Designate specific hours for work, family, and self-care, and don’t let them bleed into each other.Writing staff performance reviews or answering emails while trying to interact with someone you love doesn’t give either commitment the attention it deserves.&nbsp;

Honor the priority of the moment

Schedule a “buffer zone” — say, 15 to 30 minutes before and after each significant task.This builds in the breaks you need to be effective and acknowledges that all tasks require some kind of mental and physical transition time. It also helps you tend to unexpected items that crop up during the day.

Build in buffer zones

Everyone has peak times of energy, creativity, and mental focus,Plan to accomplish demanding tasks when you’re likely to be charged up; the least important or challenging when you’re more likely to have low energy or needing some kind of break.

Know when you work best

<ul><li>Time yourself doing the same task on 3 different occasions and then determine and average.&nbsp;That number will give you a good guideline to follow when making similar future time commitments.&nbsp;</li><li>Double the amount of time you think something “should” take.</li><li>Avoid scheduling more than one ultra-demanding task for the same day.</li></ul>

Understand your limits

“When you are overscheduled, you have no time to reflect on your priorities and your to-do lists, and you very easily get caught up in — and spend an enormous amount of time on — things that are not necessarily important.”

<ul><li>Turn off your email notifications, and close down any social networking or instant-messaging tools before you begin your work session.&nbsp;</li><li>Set a timer on your phone&nbsp;to alert you when your allotted time is almost up.&nbsp;</li><li>If you see that you are running significantly behind, proactively reschedule or delegate any items that can’t be&nbsp;accomplished within the confines of your current schedule</li></ul>

Harness the power of technology

We get the sense, because there is so much on our plate, that we have to be able to do a number of things simultaneously.&nbsp;But the energy signal in a human’s focusing system is binary. You are either focused or you are not.&nbsp;If you have 10 balls in the air, nine of them are in free fall.

Fight the urge to multitask

Most of us pack our calendars to the gills in an effort to get more done. We commit to more than we should, assuming that we'll somehow squeeze it all in. Often, we ignore the consequences of overscheduling until we become so exhausted we can't keep up, sometimes to the detriment of our health and our closest relationships.

JULIE MORGENSTERN

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