With all the responsibilities you shoulder and the pace of life these days, how can you find
the time to get it all done? Here are nine ways time management experts say you can dial
up your efficiency, and find all the time you need to succeed in business and enjoy your
family and friends.

Begin the day early.

Many studies have found waking up early is tied to success. The fact is, most successful
people start their days early. Virgin Group founder and chairman Richard Branson and
former Disney chair Bob Iger are early risers, and nobody beats Apple CEO Tim Cook, who
starts his day at 3:45 a.m.! Beginning early gives you a head start on your competitors and
lets you take advantage of a part of the day that’s way more productive because it has
fewer interruptions.

Get yourself organized.

Organize everything—your workspace, physical files, computer files, storage space. Once
you get organized, stay that way. This saves you the surprising amount of time you can
spend wondering whether you have things, and where they might be.

Set up a daily routine.

Establish a routine to follow each day, including a regular time for going to bed—then follow
it! A daily structure helps you meet deadlines and stay on top of your most important tasks.

Schedule each day.

Make up a schedule that includes all your tasks, appointments, and deadlines, allotting the
time you think each will need. Then record the time each activity actually took. You’ll
discover where you’re wasting time and see how to work more efficiently going forward.

Prioritize.

Determine which activities are the most important, and do those first. As you approach a
task, ask yourself if you really have to do it now. If you don’t, don’t begin it. Move on to
something else.

Focus.

There can be a ton of distraction in our lives—texts, social media notifications, emails,
phone calls. First, give yourself a quiet place to work. Then while you’re working, close your
email program, put your phone on Do Not Disturb, and devote all your focus and energy to
what you’re doing.

Abandon multitasking.

Human beings can only do one thing at a time. What we call multitasking is actually an
activity in which you keep switching between a bunch of uncompleted tasks. Research has
discovered that people who multitask get less done in the day. They waste more time
continuing to address a flurry of multiple activities than if they had stayed with a single task
until it was done.

Slow down.

When you work fast, you make mistakes. At worst, you deliver substandard work. At best,
you wind up wasting the time it takes to correct the mistakes. The answer is to concentrate on working smoothly through a task, even when you’re interacting with others. You’ll get a
lot more work done in a lot less time—and it will definitely be higher quality.

Stay positive about your productivity.

When you keep complaining that you don’t have the time you need to do everything, you
end up being correct. However, if you stay positive and organized, and prioritize your tasks
and keep focused on them, you usually will have the time you need to get it all done!

Here’s more on finding more time.