Mastering Your Schedule: Effective Time Management Strategies

by Bryan Ruprecht, Staff Associate II

Posted on September 8, 2026

Stephen Covey, the former CEO of Covey Leadership Center, the largest leadership development company in the world stated, “The key is not to prioritize what’s on your schedule, but to schedule your priorities.” At a time, when email and instant messaging make us instantly available, managing time and tasks can be increasingly difficult. We often have competing priorities and deadlines with one of those being the completion of the annual audit. Audits take time for both the auditor and the client; effective time management can help to reduce the time and burden of the audit.

What is time management?

Time management is a skill that involves planning and prioritizing your daily tasks so you can use your time more effectively, complete projects, and meet targeted goals. It requires being conscious and selective of how you spend your time so that you can balance your day-to-day obligations.

Time management techniques include making to-do lists, prioritizing your most important projects, creating schedules for routine tasks, and tracking your progress. You can take your efficiency and productivity to the next level by employing time management strategies that help you avoid distractions and focus on the task at hand.

For professionals who continue to take on additional roles and responsibilities, the following are some time management strategies that I use as well as other professionals; minimizing distractions by setting a “Do Not Disturb” status on your email and phone, optimizing your workspace by maintaining a neat, ergonomic, and well-lit space the improve focus, taking regular short breaks to prevent burnout and improve long-term focus, and lastly, prioritizing sleep, nutrition, and physical activity to maintain high energy levels.

The effects of poor time management

Poor time management often leads to missed deadlines, an accumulation of work not complete, stress, etc. Work is more likely to be of a lower quality and ends up being re-performed. If you don’t change your time management habits, it can be easy to get stuck in a negative cycle that affects your confidence, well-being, and ability to thrive.

Audits require a lot of documentation and communication, when work is incomplete, it can lead to delays in the completion of the audit.

The advantages of effective time management

There are many benefits of strong time management skills:

• Increased productivity: When you can prioritize, plan, and manage your time well, you inherently work more efficiently, which leads to greater productivity and improved performance.
• Better work-life balance: Living a balanced life means that you can excel in all areas and spend less time on meaningless busy work.
• Improved focus: By scheduling your time in an effective manner, you can clarify your goals, eliminate distractions, and focus your attention on your most essential activities.
• Higher quality of work: When you have strong time management habits, you have more room to ensure projects are completed correctly and meet expectations.
• Less anxiety and stress: By consistently meeting deadlines and performing at a high level, confidence increases and worry and stress decreases.

While everyone has their own personal time management processes that work for them, peering deep and analyzing those processes over time helps ensure that your time is utilized to its fullest potential. As said earlier, audits take time, not only for the client to gather the requested information, but for the auditors to review all the supporting documents as well as completing the agreed-upon engagements. Scheduling priorities is a key task that successful auditors and clients use to enable that the audit support, completion of reports, and continued professional relationships utilize.