Make Your Time Count by Scheduling and Prioritizing

If you are like most people today, you live a very busy life. You wake up in the morning and before you know it, bedtime is here again and you feel like you still have a million and one things to do. This can cause a lot of added stress in your life - stress that you don't need. So let us look at ways that you can schedule and prioritize your life to get more done in a day.

1) Sit down and write out all of your priorities. These priorities should be the things that are the most important in your life, not everyone else's life. What are the most important things that you have to get done every day? Now put these priorities in their order of importance. If you have deadlines to meet, the jobs with the closest deadline should be at the top.

2) Write out every hour of the day starting from the time you get up until the time you go to bed. Be sure to schedule meal times. To stay productive you have to keep yourself healthy and your brain fed. Try to schedule yourself for at least 7-8 hours of sleep a night. This will get your body and brain enough time to rejuvenate from your hectic day.

3) Insert your priorities into your schedule. Do you have a particularly difficult project that you have to finish? Insert it into your schedule during the time of day that you work the best. Some people are the most productive in the mornings, while others are more productive in the early evenings. Determine the time of day that you are at your best and schedule your most important projects there.

4) Don't try to schedule everything to be finished in one day. While it is tempting to try to get everything done at once, doing this will only make you feel rushed and stressed and your projects will suffer because of it. Extend them out over the period of a week or more. You can schedule an hour each day to work on individual projects. If you need more time to finish, request an extension from your boss if possible.

5) Be sure to schedule in free time every week. Everyone needs a little free time to just relax around the house or go out to a movie. Schedule in your household chores also. It doesn't have to be daily but you should schedule in enough time through the week to get things like laundry and cleaning done.

6) Mark through each item on your list when it is accomplished. This gives you the feeling of closure and accomplishment. It can make you feel less stressed by knowing that things are getting completed in a timely manner.

Just remember to make a schedule for a week at a time. This will help you to plan ahead and get psychologically ready for your week. Schedule tight. Do not leave a lot of time in between projects. This is just wasted time that could be better spent. Don't be afraid to adjust your schedule if you find that something is not working. Be flexible, because life is unpredictable.

The most important tip of all, once you make your schedule: Use It!