Maybe money doesn't stress you out nearly as much as your basic lack of time. If you never seem to have enough time to get anything finished, you might feel constant, chronic stress. But although technically we all have the same amount of time each day (24 hours), time is mysteriously malleable.

Have you ever noticed how an hour can fly by like five minutes or crawl by like three hours? Sometimes, your workday is over in a flash, and sometimes it feels like 5:00 P.M. when it's only 11:00 A.M. Can you make this malleability of time work for you?

You bet you can! Although they say “time flies when you're having fun,” time also flies when you are scattered and disorganized. If you have three hours to get something done and you don't manage your time efficiently, those three hours will fly by in a rush of half-finished jobs and flitting from task to task with dispersed energy.

If, instead, your time is organized and you are able to devote your full concentration to one task at a time, time seems to expand in quantity and quality. You get something — even one thing — finished. You feel a sense of satisfaction.

The time won't crawl by, like it does when you are enduring something unpleasant. The time may seem to go fast, but because you will have accomplished something, you'll enjoy a feeling of accomplishment, a boost of self-esteem, and the relief of stress.

Learning how to manage your time efficiently takes some practice, but if you have a plan, time management is easy. Many great books and even websites will help you to get organized and manage your time.

Begin managing your time to free yourself of the unnecessary stress that comes from scattered energy and the inefficient use of your day by observing the 10 Commandments of Time Management:

1. Start small. If you start with too many goals, too long of a to-do list, or too high expectations for yourself, you are setting yourself up for failure. Begin with one single time management step, such as laying out your clothes for the next day the night before, to save time in the morning, or by vowing that the counters will be free of dirty dishes every single night, to ease the breakfast rush. As you master each step, you can add more.

2. Identify your time management issues. Are you perfectly efficient at work but your time management skills fall apart in the unstructured, unscheduled environment of your home? Are you able to keep the house straight but whenever the family is home, life seems rushed and hectic, with no relaxed “together time”? Do you spend all day dealing with other people's crises and taking care of busywork, never getting enough time to sit down and really concentrate on your job? Know your trouble spots — the places where time is getting frittered away.

3. Identify your time management priorities. Make a list ranking the things on which you most want to spend your time. Would you like to add family time first, then household organization time, then some personal time? Would you like more time for work and less time for dealing with other people's crises? Would you like to make time for your favorite hobby, time for yourself, or time for romance? Would you just like more time to sleep?

4. Focus on your top five. Look at the top five items on your Time Management Priorities list. Focus on those. Be very wary of letting yourself take on anything that takes your time if it isn't focused on one of your top five priorities.

5. Have a strategy. When the day starts, know where you are going. Know what you will do. Time unplanned is often time wasted. That doesn't mean you can't allow for spontaneity or a lovely, unplanned, unscheduled hour or two. Even a whole day of purposefully unplanned time is well worth it. But time unplanned in which you frantically try to accomplish ten different things is time wasted, and that's stressful. Resources abound for helping you make a strategy that works for you (see Appendix B for some ideas).

6. Just say no. Your time is valuable, even more valuable than money. Why should you just give it away to anyone and anything that asks for it? Learn to say no to requests for your time unless that time spent would be something very important to you. You don't have to be on the committee. You don't have to join that club. You don't have to go to that meeting. Just say no and watch that stress that was waiting to descend upon your life float away in another direction.

7. Let it go. If you've already taken on too much, learn to start purging. Don't let anything waste your time. Time spent relaxing by yourself isn't wasted if it refreshes and rejuvenates you. Time spent pacing and worrying is wasted time. Time spent enduring a committee meeting you don't really enjoy is wasted time. Time spent actively engaged in a committee whose cause inspires you is time well spent. Cut out the dross and let everything go that isn't really important.

8. Charge more. If you are self-employed, don't waste time on jobs that don't pay you for what your time is worth. (This is difficult until you are well-established.) But this rule doesn't just apply to work and actual money. Everything you do takes time. Is the reward payment enough for the time spent? If it isn't, ditch it.

9. Do it later. Do you really need to do every single cleaning chore every day? Do you really need to check your e-mail every ten minutes? Do you really need to change the sheets, vacuum the car, mow the lawn today? If doing it later is just procrastination, you'll spend the saved time worrying. But sometimes, when your time is at a premium, you can relieve your stress and make your life easier by postponing the less crucial chores. Even though many chores do need to be accomplished, they don't always need to be accomplished right now.

10. Remember that not having enough time is always an excuse, never a reason. You can make time for anything if it's important enough. You just have to stop spending time on something less important. You have control over your time. Time doesn't control you.