If you find yourself saying that, one of the reasons might be that you have no priorities or system of prioritisation. You spend time fire fighting.

* You spend time worrying about all that you need to get done and not necessarily doing anything well.

* You spend time doing things indirectly or nothing to do with your main role.

* You spend time doing this day in and day out and expecting the problem to resolve itself.

Well guess what, it wont unless you adopt a different mindset which result in different action.

State the obvious why dont you, I hear you say. Well actually yes I will because it is obvious.

The reasons most people (and I will generalise) get stuck in a fire fighting cycle are two fold. Firstly, they actually enjoy the adrenalin rush of busyness and activity, so long as it doesnt go to extremes and secondly they dont stop and make time to prioritise for their business, themselves and those around them.

So what can you do to affect your daily/weekly routine? Here are 3 tips to take you One Step Further towards having a system that helps you prioritise.

Daily Priorities From random to reasoned

Tip 1 at the start of each morning this week set aside 5-10 minutes to decide on tasks that you must, should and could get done for that day. How you decide that is up to you. The rule is that there must NEVER be a must do task left at the end of the day. That must be your measure of how important the must dos are!

Tip 2 after you have decided your must, should and could do lists for the day ask yourself 2 questions.

* Do all the tasks have to be done by me?

* What are the consequences of task x, y or z not getting done today?

Tip 3 The answers you get to the questions in Tip 2 may then provide you with other solutions. Delegate it, defer it or dump it. The 3D approach is also useful when going through your email or paperwork and can help you deal with each item only once.

"We are what we repeatedly do, excellence then is not an act, but a habit." Aristotle

If these tips work for you on a daily basis, perhaps you could start from a monthly or weekly perspective? Let me know how it works for you.

Beverley Hamilton 2005