I’ll be honest, it is my biggest pet peeve when I have to wait on someone who is running late. Don’t get me wrong, I always put into account all of the variables that can happen to make someone late; it’s the repetitiveness of being late, hearing the same excuses and the counter-productivity that get to me. Where I come from, being 15 minutes early means that you’re on time.

I know there are countless unexpected factors in life. I have dealt with them first hand, but this is where managing your time can really save the day, if you do it right. We all share the same amount of time through the day, 24 hours. That’s what we have to make the most of our day (if you don’t like getting any sleep, like myself). Whether or not it is a work day or an off day, you want to best manage your time so that it doesn’t sneak away from you.

There are so many tips and strategies for managing your time. The goal is to make sure you’re engaging in activities that support your goals. Plan ahead, prioritize by importance, eliminate any distractions, delegate some of your tasks if possible, and one of the hardest things to do – just say no. Those are just a few effective tips to help you with managing your time wisely.

Every morning as a banquet chef, I would be in the kitchen at 5 a.m. to prepare time management sheets for the meals to be prepared that day. This would consist of beginning and ending times for certain recipes and also included cooking, holding and serving times. I planned ahead, prioritized my recipes by importance of time and labor, delegated the workload between my cooks, and eliminated any distractions in the kitchen to make sure everything was done in time with great quality.

Planning ahead never seems to always work out in the best of ways, though, does it? Try to add extra time into your schedule just for those unexpected delays. I’ll use the morning drop-off for my son as an example. … Every morning, I know that there’s going to be some type of drama, so in order to reduce any delay, we have everything ready to go the night before. Living in Orlando, we should all know that there’s going to be some type of traffic at any given moment of the day, so always be prepared to encounter traffic on your way to the office or your meetings.

Say you have a to-do list of 20 things to get done by this afternoon, and it’s all just really overwhelming. Take two minutes to review your list and prioritize this list by importance. Gather this information by using different categories such as the length of time it will take to complete, the difficulty of the task, and if you’re able to off-load some of the items on this to-do list. Which leads to my next tip, delegation. Delegating can be your best friend in a time crunch. Your to-do list, now sorted by level of importance, can be delegated to better manage your time and relieve stress. Don’t try to overwork yourself by only counting on yourself to get things done – it’s okay to ask for help.

Saying no is one of the hardest things to say to your boss, friends, significant other or the kids. I know – I’ve been there. With a workload a mile long, I will still gladly take on any extra tasks to alleviate any stress from the boss or wife. That’s just me, though; I have a hard time saying no. This can cause unwanted stress and anxiety by taking on new tasks and not being able to complete your other tasks by their deadline. So, when you have too much going on in workload, it’s okay to say no. Keep your goals prioritized and don’t get off track.