If you are forever rushing out of home to catch the train to work, just about scraping through the deadline of a major project, skipping lunch, missing the nth appointment with your doctor and getting only five hours of sleep everyday, its time to take a breather and check where your time is running out.

Each of us has only 24 hours in a day to do a dozen or more necessary chores and maybe one or two others that are recreational.

If you can't squeeze in all of them, you feel deprived, unfulfilled and sometimes like a real silly.

Not any more!

Identify the Problem

The first step to solving any problem is to identify the problem and the aspects associated with it or the reasons behind the problem. For time management to work effectively, you first have to study what activities take up your time the most.

Analyse if a particular activity would actually require the amount of time you give it. Have you been procrastinating? Is a specific activity a priority? Do you end up neglecting more important tasks or responsibilities? Once you recognise the problem, it will be easier to steer clear of it.

Then, clear your head; overcome feelings of aggravation and learn to relax. This will help you sort out your thoughts and create a plan that is organised, productive and works for you.

Learn to Prioritise

Sometimes you end up doing a lot of things that are actually at the bottom of your mental priority list, and you wouldn't even bother about them otherwise.

Mostly these low priorities jump the list and land up much ahead than they deserve because they might be easier to sort out and put aside. Unfortunately, this works completely against you, and you tend to lose precious time for practically nothing. So, learn to prioritise.

There are certain chores you would rather not do 'now'; chores that can wait; and some chores that need immediate attention.

Let's take Kanchana's case. This 30 year old advertising professional had her career going great guns. She also had a terrible backache slowing her down.

She made several appointments with her doctor but never managed to make it, because she either had a subordinate ruining an art work or a housekeeper running out of grocery!

She eventually made it to the doctor, but not before the backache had worsened and she was advised a month of bed rest. All Kanchana had to do was prioritise. So get to work and make a priority list. A mental one may suffice but nothing like listing it down on paper.