That means how much sleep you're getting, how long it takes you to shower, to get to the office, to take the kids to after-school club, to do the laundry, right down to how long you spend scrolling on your phone. One of the best ways to ensure you apply the Organised Time Technique is to eliminate distractions. A good way to start is to avoid social media in the morning, switch on your phone’s airplane mode, and disable desktop notifications. Time management tools that work The Eat The Frog time management technique helps you focus on the most important and valuable tasks first, especially first thing in the morning. This sets you up for high performance and success for the rest of the day.

So how does it work? The Organised Time Technique encourages you to look at the 24 hours you have each day as your time budget - at total of 48 30-minute tokens. It helps you work out how to spend those tokens in the best way possible by breaking down your day into Level 1 'non-negotiable' tokens such as sleeping and eating; Level 2 'essential' tokens like going to work and taking your children to school; and Level 3 'focus' tokens - the things you always want to get around to doing, but never quite manage such as taking up a hobby, reading a book, starting a side business or simply having a bath!In all you do, you must stay in your area of strength and remain focused on achieving your plans. Avoid perfection at all costs and simply get the task done. Gem writes, "Spend 30 minutes a day doing marketing calls for your new business, or de-cluttering the garage, or learning the guitar — and by Christmas you'll have put in 45 hours, enough to really get to grips with something new." The level 1 token represents non-negotiable activities, which include eating, sleeping and bathing. Level 2 tokens represent essential activities, including going to work, shopping for groceries, etc. The level 3 tokens (including level 3 me time) represent the things you want to do. This will include taking a walk, working on your passion project, experimenting with recipes, reading a book or getting a haircut. Assuming you still have issues managing your time efficiently, identify time-wasters based on the importance of the tasks you have to perform. Once you have established key tasks that will help you achieve your goals, start prioritising.

This goal-setting is important in the face of being overwhelmed, and it will help you filter tasks that are not worth your time. Common sense tells us that clear goals will help eliminate any counterproductive attitude towards project completion. Also, learn to celebrate your little achievements using the done list. Be mean with prioritisation If an activity takes up 2 units a day (1 hour), it will have added up 14 units by the end of the week, and 728 units by the end of the year. Cutting these 2 units each day equates to a yearly time saving of 364 hours. That's 15 days a year you're wasting on those 2 units.

While it may be clear that you feel overwhelmed, it can be difficult to know why you are struggling. Is it anxiety over deadlines? Tiredness from not sleeping? Stress from careless mistakes on your last project? The Organised Time Technique provides the headspace and essential tools to create a suitable framework for your life.