The first key to effective time management is prioritization of goals.  The second key is implementing the actions necessary to achieve these goals.  In other words you have to have a plan.  Your plan must be as specific as your goals–including what actions must take place each and every day.

Never leave your house without a plan of action.  Each day formulate a checklist of items to accomplish.  Sunday is a good day to formulate a plan for the week.  After formulating these plans you must spend a few minutes analyzing.  Is the list realistic?  Can you eliminate items of lesser importance?  What did you leave off the plan that is vital in order to meet your goals?

At the end of each day, re-analyze your list.  Did you accomplish what you had hoped?  If not, why not?  Are you going to start the next day with the same set of priorities or did you learn something through today’s experience?  Most of us make lists.  Very few of us analyze the results of these lists.

It is said that the true definition of insanity is doing the same thing day after day and expecting a different result.  If you do not make adjustments to your plan, you will never meet your goals.  Sometimes the actions must be changed and sometimes the priorities must be changed.

Do not spend your life trying to meet a goal that is unachieveable.  That is the quickest way to a life full of stress.  What you might think is a lack of time might really be a lack of true and achievable priorities.