You think you have it all down pat. You wake up at a certain time, you’re off to work at a certain time to beat the horrendous traffic, your work schedules are sorted, kids are picked and dropped at designated times and it seems everything is going the way it should be. Except that it isn’t. You seem to be multitasking to achieve more but end up with a To Do list even bigger than the one you had yesterday and that is definite cause for concern.

I’m no life coach or time management guru but in life I have implemented some things that I have learned along the way and they seem to be doing just fine. I was, and at times still can be, the most scatter-brained person. Short-term memory loss is what I have tons of should I not have a handwritten list to tick off my chores and things to do.

Time management starts with organizing yourself first, then everything else falls in place. I have found making my To Do list the night before always helps. This is because when I get to my desk at work in the morning, this list is the first thing I look at and start working on ticking off everything.

Also it doesn’t hurt to add a few things randomly to your To Do list that you have already done just so you can get the self-satisfaction of ticking it off. This actually motivates you to start working on other things just so you can tick them off too. Try it. I speak from experience!

Another thing you must do is cut out the time you spend online. These are strong words coming from a self-confessed online addict. I used to spend far too much time online all the time. If you belong to a social networking site like Facebook or Twitter, you’ll nod in agreement that you’ll just log on for five minutes and an hour later you’re still scrolling through the feeds and the time line having destroyed the better part of what could have been a productive hour.

I’m not saying give up being online. I could never do that so why would I tell you? The trick is to limit your time on these sites. Set an alarm because looking at your watch and solemnly telling yourself that you will only be on for fifteen minutes just doesn’t work because you end up getting really engrossed in what’s going on in other peoples’ lives.  Set the alarm and log out of the site as soon as you are done. Eventually this will become a habit and you’ll see you have far more time on your hands to hack the important stuff.

There are so many other ways to be the master of your time and not the other way around. For me, implementing these two things in my life have seriously helped me a lot. I’m more productive at home and at work and above all, instead of spending ludicrous amounts of hours online just poking my nose on social media sites, I have found myself more time to indulge in writing more and also painting. It’s something I really enjoy doing but never seemed to have the time for it. So make time for yourself. Life is going to pass you by and it’s not always going to be about a status update or Tweet you might have posted and neither is it going to be about the unticked things on your To Do list. Make time to have time. Life is too short to click Like on other peoples’ pictures and memories on Facebook. Go out and make your own.