Lack of time can affect our physical, emotional and mental health. When we are under time pressure, we consume less, eat more for convenience rather than nutritional value, spend less time with family and friends, and spend little or nothing on personal development and spiritual growth.

Choose effectiveness instead of efficiency

• There is a big difference between efficiency and effectiveness. If you perform each task on your task list with a high degree of efficiency, but have not achieved the desired results, you are not effective. Do you make your tasks as productive as possible? Many people spend their days being busy without pausing to assess which tasks are best performed in their time and which tasks are unimportant. Peter Drucker said, “Efficiency makes things right, efficiency makes the right things.” Pick the right things – the things that make the best return every hour – and delegate or remove insignificant things.

Plan your day every morning

• Every morning before starting work, consider how you will invest every hour. Without a plan, the day can easily get away from you. You are busy working, and it’s nearly 6pm and you wonder what progress you actually made. The more determined to reconcile your daily activities with the return of time and congruence with your goals, the more you will benefit.

Maximize your morning

• For many, the most productive and energetic moment of the day is the morning. Early mornings are the best time to set your day’s priorities. Afternoons are often interrupted by distractions. Blocking time in the morning to meet your most urgent and difficult priorities is a very effective way to make significant progress. Sow seeds for the rest of the day to be successful and productive. Create a morning routine to start the day and get off to a good start. Your morning routine is different from mine, but the important thing is to think about how to get the best start of your day. Design your morning and then try to make it routine. Some ideas could be exercise, a healthy breakfast, sunrise, meditation or prayer, writing or doing an important job.

Focus on a goal

• Another important task in the morning is to focus on your current main goal. I’m not talking about your goal for today, but about your goal for this year (or any other longer term period). The mistake that many people make is too many goals, which increases their concentration and efficiency. I’ve found that achieving a goal is much more effective and much more likely to be achieved. The other mistake people make is not focusing daily on that goal. Make it part of your morning routine to decide what you will do today to promote your unique goal and if possible, do it first.

Avoid interruptions

• If you need to do something, close your emails, do not answer phone calls, and do not let others come to you for improvised meetings. This applies when you make an appointment with yourself  and when you are trying to get a job done.

Find your prime time

• My prime time is in the morning because I’m tired when the afternoon rolls around and I cannot concentrate well. So I use my prime time for my most important tasks and do not allow myself to use it for unimportant tasks, such as replying to e-mails or organizing boring meetings. Find your best time and enjoy.

Have time for calls and meetings

• Calls take you away from your work, just like meetings do. Allow one hour (not during prime time) to make or receive calls, but this can vary depending on your needs, and plan another time for meeting colleagues or clients. If you have a fixed schedule, you can work during efficiently during the times you are not on calls or in meetings.

Concentrate on the important tasks

• We tend to complete all the tasks that arise during the day, however, this is not how you should spend your day. It is important that you identify the most important tasks and projects that bring you the greatest long-term benefit and focus on them. Of course, defining three important tasks for each day is one way to accomplish your goals but the trick is to change your mindset. Identifying the most important things and forgetting the insignificant disturbances.

Make an appointment with yourself

• When we’re planning a meeting with someone else, most of us block that time, so nothing can interrupt it. It is a sacred block of time that cannot be broken by many other things. Do the same for yourself. Plan a block of time to complete your most important tasks, and this time must be uninterrupted.

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