With only 24 hours in a day, it may seem as if there isn't enough time to do everything we want. We constantly give ourselves excuses along the lines of "I don't have enough time" or "I will get more done if I had a few more hours."

I used to give those excuses as well. I had to balance being a student-athlete, a student-entrepreneur, and a student-leader at various points in my life. My emails and text messages were constantly flooding in throughout the day, and at one point in my life, I became so stressed that I experienced bouts of anxiety. I knew I had to build up good time management habits to tackle my problems.

After years of reading books and watching videos on time management and productivity, I found a few effective and practical techniques that help me to organise my time.

7 Time Management Strategies

1) Take Ownership Over Your Time

The success of your time management begins with your mindset. Start taking ownership of your time. We all have 24 hours in a day. You decide what to do with the 24 hours you have each day. With that in mind, you can no longer say, "I don't have enough time." The truth is we constantly prioritise one thing over another.

For example, if your goal is to start reading more books, then you would have to give up 2 hours of watching your favourite drama every night to read.

Successful people choose to use and benefit from their time, whereas everyone else wastes it. Time is valuable, and what you decide to do with it will determine the outcome.

2) Partner your Tasks with your Supreme Time

Supreme time is a term I created to define the period in which you feel the most energised and productive. Everyone has different supreme times. Some feel most energised in the morning and some in the afternoon. Find your supreme time and prioritise completing the most important and intensive tasks during that period.  

Personally, my supreme time is from 10 am till the late afternoon. I find myself in deep focus during that time frame and I can study/work for 5 to 6 hours straight without feeling tired or distracted.

It may take some time for you to find your own supreme time. Keep experimenting and try working at different times to see which time frame is ideal for you!

3) Learn to Say No

You've got to learn to say no to the things that cause you to lose focus on what’s truly important. If spending hours mindlessly scrolling on social media is distracting you from completing the important tasks at hand, then it's time to say no.

There are times when we must decline invitations to social gatherings and events. If you are on a tight schedule, you will have to politely decline your peers' and colleagues' social invitations.

Saying no to certain things can be difficult, especially if it has become a bad habit. But you must simply do it. Remember that the sacrifices you make will lead to increased productivity, which will lead to great results.

4) Daily Highlights

Your daily highlight is a specific task that MUST be completed during the day. This tip will save you from overly long to-do lists.

Whenever I set daily highlights, I find myself completing all critical tasks on time and efficiently. This helps to reduce stress and the risk of procrastination.  

Creating your daily highlights is a tip that I've learned from one of my favourite productivity books, Make Time by Jake Knapp and John Zeratsky. I highly recommend picking this book up if you're looking to boost your productivity!

5) Parkinson's Law

Parkinson's Law is the adage that work expands to fill the time allotted for completion. Simply put, if a task only takes a day to complete but the deadline you're given is a week, you will end up unnecessarily stretching out the tasks so that it will take a whole week to complete them. This produces the tendency for procrastination.

To overcome this issue, start leveraging artificial deadlines. Assume you have a project due the following month. Create your own deadline and complete the project in two weeks instead. If your exams are in three months, you should be prepared for them by the second month.

By using artificial deadlines, you can avoid procrastination and completing tasks at the last minute.

6) To-do Lists

Once you have identified your daily highlights and created your artificial deadlines, you have to put them down on your to-do lists. It is vital that you make a to-do list because our brains are prone to forgetting important tasks.

I have 3 categories on my to-do list, "Important", "Less Important" and "Personal Checklists". You can create your own categories based on your productivity requirements.

I recommend a nightly 15-minute review of your to-do lists to see what needs to be added or removed.

7) The Satisfaction Factor

It's easy to feel chronically dissatisfied when you feel that you could have achieved more during the day. I remember struggling with this for a while. While I have completed my daily tasks, as a workaholic, I tend to lambast myself because I believe I could have done more.

While it is important to push ourselves to achieve more, it is also important to take breaks when we need them. There should be a healthy balance between being productive and being overworked.

Pat yourself on the back and celebrate your small victories throughout the day. If you gave your 100% throughout the day, you should be proud of yourself!