Here are eight tips for effectively managing your time:

⦁ Know your goals. Make sure you're engaging in activities that support your business goals, both short- and long-term

⦁ Prioritize wisely 

⦁ Just say no 

⦁ Plan ahead 

⦁ Eliminate distractions.

⦁ Delegate more often

⦁ Watch what you spend

⦁ Take care of yourself

 Prioritize wisely 

⦁ Important and urgent — Tasks that must be done. Do them right away.

⦁ Important but not urgent — Tasks that appear important, but upon closer examination aren’t. Decide when to do them.

⦁ Urgent but not important — Tasks that make the most “noise,” but when accomplished, have little or no lasting value.    Delegate these if possible.

⦁ Not urgent and not important — Low-priority stuff that offer the illusion of “being busy.” Do them later. 

⦁ Write down your three or four “important and urgent” tasks that must be addressed today. As you complete each one, check it off your list. This will provide you with a sense of accomplishment and can motivate you to tackle less essential items. 

Just say NO 

You’re the boss. If you have to decline a request in order to attend to what’s truly important and urgent, do not hesitate to do so. 

The same goes for any projects or activities that you’ve determined are headed nowhere: Be prepared to move on to more productive tasks.

 Learn from the experience to avoid wasting time later on. 

 Plan ahead

One of the worst things you can do is jump into the workday with no clear idea about what needs to get done. The time you spend thinking ahead and planning your activities is trivial compared with the time you’ll lose jumping from one thing to the next (and rarely completing anything). Depending on your personality, try one of these options: 

The night before — At the end of the day, take 15 minutes to clear your desk and put together a list of the next day’s most pressing tasks. It’s a great decompression technique, and you’ll feel better sitting down at a clean desk in the morning. 

First thing in the morning — Arrive a few minutes early and assemble your prioritized to-do list. This may prove to be the most productive part of your day. 

Take care of yourself Be sure to get plenty of sleep and exercise.

An alert mind is a high-functioning mind and one that’s less tolerant of time-wasting activities.