Changing how you manage your time can help you gain more control over where your life takes you, and make you feel better about yourself as you pursue your goals. It’s totally possible to fix poor time management skills!

Time is one of the most important resources we have. We spend our money wisely or foolishly depending on what we use it for, and we should treat ourselves the same way. If you are spending your time in unproductive ways, then you are wasting one of your greatest assets. You will be able to accomplish less than you could if you were more efficient with your time.

There is an easy solution to improve your time management — learn time management tools. Tools that work really well for me (and many other people) are made f ound by asking and answering two questions. And they’re free!

The first question is always “What do I need to do next?” This seems obvious, but so many people struggle with this part of time management. They start doing something, and then get distracted by something else.

They never figure out what their next action should be because there was no plan. Or maybe they made a decision at some point to stop planning ahead, and now theyare running into problems trying to move forward without thinking about what comes next.

The second question follows immediately after “what I must do next.

Say yes to things that will make you happy

A few years ago, I would have said that being able to say ‘no’ was my biggest time management challenge. After all, I loved working hard so why wouldn’t I want to stick to my usual routine of staying up late and putting in long hours?

But these days, saying no has become one of my greatest strengths because it has helped me create more space in my life for things that I wanted to do instead.

By rejecting opportunities that don’t align with your goals, you free up time to focus on activities that matter to you. You may also need to reevaluate how much energy you're willing to devote to projects or people who can't afford your undivided attention anymore.

It's important to be aware of your limitations and keep yourself focused on what matters most to you. In fact, I'd argue that becoming more conscious of yours is an essential part of improving your time management skills.

Limit your work hours to 4-8 hours a day

Even if you’re working for yourself, you should still have limits on how many hours you spend working each week. We’ve discussed before why this is important, but now we’ll go into more detail about what time frames are best to limit yourself to.

The first thing to consider is how much money you pay yourself. It sounds crazy, but the average office worker in America receives an average of $26,000 per year in compensation (pay raises, bonuses, etc.). This amount can easily add up quickly as the month goes on!

By limiting your own personal income, you will be putting a cap on how much you earn. Most people start to feel stressed out at around six or seven days a week. The reason? They feel obligated to keep working because they believe their job depends on how much money they make.

But here’s the problem: If your goal is to enjoy your career and want to stay in it long term, then spending too much time earning money isn’t the way to do it. You will eventually burnout and turn off potential employers who see that you don’t seem like you love what you do.

Make progress toward your goals

A few years ago, I would have told you that it’s impossible to time manage your life. Now, I can prove it! By creating new habits and breaking old ones, you will find that time just keeps getting better and better as you add more into your schedule and take away less.

By this I mean instead of trying to cram everything in, you should strive to make room for things that matter to you and need to be done, but don’t require too much attention or energy.

Think about what matters most to you and create some time to do those things- maybe an hour a day, every week, for example. Then, use your other hours to work on projects related to your dreams (or at least something that fills your heart). You are allowed to not feel focused on these projects all the time, but you must acknowledge them and put some effort in otherwise they will disappear.

This is especially true if you want to keep moving forward because you don’t want to become distracted by tasks that you haven’t made any effort towards before.

Take breaks

A lot of people have trouble managing their time because they don’t ever take a break. You need to give yourself breaks in between all your activities. This can be for a few minutes, an hour or even longer depending on what tasks you have got done and what new projects you have been assigned.

It may sound odd at first, but when you get into work late almost every day, it's hard to manage your time effectively. Your colleagues probably start talking about how long it took you to show up!

You also need to do some things that are not necessarily connected with work, such as going out for drinks with friends after work. Or staying home and watching TV instead of doing something else you had planned to do.

Having these breaks helps reset your mind and gives you time to reflect on everything you've done. It also means you don't feel pressured when you come back from your break, because you left the room prepared to resume whatever you were doing before.

Take responsibility

If you find it difficult to allocate enough time for each task, then why not make it a lesson for yourself? For example, if you have to review a document several times, then do this job during your lunch break. Or make sure to leave enough time to read the newspaper before heading off to meet someone.

By taking more responsibility for your workload, you will eventually be able to achieve your goals more quickly.

Use your time wisely

A lot of people struggle with how to fix their time management skills. They feel that they do not have enough time because they spend too much time watching TV, sleeping, eating, spending time with family and friends, and using social media.

If you are in this situation, you need to make changes. You can start by limiting your daily television viewing to one hour per day. This will save about an hour every week which can be used for other things like reading, working, or exercising.

You can also limit yourself to two meals per day so that you are giving your body more time to tell it when to eat and sleep. By doing this, you will learn how to manage your hunger and sleep better.

This article has discussed some easy ways to use your time more efficiently.

Outsource your tasks to a team

A second option is to outsource some of your time, or even all of it. This can be done through online task management systems like TickTackToe or Asana, or through outsourcing companies that manage work for you.

By assigning certain responsibilities to someone else, you free up time to do what you want to do without being tied down with other obligations. It also helps if you don’t quite feel ready to start doing something – instead, you can hire someone who does!

Outsourced workers are usually paid per hour, so there is an incentive to complete projects as quickly and efficiently as possible. This can be a great way to develop your time management skills, as you won’t have to worry about how much time things will take.

Be consistent

Consistency is one of the most important things you can have as a time manager. This could be consistency in how much work you do each day, it could be keeping regular office hours, or it could be setting aside specific times for certain tasks.

Whatever your job, whatever responsibilities you have, whoever depends on you – they will feel disappointed or even betrayed if you don’t keep your promises.

And they will likely not trust you anymore when you make them wait for your help.

On the other hand, if you are consistently available to others, then people will rely on you and trust that you will get the job done right.

That’s what first-rate time managers have — trustworthiness. They are known for being there when needed, and helping out their colleagues when they can.

If you want to fix your time management, start with this - you are always ahead of someone else when you are more productive than they are. So why not use your productivity wisely?

Start investing in yourself by creating routines and systems that reward yourself for doing good work. And invest only in tools and resources that are reliable and trustworthy.

Then start moving forward, but remember, you must do so slowly. Don’t try to take too many steps at once, otherwise you may backtrack.

Develop good work-life balance

Work can sometimes feel like it’s constantly going over time, especially when you're in full swing of business season or the company is experiencing an upswing in growth.

That's why having a healthy amount of slack built into your schedule is important. What we mean by that is there should be times when you don't have any planned activities or meetings for a certain period of time.

This gives yourself room to unwind and relax without feeling too stressed out. It also helps you reset and reevaluate how much energy you've got left after a busy day.

You can make this happen through smart timing of commitments, but also keeping track of what tasks take longer than expected so you can shift resources where needed.