'Lightening your load' is an important part of time management, simply because you'll end up having less 'stuff' to manage! What 'stuff' am I referring to? All the things you do on a daily, weekly and monthly basis.

Have you ever fantasized about ditching your obligations and doing something outrageous like running away to a deserted island?

However, as freeing as that may sound, you really don't have to go to those lengths to create a more peaceful existence.

There is one easy way to lighten your load immediately, and it may surprise you: you just need to ask for help.

It's amazing how we resist asking for help sometimes! Either we're afraid that the answer will be 'no' or we believe that no one else will do the job as well as we can, so we end up carrying everything on our shoulders.

But trying to do everything yourself is the fastest route to nowhere.

Does that describe you? If so, it's time to give yourself a break. Ask your family members to help out with household chores. Ask your boss to hire a part-time assistant. Hire a cleaning service once a week so you can take some time to relax.

Whatever responsibilities are weighing you down and eating up too much of your time, ask for help. Most often when you do, other people will be glad to pitch in. They may not realize you need help if you don't say anything!

Perhaps you could even just ask for help in planning your workload or by asking someone to check in with you to check you are making the progress you want.

While we're on the subject, here's a good bonus tip for you: Stop carrying other people's responsibilities. Very often in our desire to help the people we love, we take on responsibilities that are not ours. If we're not careful, we'll end up carrying them for years!

There's nothing wrong with helping others when you can, but when it starts to drain your time and energy too much, it's time to step back and let go.

Remember it's alright to ask others for help and to say no to people when you are not able to help them.

Eliminating excessive drains on your time and energy is a good first step, but it's what you do with the time you have left that really counts.