Spring Forward to Better Manage Your Time

Daylight savings time rolls around this year on Sunday, March 10. Most of us will advance our clocks forward one hour and "spring forward," effectively "losing" an hour of time until we get it back in the fall.

Springing forward doesn't have to be a bad thing. As a matter of fact, the act of springing forward—combined with some forward thinking—can help you better manage your time.

Check out these four forward-thinking tips to help you get a jump on time both now and in future:

Regularly review your schedule in advance. Don't let an appointment or meeting catch you off guard! At the beginning of every week, take a moment to review your schedule. Make a note of what's coming up and start to make adjustments to your schedule as needed. It is far easier to adjust your schedule ahead of time (such as figuring out who's picking up the kids from school if you have a meeting) than trying to sort things out smack dab in the midst of the crisis.

Set an end time for a task. Has this happened to you? You get so immersed in your work that you lose track of time and miss an important appointment. Ouch. Prevent time lapses by setting an end time for tasks before beginning your work. Either make a mental note of the time you'll need to stop working or, better still, set an alarm on your phone or computer to remind you when you need start wrapping things up.

Be a thorough collector of information. When planning or scheduling a meeting or appointment, be forward thinking and collect as much information as you can. I like to use the analogy of a reporter collecting the five "Ws" for a news story. Ask yourself: who, what, when, where, why and, of course, how. Taking the time to collect information from the start is helpful in so many ways; you won't waste time in future trying to secure the details of an appointment, plus you'll already have the information you need to properly prepare for the appointment.

When in doubt, give yourself the gift of more time. If you are ever in doubt about how long it will take you to complete a task or travel from one place to another, go easy on yourself and schedule in more time. Adding a buffer of time into your schedule will come in handy more times than not. Besides, the luxury of having extra time is a much more pleasant experience than having to furiously scramble to make up time!

Rashelle Isip is a blogger, time management and productivity consultant and professional organizer. She is founder of The Order Expert, a site featuring practical and creative organizing, time management, productivity tips, inspiration and much more. For more information visit: www.theorderexpert.com.