I thought after last week’s video that I should follow it up with a top 10 list for managing your time. So here it is.

1.    Manage your email. Organize your emails into folders. Don’t leave emails unread. Make viewing them as easy as possible.

2.    Multitasking? Not!  Admit it. Multitasking is not anything that is humanly possible. The sooner you admit that fact. The sooner you will become more productive.

3.    Do most important things first. I will take it one step further by advising you to make two categories. Most important and least liked. Do the most important and least liked task first. Save things you like to do for last.

4.    Check email, text and messages on a schedule. Determine a time that is most productive for you to check your various forms of technology. Early morning and late evening usually work well for me.

5.    Bookmark websites that you frequent. I like to bookmark sites that I frequent like my website admin, iContact, webstats, etc. I have them bookmarked in my toolbar so they are easily accessible.

6.    Know when you work best. I know that early morning is my most productive/creative time. So if I have logo design, brochures or content creation I set aside time in the morning to do that type of work.

7.    Quick Keys. Yep, learning the quick keys for your most popular apps can save a tremendous amount of time. If all you learned was “COPY”, “PASTE”, “PRINT” and “SAVE” think of how much time you would save. On applications that I use like Adobe Illustrator or Photoshop I know 90% of the tool quick keys. The time savings is considerable. My clients love it too, since I bill by the hour.

8.     Make it easy to get started. If your project seems larger than life break it into smaller pieces. Celebrate each milestone. This year I did my first marathon. Knowing the half-way and three-quarter point is important to finishing strong.

9.    Organize your to-do list every day. I use “To-Do2” on my IPhone for keeping track of my tasks. It syncs with my calendar so I can put in due dates and important milestone dates. Seeing your progress is important to finishing the project.

10.    Dare to be slow. A good time manager actually responds to some things slower than a bad time manager would. This means that if something is top priority on the list a good time manager will not be checking email or texting while performing the task.

11.     Make blogging a priority. ;)