Time management is an essential trait to have if you want to be success in goal setting, or any other discipline for that matter.
If you learn to effectively manage your time, you will be able to achieve a lot more, in less time, and will be able to live a more balanced life where you have time for your family, friends, exercise and community/spiritual components of your life.
Time management skills are not necessarly something you are born with, however they are definitely something that you can learn.
In this article we show you how to be an effective time manager.

• Be Realistic:As a starting point you need to be self aware and know that you can't achieve everything in your day.
  If you write a to-do-list that includes 50 items, and one of those is "learn Portuguese!" then chances are you are not going to achieve everything.
  Rather than trying to achieve everything consider the particular tasks that are most important for you to complete and focus on these.
  If you do work on these and don't get time to do the other tasks your day has still been a success.
  
• Recognize that things don't happen over night:While it would be great to achieve all of our goals in a short amount of time, this just isn't possible.
  When looking at time management, and breaking down your tasks, recognize that just working on a task without any evident outcome is still a success.
  If you keep doing this day in and day out you will eventually achieve your goals.
  
• Work out what is important:This follows on from the above dot points.
  Look at your long term goals and work out exactly what is important to you and focus on these.
  
• Estimate the amount of time each task takes:Depending on the complexity of each task that you do, the amount of time required each day will vary significantly.
  If you have an accurate idea of how long things take you can better plan your day.
  
• Look for better ways to do something:Don't get caught in the habit of doing things the way you have always done them.
  Look at ways you can speed up each task.
  Even if it's only a minute here or a minute there it all adds up.
  
• Don't over plan your day:Allow time for all those unexpected things that come up.
  This way you can set your key tasks and still know that if you get interruptions you will still complete everything that is important.
  
• Write your list:Based on all of the ideas write the tasks that you need to undertake each day, the amount of time you need to allocate, and the priority of each task.
  

As you can see, to be a successful time manager you have to look at time management from a holistic and high level perspective.
Once you work out what is realistic and what is important to you, you can ensure you allow adequate time to do these tasks each day.
If you follow this approach you will be well on your way to success.