Every company relies on managing valuable resources so as to optimise productivity and profit. A paper manufacturer needs a reliable source of wood and a fishmonger needs fish. An investment bank must have a dependable source of capable stockmarket traders. There are also some resources that every company needs; most visibly and tangibly, any business needs capital. Less obviously, though just as critically, every enterprise, every organisation, every scheme or project, however large or small, all need something that is perennially in limited supply, something that cannot be replaced once it is used up. We all need time.

It's not often though, that any of us have enough, in any walk of adult life and certainly not in business. Unlike money, of course, it's impossible to make any more time - so success and prosperity rely on getting the most from what you have. Removing unproductive time from your working day is vital - both in ensuring that your business remains as efficient and effective as possible and also in helping you to use the rest of your day to get away from work and maintain a healthy work-life balance. But what can you do to try and fill each unforgiving minute with sixty seconds' worth of distance run?

Analysing your present situation is always a good place to start. What tasks will you have to do and how important are they? Do some rely on others to take place first - just as a car needs axles before the wheels can be attached? If you're allocating work to a team of people, you'll have to consider the same for everyone involved. More than that though, you'll have to arrange tasks in an order that can limit wasted time; it would be of no benefit to have a man waiting around with a wheel whilst a colleague attaches the axle, not when he could set the wheel down and find something more useful to do. It's also worth fitting into your plan individual skills and competencies - it would be wrong to assume that one member of your staff will take the same time to perform a task as another. So it makes sense to try, as far as is possible, to allocate tasks to the best people for the job, so as to ensure the best end result in less time.

Dividing up the time can help clarify progress and maintain focus, particularly in a lengthy project. To merely state that the schedule starts today and ends in one year is too vague to form a cohesive picture of where you are along the journey. By establishing goals, both individually and for your team as a whole, you can help to maintain focus; keeping sight of a near and small objective is much easier than chasing after something much larger and more distant.

Of course, no matter how neatly you arrange the schedule for yourself and your team, you can't guarantee that no obstacles will appear in your way. Making the most of your time demands that you negotiate these hurdles as efficiently as you can. Predicting potential problems and questions that may arise in the process is a must - you can react more quickly to the issues as they arise, or even prevent them from happening at all. But you must also be sure not to create any obstacles yourself; likely distractions and time wasters can be isolated and removed from your working time, extra work can be moved to those who have extra time and unnecessary tasks can be left where possible. If you're trying to control your time, it's always good to learn a simple, powerful word - no.

Planning and preparing in advance isn't quite enough, though. You'll need to be able to keep track of where you are in the schedule, and what has to be done at any given time. A well-maintained and thorough diary might seem a simple matter, but it can be enormously effective. There are also a range of software applications available, which can manage your schedules and project plans and which can be accessed on laptops or PDAs, allowing you to keep everything running in the right direction wherever you may be. Finally, it's good to remember that a successful approach to time management can be used in many different situations; by analysing and recording your time management techniques, you can keep efficiency levels high time and again.

No-one goes into business or embarks upon a major project intending to waste time. But time can be wasted all too easily without a cohesive time management strategy and there are always occasions when it's all too easy to slip into inefficiency. The techniques and tools above are just a glimpse of what you can do to prevent against lost time and a short training course will help you make the best use of those and many others. There really is no better opportunity to make sure you have time on your side.