In today’s world, it seems like there are never enough hours in the day to do what we need or want to do. This can cause you to feel stressed from the moment you wake up, and those little stresses throughout the day can add up quickly. Yet, there are some folks who seem to have it all together. They accomplish whatever they set their mind to and all the while appear completely calm…but how? How do some people manage to fit everything in without experiencing the stress of such a busy schedule?

A large part of it is time management. We all have the same 24 hours to work with. It’s truly a matter of using every moment to its fullest. When you manage your time effectively, the unavoidable daily stressors become much easier to handle because you’ve removed so many of the smaller ones that can make the day so hectic.

Time management takes commitment and a bit of effort but there are many small and easy things you can do to get started. Each one may only add a few minutes to your day, but soon the minutes add up to hours, you find you have more time than you once thought you did, and everything seems to flow much more smoothly.

Add just one of these tips each week and you’ll quickly be on the road to less stress and a lot more time:

1. Plan ahead, but stay in the moment. It’s easy to become stressed just thinking about all the things we need to get done, but worrying about it only takes more time off the clock and gets us no further ahead of the game. Use tools to plan in advance, but try to be present in each moment when the time comes. Being focused on the task at hand will allow you to complete it more effectively and efficiently. The only way to get things done is to do them. Enjoy the doing. Make every moment count!

2. Get enough sleep. Sleep is vital to our health and well-being. Loss of sleep affects the body both physiologically and cognitively and can lead to compromised immune and endocrine systems, increased susceptibility to illnesses like diabetes and hypertension, and impaired alertness and motor performance.

Allotting yourself more time for a sufficient amount of sleep may seem counter-productive at first; however, when you function on a restful and complete night’s sleep, you will likely find the resulting increased mental clarity and ability to focus does indeed save you some time! A clear head can do wonders for time management.

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3. Learn to say “No.” If you over commit yourself, you will constantly feel stressed. Be realistic when setting goals and making plans. Delegate where you can.

4. Write everything down and keep it together. Keep a notebook, calendar, or daily planner with you at all times and use it. Avoid writing things you need to do on small slips of paper that you might lose or forget about. If everything is logged in one place, the information is right at your finger tips whenever you need it.

5. Take advantage of the evening. Before hitting the pillow at night, take a few minutes to pick what you are going to wear the following day and set it aside. If you exercise in the morning before work, do this with both your workout clothes and the clothes you’ll wear to work afterward. These are simple decisions but not having to make them in the morning is a great time-saver, especially if you are not a morning person.

If you drink coffee, invest in a coffeemaker with a timer and prep it the night before. It takes less than five minutes to do before you go to bed. You can wake up to the aroma of freshly brewed coffee, roll out of bed, and pour yourself a cup!

6. Log it as you go. Affix a grocery list to the refrigerator or somewhere in the kitchen. Whenever you run out of something or find that you are missing something, write it down that very moment. When it’s time to go shopping you won’t find yourself sitting there with a blank sheet of paper thinking, “Now what was it we needed to get this week?” You’ll save yourself multiple trips to the store and also will eliminate the purchase of items you didn’t really need, reducing impulse purchases and putting less stress on your budget at the same time.

7. Double up on dinner. If you’re making dinner at home, make double the amount you need and save half in the fridge or freezer. You’ll have lunch or dinner for another day without having to cook or dirty the pans all over again.

8. Don’t handle your mail twice. It’s so easy to grab the mail out of the mailbox, flip through it for what’s vitally important, and then set the rest somewhere to deal with later. Then at the end of the week (or month) you have a big stack of junk mail to deal with and you have to find the time to sit down and go through it all.

Instead, take a few extra seconds and go through it right when you take it out of the mail box. Shred what needs to be shredded and file what needs to be filed right then and there so you won’t have to make time to sift through it all over again at a later date.