Imagine that you need a new car. You go to the showroom, but have no idea what your budget is - so how can you really buy anything? You could end up spending far more than you ought to, leaving a serious hole in your bank balance; you could end up spending far less than you can afford, and wind up with a banger that causes you more hassle than its worth. Alternatively, what if you're hosting a dinner party, but have no clue how many are coming? You could cook too much and be wasteful, or too little and have a very uncomfortable evening.

Of course you wouldn't do any such thing. You're not going to buy a car without budgeting, and you're not going to be taking a wild guess at how much food you need to provide for an enjoyable evening. Being aware of your needs and limits is second nature, it's a skill we develop when we're young so that we can survive as adults: limited resources must be managed and put to good use. However, some resources aren't always as tangible as money or food, and may tend to be overlooked, their consequences - though serious - being somewhat less immediately apparent.

And no resource is as limited as time. We get twenty-four hours per day, no more, no less. We can't hold time nor save it so that we'll have more when we need it, we can't stash it away for a rainy day nor keep leftovers in the fridge for tomorrow. But if we are aware of those needs and limits, we can get eke more out of the time we have; we might not be able to control time, but we can control how it affects us. With careful management, we can have a more successful working day, and a happier and more balanced life.

Finding that balance is essential. Let's go back to that new car; if you spend more on the car than you can afford, then it may well have a detrimental impact on your life as a whole. You'll be short of money, so may have to miss out on other things. Bills could go unpaid, or much needed purchases not bought. Poor management of your budget on just one expense can quickly spread into a range of problems, discomfort and stress. Similarly, if you're devoting too much of your time to work, you won't have enough left over for relaxing, for family, for entertainment and hobbies and also for attending to any problems that might arise at home. The consequences of this, the stress and exhaustion, can only leave a harmful impression on every aspect of your life - including, ultimately, your capacity to keep working as effectively.

On the other hand, you might buy the unnecessarily cheap car, the banger at the back of the garage. You've got more money left over for those other expenses, perhaps an extra something for yourself as well - but the car that's taking you to work every day isn't reliable or comfortable, it's putting extra stress into your life and making more demands on your wallet as it gradually falls apart. And the situation at work can also fall apart if you're not devoting enough time to it - especially if you're managing your own business, with everything depending ultimately on yourself. If you don't put the hours in, you can't expect anything to come of it.

So it's critical that the time you put in is neither too much nor too little. But how to find that balance? When it comes to having the right amount of food at the dinner party, you should know how many people are coming, plus you'll probably know a bit about at least some of them - therefore, by understanding what is needed, you can make a reasonable assessment of how much you need to cook. You can maintain a grip on your time along the same principles.

Most importantly, you need to be aware of what the demands on your time are. What needs doing? And how long will it take? By assessing the amount of time you need to put into your work, you can more easily arrange work tasks (and free time) to produce the most balanced and productive result. Fully understanding what you must do also allows you to prioritise, to identify which tasks will have the greatest impact in reaching your goals for the least time and effort expended - and which can be delegated to others, if that opportunity is available to you. It's important, too, to maintain a diary, as it's much easier to maintain that balance if you're always aware of what you are doing and how much time you've allotted to it.

Managing your time successfully is essential to both sides of the work-life balance. You need the work side to be as well-ordered and productive as possible, so that it doesn't take anything from the life side. It'd certainly be worth considering a short training course in time management for you or your staff in perfecting this crucial skill, as the benefits for your organisation in using time efficiently can be huge. Time is both precious and powerful - make sure you're in control of it.