to balance professional and personal lives is that we do not have enough time.

So what exactly do we spend our time on and for what do we need more time? If you can answer these two questions you are well on your way to becoming an effective time manager in a position to regain control of your work and personal lives. The best way to approach time management is as if you are developing a project plan.

Take stock

1:

What does your daily timetable look like? Be honest

and analyse what you really spend your time on every day. Having an awareness of how much of your day is spent on each “activity” will give you a better understanding of where efficiencies can be made, where you can multitask and what you can delegate. Starting or running a small business will consume far more hours than the average 9-5 job will and you can easily find yourself in an “always-on” frame of mind. Sit down and map out the average hours spent on everything you do in a day at work and at home.

2:

What is your hourly rate?

This exercise is an

eye-opener. To calculate the value of your time, divide your pay by the number of hours you work each week. By putting a value on your time and calculating how much it costs you to work extra hours it can give you perspective on how you value every extra hour in work. 3. What are your time thieves? Analyse what frustrates you when it comes to time wasting or losing time. Do you sit in traffic at peak commuter hours? Do you have employees or customers who demand disproportionate amounts of your time? Think about where your time goes and where you wish it didn't: this will help you to find quick wins and work towards executing a plan to change. 4: What is your one time wish? This is the million-dollar question. If you could have an extra hour a day what would you do with it? Knowing the answer will help you prioritise the 24 hours you have and to start working towards doing more of the things you want to do, that deliver better results or that allow you to spend more time on your personal life.

A recent Sage survey asked Irish business owners what they would do with an extra 50 minutes every day – 39 per cent said they would like more family time; and 20 per cent said they would exercise more. This shows that most business owners want a better work-life balance. Once your stocktake has been done, you need to start work on an action plan. Old habits are hard to break, so you need to work hard to ensure a disciplined approach to your time management before it starts to become habitual.

Develop an action plan

1:

Prioritise.

focus on your priorities and ensure time is made for them first. From a business perspective, identify your key priorities or goals for the week ahead. This will help you determine the time required to work on those, and what can be pushed out until the following week. This approach can also be taken in looking at priorities are outside of work.

2

:

Work smarter. After taking stock, you need to take action to free time and share it between activities. Can you do some paperwork/emails on the train or bus in the morning? Can you delegate admin tasks so you can prioritise the work that generates results – developing new business or making sales? Set yourself a home time deadline for the first two weeks and stick to it – you will be surprised how hard you can work when you have to get out the door by 5.30pm.

3:

Yes and no.

Because we have only a finite amount of time every day, everything to which you say yes you are saying no to something else. Practice saying no and rescheduling events for a time that suits you.

4:

Work-life balance.

Everyone wants a better work-life balance and, especially in the “always on” era of smartphones and social media, we all have to work to achieve this. If it’s not possible to leave work at work then practice having a “work-free zone” for a set block of time each day so you can enjoy quality time with your family, socialising or on your hobby.

Facebook chief operating officer Sheryl Sandberg proudly says she leaves her office every day at 5.30pm so she can be at home for dinner with her children by 6pm. She then logs online again once they are in bed, to catch up on urgent work, having applied discipline and generated consistency in her approach to balancing her work and home lives.

Avril McArdle is the head of marketing at Sage Ireland