It's hard to believe that it's already that time of year again when I become a hermit from all things social to design the 2017 An Organised Life diary! I allow myself 6 weeks to design the diary and although it seems like a lot of time, there are a variety of elements I like to make sure are perfect, maintaining the diaries functional purpose but in a stylish format! And of course.. I still have to run the rest of my business at the same time too - so 6 weeks goes by in a flash. 

For me, time management over this period is an extremely important element that helps me to reach my end goal while giving myself ample time to tick all the little boxes along the way.

So... I thought I would share with you 10 easy tips of mine, that hopefully help you to have better time management as well.

1.  PLAN - Before you start your day, always take the time to plan out what you want to achieve. Don't start your day until you have completed a very thorough time plan. 

2. BE REALISTIC: Designate a time frame for each task you want to achieve during the day. Be realistic and always block out your lunch break & the last 30mins of the day. Personally, I always have x1 task or another that takes longer than expected and the extra 30mins at the end of my day is a good buffer that allows for this.

3. PENCIL - Always write in pencil. Life is unpredictable and always changing. Writing in pencil allows your diary, calendar or to do list to maintain looking neat and tidy! 

4. PRIORITISE - Prioritising is an absolute must. Look over your day and highlight the top 3 priorities in one colour e.g yellow. From there mark a small A.M next to any other smaller tasks you ideally want to get through during the morning. And do the same with P.M for any other tasks you want to achieve in the afternoon. Remember to write in pencil incase anything shifts along the way. For me the highlighting and little symbols allows my brain to segment my day into 3! Prioritise, AM, PM. It makes life a lot less stressful. Divide and Conquer! 

5. BE AN EARLY BIRD - Note down all your deadlines in a diary or on a calendar. However, always be an early bird with your deadline dates. Make them x1-2 days ahead of schedule or if you're lacking time to start with, try to be at least a few hours early to allow for any interruptions. Trust me, you'll never be late again!

6. DELEGATE - It may seem simple, but delegate any tasks that don't need your attention or can be looked after by someone else. For example I start going cross eyed looking over all the dates in my diary designs. After I have checked it thoroughly a hand full of times, I insist on employing  half a dozen fresh eyes to look over it. 

7. ELIMINATE DISTRACTIONS - Thats right! Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat, it's all got to go! Pop your phone on Do Not Disturb, knuckle down and whip though your work. You can spend as much time as you like on the phone in the evenings!

8. TIME - Make sure you have the time visually displayed. If you don't have a clock in your workspace, its important that the time is visible on your computer or laptop. This will help you stay on track time wise. If you really need to whip through multiple tasks in a day - take the time to set up alarms in the morning, that act as reminders through out the day.

9. FOCUS - I always thought multi tasking was the key to great time management. However my views on this have changed a lot as I have grown and I think being able to focus on one task is also a reflection of great time management. In doing so, this allows you to be more productive as your brain is focusing on one thing, but it's doing that one thing really well.  I truly believe that when you focus on one task,  your end product is much better and has a lot more substance and depth to it. Try it!

10. YOU'RE HUMAN - Don't beat yourself up if you don't get through every single task you had hoped to. If you have prioritised your day properly, this should allow you to move smaller tasks to the following day. Like I said, life is unpredictable, so work hard, be honest, communicate and plan ahead! 

I hope this helps!

I would love to hear your tips & tricks to having great time management. Its such a hard thing to perfect! Comment below x