Last month I talked about some of the challenges (and solutions) to time management – or perhaps what’s more accurately called ‘self-management’.

This time, let’s look at some of the tangible tools to help you make the most of your time. All are useful. All will help you. And most are free!

Make the most of your social media outreach with Hootsuite, a free service that allows you to better manage multiple networks. Pre-write your tweets or Facebook updates and tell Hootsuite when to post them. How smart is that? It’s free (and it’s even a Vancouver company).

No at-home agents would ever, ever waste their valuable time on, say, watching YouTube videos of piano-playing cats, trolling around Facebook to see whatever happened to their high school prom date, or transfixed by Angry Birds. If they did, however, they might find SelfRestraint useful. Another freebie, it allows you to block access to certain websites for certain amounts of time.

You might want to consider investing in a second monitor.  Imagine having a cruise line’s website on one screen while you e-mail a client about their current offers on another! No more toggling back and forth and relying on your memory or your printer. A huge time-saver.

Also, don’t forget the powerful tool you likely already have. Outlook contains some great programs to tame time-thiefs including to-do lists and notes. By using a note for each project you’re working on you’ll save yourself the confusion of multiple to-do lists.

And if you still like using paper for your to-do lists … my personal favourite … there’s nothing like crossing off the item once you have completed the task. Sometimes if I complete a task that wasn’t on my list, I’ll still add it just for the satisfaction of scratching it off.

Remember to carry over the items to ensure you do complete everything.

There are a couple of ways to rachet up your efficiency.  Write out lists on brightly-coloured paper and you’ll never lose them on your desk. And rather than just writing ‘E-mail Angela to request presentation room’, add a column to your to-do lists with the date you actioned something. This saves you having to rootle through your sent items or wonder if you did that a week ago – or a month ago.