Time management is a pet topic that has been explained ad infinitum. Yet, many people go about their lives struggling to keep time and maintain balance amongst their personal, business and social needs and responsibilities. This invariably leaves a great many people stressed, exhausted and overworked, and alas, nowhere near achieving their goals or objectives.

Although there are innumerable articles on the same, there are subtle aspects that need looking into. At the heart of any effective time management is the need for focusing on the core elements for achieving the desired results. As a norm, we tend to spend a great deal of our time on peripheral issues that we end up giving 80% of our time for achieving 20% results, and the remaining 80% of the results are achieved with just 20% of our time. This no doubt, brings in its wake, all the stress syndromes.

So the first step for improving efficiency is segregating the most important from the unimportant and devoting your time and attention to the vital issues and effectively delegating or outsourcing those of less importance or consequence. You can even maintain an activity logbook to note the time spent on different activities of the day, including making coffee, talking over the phone, etc. Examining your log book at the end of the day will reveal where you are spending time disproportionate to its value and those areas where you need more padding of time for achieving your main goals.

Of course the inevitable