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Some people thrive on pressure, others hate it. Whatever your attitude, time management is one of the most useful skills you can have. It helps you be more productive, and it puts you in control of your life.

As part of the husband-and-wife team running the eco-friendly GreenWood Forest Park near Caernarfon, Andrea Bristow has plenty on her plate. But she structures her week to suit her strengths.

For her, Monday is a quiet day for sorting out paperwork. For you, Monday might be when you’re at your liveliest, so you may want to be out there meeting people and drumming up business. Freedom is one of the joys of business ownership – why not make the most of it!

So let’s look at some ways to get time on your side. First, we’ll show you how to get rid of a backlog now. Then we’ll outline five useful habits to avoid work pile-ups in the future.

Blitz that backlog

·          Set yourself a time limit. For example: “I’m going to put aside Friday afternoon to go through the pile, and go home when I’ve finished.” Or, “For one week, I’ll start an hour earlier and use that hour ONLY to work through the backlog”.

·          Keep your eyes on the prize. Spend five minutes thinking about your overall goals – whether it’s increasing your profits or selling the best sandwiches in Llangollen. Don’t be tempted to skip this. Keeping the bigger picture in mind stops you panicking and puts you in control.

·          Create order out of chaos. Collect papers, letters and emails. Write down other ‘to do’ tasks on separate pieces of paper. Sort everything into piles by task (eg phone calls to return, stuff to file), projects (marketing, VAT returns), major clients – whatever makes sense to you and your business.

·          Prioritise. Now you can ‘grade’ your piles by how important they are to achieving your big goal. Then draw up a schedule of what you’ll do when – and stick to it. You’ll probably also have a ‘rubbish’ pile that can be thrown out straight away.

Phew! With the immediate panic over, it’s a good time to think about making time management part of your everyday life.  

One secret of good time management is to find people you can trust. Let them take time-consuming tasks off your hands while you build the business!

Andrea Bristow, GreenWood Forest Park Read Andrea’s thoughts on time management

1.Start with an activity log

To change habits, you first need to know what your current habits are. So note down everything you do, from checking the post to drinking coffee. Also note how you feel with each new entry. Are you alert and energetic, or tired and unenthusiastic?

After a few days you'll have a snapshot of your daily activities and energy levels. You'll also see that you often feel upbeat at certain times of day – useful when it comes to prioritising.

2. Make a daily list of things to do

At the start of every day, note down everything you have to do. If new things come up, add them to your list.

3. Prioritise your list

What is the most important thing you have to do today? What else should you do? What should you do if you have time? Remember to take advantage of your peak energy levels, and schedule your most important work tasks for those times of the day.

Andrea sorts her emails, letters and tasks into ‘urgent’, ‘important’ and ‘minor’ piles, tackling the urgent pile first and dealing with the rest throughout the day. “My best time of day is before 11am, so that’s a good time for me to deal with urgent stuff.”

4. Do it or dump it

If a task keeps reappearing on your daily to-do list but never seems to get done, either complete the task or forget about it (unless it’s your tax or VAT return!).

5. Schedule longer tasks

There's no point adding a major task to your daily list on the day it’s due. For long-term activities, draw up a schedule with key milestones along the way.