Nowadays everyone is trying to build a brand, whether it’s a personal brand or a business brand. Cliché as it may sound, you are your brand. If you’re working a full time job, enjoying a social life, and spending time with family while you’re building your band, even multiple brands, time management is more than likely something you struggle with on a daily basis.

Time management is something you will always be learning as you grow personally and professionally. So don’t think it’s going to be something you master overnight. It’s really all about trial and error and figuring out what works for you and your schedule. But there are a few helpful tips that can keep you grounded as you experiment. These tips are not commandments, but with a little tweaking, they may very well become your best friend and make you much more productive and effective in your daily routine.

Priorities switch and shift often– which is OK, but it is important to lay out all of your goals and prioritize them. You then want to break down those goals into yearly, monthly, weekly and daily goals.

Depending on when you want to have your goals accomplished, set deadlines as your action items will vary from day to day. While the number of action items you have may vary depending on your list entails, having more than five on your daily list could result in less productivity. It’s also likely that you’ll feel bad if you don’t get everything done so it’s important to be realistic about what you intend to get done in one day.

Setting action items prevents you from trying to get everything done at one time. Whatever you don’t get done, move it to the next day. Rework your schedule, but try not to make it a habit! Your action items can include anything from going on a date with your boo, cleaning up, planning a project or even meditating.

As you complete your action items each day, reward yourself! Whether that’s having a tasty treat, buying that bag you wanted or just binge watching all your shows one day and not doing any work. It’s important to give yourself that pat on the back for accomplishing your goals for the day, week or month. It keeps you motivated and gives you something to look forward to.

Don’t work yourself to death, but be aware of the time you waste in a day. Those three 20-minute breaks on Instagram add up to an hour and that’s a lot of time when you have things to get done! Set aside 30 minutes to just be on the phone or a day out of the week when you touch base with all your friends and family

We can have a habit of taking on things in a day that we really don’t have time for. DON’T DO IT. You have set aside these times for a reason and you should try to stick to your schedule by all means.

Depending on it’s importance, schedule that meeting for another day or see if things can be discussed via email. If you don’t stick your schedule, you’ll find yourself pouring 90 percent of your attention into one project, instead of effectively spending your time on all of your projects

These are just a few tips and tricks to get you going with successfully managing your time. Using these as base will have you well on your way to making the most out of your busy days.

Written By: Chey Parker
Managing Editor of The Bobby Pen
Editor-in-Chief of Everything Girls Love, LLC

Note: Stay tuned for Chey’s next Career Podcast this month, which will reveal additional time management tips.