Have you ever wondered why some people seem to have enough time to accomplish their daily tasks and goals, while others always go from one task to another and never seem to finish anything?

Do you think the reason is that the first ones have less things to do? No, they are much more likely to be managing their time more effectively and implementing time management strategies.

Time management is simple as a concept, but it is much more complex to put it into practice efficiently. Time management is the way we decide to use the time we have to maximize our productivity in achieving certain short- and long-term goals.

We could ask ourselves how we can control time successfully. Here's a set of key strategies will help us achieve this.

1. Find out where you waste your time

Many times we fall prey to so-called “time thieves” , who steal the hours that we could be using much more productively. It is important to identify what is wasting our time. Social networks, WhatsApp and email are some of the main causes that lead us to invest up to three hours of our time a day.

2. Learn to distinguish between urgent and important

It is important to differentiate urgent tasks—those that we must prioritize and carry out immediately—from important tasks, which we can do later.

Answering the office phone is urgent, because if we don't, the call will be lost. Reading email is important, but it may not always be urgent. Looking at our personal Facebook or Instagram feed is neither urgent nor important at work, and is a task we can save for the end of the day when we get home. This distinction between urgent and important is one of the keys to managing our time , effectively planning tasks and minimizing distractions.

3. Create a daily plan

You can use a timeline presentation to help you organizing your day. Use the first 30 minutes of the day to create a daily to-do list that fits into your weekly goal planning. Prioritize tasks for that day by setting a performance benchmark. For example, if you have 20 tasks for a given day, how many of them do you really need to accomplish in the same day?

4. Design routines and stick to them

Although unforeseen events can always arise during the workday, you will be much more productive if you get into the habit of following work routines most of the time. For most people, creating and following a routine allows them to manage their time much better and complete the day's planned tasks.

5. Set time limits for tasks

A task like reading and answering emails could take us all day if we don't set a time limit to do it. Therefore, it is advisable to establish, for example, blocks of 15 minutes every three hours to check your email inbox. It is also important to mark the beginning and end of meetings to prevent them from dragging on and wasting the day without doing anything else. This strategy of limiting time can be applied to different tasks, and in this way we will avoid the feeling that something specific always absorbs most of the working day.

6. Sort and organize your environment

A messy environment causes a lack of concentration and loses focus. And, when we're not focused, we're more likely to have to spend more time than necessary performing our daily work tasks. To avoid this, it is important to keep our table and work environment in order and organized, without piles of papers or useless objects that continually distract you. Start by organizing your table one day and continue with a drawer, a shelf, the closet. Order will help you manage your time better and be more productive.

7. Don't postpone tasks

If you find yourself procrastinating or making excuses not to do something, ask yourself why. Procrastination is one of the main enemies of proper time management and what it often causes is that you feel overwhelmed at the end of the day by all those tasks that you have been postponing and that have ended up accumulating .

8. Don't try to multitask

In general, there are not many people who do several things well at the same time, because the mind is scattered and it is difficult to refocus on our tasks. It is much more effective to finish one task before moving on to another. If you have a lot of different tasks to deal with, try to group them together and do similar ones consecutively.

9. Learn to delegate

Delegating is one of the most difficult skills to put into practice for many people who believe that by doing everything themselves and controlling every detail, everything will turn out much better. Not delegating prevents you from managing and managing time effectively. Therefore, it is necessary and beneficial to share and distribute the load of tasks with the people on your team to the extent possible to make the most of each person's time.

We all want to make the most of the 24 hours in the day. However, some people achieve greater productivity, success, and quality of life with the same amount of time as others. So, stop wasting your time and start organizing it accordingly to maximize your accomplishments.