Good time management depends on knowing the value of each minute.

So here’s how to get good at estimating time.

It’s that simple.

So wear a wristwatch.

I used to have trouble with time but this simple trick has worked wonders for me.

If you have trouble with time, always wear a wristwatch.

Having any clock at a quick glance is important.

Do you really know how much you’re able to get done in just 10 minutes?

and set up an alarm.

Then, set the alarm to snooze for ten minutes each time it goes off.

As you work through the course of your day, notice each time the alarm goes off.

Over time, track what you get accomplished between each alarm notification.

Ten minutes might be too disruptive for your workflow, so feel free to fiddle around with that.

On days where you’re feeling drowsy or lethargic, your productivity will decline.

If you don’t account for how you are feeling, your time-tracking will not be accurate.

So is feeling like you’d really like a nap.

Again, this can’t be done in one day or two.

You’ll have totrack your results and mood across longer periodsat least a week, ideally a month.

Once you do that, you will spot patterns that can be used to refine your judgement of time.

It takes… time.

Personal development coachSteve Pavlinarecommends building a buffer by calculating how far off the mark you usually are.

He calls this the “fudge ratio.”

The exercise is tedious, but it will help you out in the long run.

Essentially, it’s simple time tracking for projects or tasks that require 10-20 hours of work.

You could use any of thetime-tracking applicationsor any method you prefer to record yourself.

When you complete a task, write how much time it took you.

This means you it took you 25% longer than expected to complete the tasks.

My average fudge ratio is about 1.5.

This fudge ratio is what it’s crucial that you bring out when someone asks you for a deadline.

Think about how much time you’ll take to do that and multiply it by your fudge ratio.

That’s the amount of time you ask for your deadline.

In fact, there are lots ofways to extend your deadlines.