There is always too much to do and too little time to do it in. Time management is a skill that can help you to organise your time effectively. It can help you free up time so that you can do more without feeling that you have too much to do.

Note: A diary is the most important tool you have when you start to manage your time. Use a book or your cell phone.

To manage the way you use time, you must know what your commitments are, for example to your family, your friends, your job, your organisational work outside of your job.

Problems happen when the demands from different commitments clash. So you need to plan your time.

To do this you must start by identifying your regular commitments and drawing up a list of the demands each commitment makes on you. All your other commitments must be fitted around these routine commitments. Write them in your diary.

Think ahead about all the non-routine things that will happen, so that you start planning for them now (for example, a friend’s wedding, an evaluation of your organisation, and so on).