Your daily routine involves clocking in 10 hours at the office, going home to wolf down a quick dinner and then getting right back on your laptop to fire off a few more emails.

By the time night comes around, you fall into bed utterly exhausted but unable to switch off, a million and one thoughts about bills and forgotten jobs chasing each other around your head.

That’s just life as an entrepreneur, right?

Think again.

Being a small business owner is hard work, don’t get us wrong.

But feeling stressed, tired and running yourself ragged 24-hours a day isn’t a longterm strategy for success.

For the sake of your sanity and business, you need to improve your time management skills.

Here are a few apps and tips that’ll help you get your schedule back in order and unhealthy stress under control. Take a look.

1. Set aside time for relaxation

When faced with a manic day, the easiest thing to sacrifice is time for yourself. You soon end up cancelling plans, from that gym session with a friend to the quiet evening in with a glass of wine and a book you’ve been fantasising about, just to stay an extra hour in the office.

But constantly ignoring your needs and skipping valuable relaxation isn’t going to keep you feeling motivated for long.

To force yourself into adopting healthier habits, download the Headspace app. It teaches you how to meditate (and therefore switch off from work) in just 10 minutes day, plus it’s free. Give it a go and see if it can transform your working life.

2. Add a natural touch to your working day

Staring at the same four walls, day in and day out, isn’t doing anything for your stress levels or efficiency.

A change of scene is the perfect way to inject some energy into your day and instantly cheer yourself up – especially if you venture outside into mother nature’s soothing arms.

Take a quick stroll around the park at lunchtimes and bring the mood-boosting effects of greenery back into your office by treating yourself to a few potted plants. They’re said to increase productivity by around 15 per cent, so they could also prove a simple way to improve your time management.

3. Stop doing it all yourself

Be honest – is part of the reason for your insane schedule that you find it hard to accept help? It’s understandable that you want to do it all yourself, that you perhaps even worry about employees not being able to do as good a job as you.

But trusting others and learning to delegate or outsource key tasks is the only way you’ll ever be able to enjoy more freedom in your working life without letting your business suffer.

At the very least, invest in some time-saving HR tools, like payroll and pension auto enrolment software, to make your office and admin hours more efficient.

Now over to you

Do you have any more time management tricks and de-stressing weapons you think other struggling entrepreneurs should know about? Leave a comment and share your wisdom with us.