Time is a very precious thing and it is sometimes difficult to optimize it in our very active lives.

The principles of yoga (the yamas and niyamas or the ethical rules of the yogis) can help you here. According to those, here are 5 tips to manage your time effectively and without frustration.

1. Know yourself

We all have different rhythms and therefore moments in the day when we are more efficient or more introspective.

In order to manage our daily tasks, it is thus important to observe and know yourself (svadhyaya niyama) with honesty (satya yama).

This will allow you to plan your different activities at the best time of the day.

For instance, I know that I am not very productive in the morning. I'm a bit like a diesel and as the day progresses, my energy increases.

2. Categorize your activities

If, like me, you tend to have a ton of ideas running through your mind all the time, you may find it hard to do things methodically and you may tend to struggle to fit all your tasks into one day.

One of the principles of yoga is tidiness (sauca niyama).

For me, tidying up is creating categories to group my activities. I list my categories below to give you an example:

• administrative tasks: making appointments, correspondence..., in short, all the tasks that bother me the most.

• mental activities: reading, learning a new language, writing articles, doing research, training...

• the "I take care of myself" activities: sport, meditation, massage...

• social activities: family, friends...

Be creative to create categories that really fit you!

3. Plan your day

Ahhh the to-do lists!

For a very long time, I avoided them, because I felt like I was imposing homework on myself as if I were still at school and I was thinking that if could train my memory.

Then, two years ago, I went back to a paper agenda.

As I said before, my brain tends to think about a lot of things and I needed a medium to write down my different ideas so that they wouldn't evaporate.

I bought a diary that allows me to write down everything (and yet it has a reasonable size): my appointments, my ideas, things I heard and found interesting... in short: the maximum of things. And the daily to-do lists naturally appeared in my diary.

The nice side: when I plan my day by writing my to-do list, it reminds me happily of my father who passed away and who was the king of the to-do list :).

The to-do list allows me to be a little bit self-disciplined (tapas niyama), but also to think in terms of priorities.

It also gives the ability to plan one's days according to one's own functioning and the time actually available, which avoids the impression of being robbed of this so precious time (asteya yama - no stealing principle).

I, myself, as I said above, am a diesel.

In the morning, I will therefore plan the activities that do not require too much energy, such as calling to make appointments (at the same time, this allows me to free myself from this task that I do not like and therefore free up energy not to think about it all day long).

The more the day progresses, the more I can get on with the activities that require me to concentrate. I will therefore give priority to activities that are in my "mental activities" category in the afternoon.

At the end of the day, when my energy is at its peak, I will plan social or "I take care of myself" activities, which will by the way allow me to sleep well!

4. Setting limits

Limiting the time spent per activity as well as the number of things to do per day is a must.

Indeed, when one wishes to optimize time management, it is important to apply the principles of moderation (bramacharya yama) and non-violence (ahimsa yama).

If you don't, you could feel frustrated or exhausted.

To be able to plan your day and know how much time you can devote to an activity, you first need to determine:

• how long you can stay focused on the same activity, and

• how many hours you have available per day for each category of activities.

5. Letting go

Often, even if everything was well planned, at the end of the day there are tasks that could not be completed.

Ask yourself if there is a reason why you delayed it. For example, if it is because the task annoys you, try to schedule it at a more convenient time of day for you and not drag it out too long so you don't waste your energy on it.

Not having been able to do everything you planned can be demotivating, but remember that life is like that and it is a good experience to learn to let go (aparigraha yama - principle of letting go).

Don't blame yourself if you couldn't do everything you had planned and enjoy everything you accomplished (santosha niyama - principle of contentment)!

Congratulate yourself for having done your best during the day and trust life to get there tomorrow or any other day (ishvarapranidhana niyama - faith in Life).