Time Management is a fundemental business skill, and one that is often overlooked. This article explores the many facets of good time management, all of which are covered in more detail in Silicon Beach Training's 1-day Time Management training course. Time, as countless books and films will tell us is a precious thing, but how do we make the best of it? The notion of being able to find time to do something is a fallacy, time does not change, time cannot be lost and time can definitely not be found. One thing that is for certain, however, is that it can be wasted. One of the major differences of those who succeed and those who don’t is the allocation, or rather the misallocation, of time. We all know the that cold sinking feeling when the realization comes to us that we might not meet an important deadline, or the blur of that last frantic paragraph five minutes before a project is due in. But this does not have to be the case, proper time management is all that is needed banish such demons and turn a rushed and ill conceived project into a top one. So why don’t more people organise their time more effectively? I don’t know, you’d have to ask them. But one thing is for sure though; their loss can be your gain. One of the most common and easily correctable mistakes is that of poor organisation. If, for example you spend every other working hour searching for that elusive folder, or the ever disappearing briefcase, then it wouldn’t be unfair to say that you would be better served had you organised your office in such a manner so it did not dictate that you had heave the entire contents of your wardrobe cabinet onto the floor in order to find that one infinitesimally small, but incredibly important, scrap of paper. So the solution is obvious and, as I have already stated, easily correctable; tidy up. Make sure you know where everything is and that it is easily accessible, it is also true that a cleaner an environment is the better it is to work in, they’ve done studies. After this precautionary step comes the actual time management. Make a timetable and stick to it, set aside specific times in the day to complete the menial chores of your day to day routine, i.e. letter opening, so as to leave more uninterrupted time for you to get on with your actual work. It is a good idea to have this as one of the first things you do, so you can get it out of the way early. Another important aspect of time management is to always evaluate what you have done at the end of the day. If this, perhaps, is a rather painful and daunting notion then it is probably a sign that you need to work on certain areas of how you work and how you could achieve more in the time given. Assessment is a vital part of any process, whether it is in your work or your social life, but it is especially in your work. You should always prioritise, this will allow you to not only organise your work load better but also to make clear cut decisions as to what you should be doing. After all there is no point in pursuing a pointless task or one that is not of the utmost importance given the circumstances; the sudoku can wait, your work can’t. One thing that can be particularly useful is to delegate; this is an easy way to make sure that you have more time so as to get on with your main project. Delegation does not meant that you are being lazy or that you are palming of the menial work on to others, what it does mean is that you have now utilized your time so as to be sufficiently able to get on with what you need to do. Delegation can also be a very necessary part of your project, for example if you are struggling or you know someone could do it better then you should ask them for help, so as not to waste any more time. Proper time management is something that anyone can achieve, all it takes is patience and the right organisation, and whilst it might take a bit of work in the short term the long term benefits are well worth it.