“Structure your day to get maximum benefit”

The very structure of the above comment stresses need over want – what do you need to do today instead of what do you want to do today?

It’s very easy to go wherever the flow leads us.  An associate dropping by to gossip may be a welcome distraction from the report with which you are currently grappling.  Your son’s need for a Halloween costume may be a good excuse to delay working on an important project. 

These little excuses, however, add up and have a large impact on how well you maximise use of your time.  More often than not, prioritising want over need when it comes to spending time yields adverse financial effects.

So, what must you do today?

Daily Priorities
Daily priorities are the most important things that need to be done during the day.  Daily priorities are activities that are urgent or activities that are important in the realisation of your long-term plans.

You must keep the number of priority activities at a small and manageable number everyday.  This way, you will not feel overwhelmed and will thus be able to concentrate on these tasks and give them your best effort.  Having too many priorities to work on daily lessens your focus.  Moreover, it increases the risk that you will not be able to do all that you must do in a day; this is dangerous as it might quickly become a habit.

Urgent Tasks for the Day
Do urgent activities first.  Such activities include accomplishing reports that need immediate filing, calling customers who have to be called back as soon as possible, resolving problems that need urgent resolution, etc.  If there are quite a number of urgent activities that you have to attend to during the day, you will have to do some prioritising.  Start with the most important but urgent activities – those that have the greatest impact to your short-term goals – and work your way towards the less important yet similarly urgent tasks.

When you start with the urgent tasks for the day, you are able to deal with such matters when you are at your freshest and most energetic.  However, if you notice that you’re spending quite a lot of time on urgent matters everyday, it’s time to think about long-term solutions that can free you of such activities.  This is so you’d have more time for important activities that benefit your long-term goals.

Activities for Long-Term Goals
Aside from spending time daily on the most urgent activities, you must also set aside some time everyday to work on activities that affect your long-term goals.  To start with, work on one activity of this type daily.  The following week or month, work on two such important activities daily.  The following week or month, deal with three important activities everyday, and so on and so forth.  Just by increasing your daily load of important activities, the more time you will free yourself from accomplishing urgent activities. 

Eventually, you will be focusing more and more of your energy and time to high-leverage activities that will yield the greatest results for your business.

So, what must you do today?  If you have more important activities on your daily planner than there are urgent activities, then, you’re on your way to becoming an efficient and results-driven time manager.