Stephen Covey in his leading work, The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People, says that our problem is not managing time–it is managing ourselves.  We must first decide to deal with matters that are important to us in order to accomplish our mission in life.  This means that we may have to stop dealing with urgent matters of more importance to other actors in our lives.  Therefore, we must learn to say no when appropriate.

Take the time to analyze how much time you spend doing what in a particular week.  Write it down.  How much time did you spend accomplishing tasks that could be considered essential to your success?  For example, I find that spending my time providing value to top producers is much closer to my priorities than spending time calling on the middle masses and asking for business.

The next time you make a list of items to accomplish the next day, prioritize them. Try to accomplish the list in accordance with your own priorities instead of acting on the wishes of others.  Start one day at a time and move in the same direction for the whole week.

Every goal is achieved one step at a time.  You will not realign your actions in accordance with your priorities in one day.  If you step in the right direction, every step you take will help you meet your goals.  You will be surprised how small steps can make a dent in tasks that seem mountainous.

Try it for a few days–and let me know how it works!