The worst feeling we can have is to start each day with the tasks that we expected to accomplish the previous day.  This gives us the feeling that our business life is akin to a treadmill–and that we are having a hard time staying on this treadmill as its speed increases each and every day.

Sometimes it can be quite easy to put off for tomorrow what you know you should have accomplished for today.  If you keep doing this, the practice becomes a habit–and bad habits are hard to break.  Remember, if you organized your list in accordance with your priorities, you are not likely to have included items that are supposed to be put off.  So perhaps tonight you should be working late.

What happens if you wind up working late every night–getting priorities completed for that day?  If this keeps happening then an evaluation is warranted.  Are your lists too ambitious?  Do you need to hire someone?  Are interruptions getting in the way and do you need to learn to say no?  Make sure you have the answer to these questions before you make the adjustment.  But make sure you do make an adjustment because good time management does not mean working twenty hours every day and ignoring the personal aspects of your life.

There is nothing more satisfying that consistently achieving your priorities on a daily basis and moving closer to the achievement of long-term goals.  Even if these goals have to be adjusted, make sure that one priority does not rule out the other.  Your long-term health and sanity may not be worth the one extra item you pile onto the list every day.