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Try this: Get all mandatory work done before lunch.

This has long been a secret of successful executives. Obviously, it requires a significant amount of organization and discipline. Learning to prioritize is key to winning in this particular time management program. Understand that fixed duties and tasks must be accomplished in half the time, four to five hours, usually completed during the course of a full day, eight to ten hours.

Maintaining control of this schedule can instantly go awry with a mere phone call or urgent requisition. Control is the integral part of reaching achievement with this program. If practiced, such urgent matters will have a place to fall, as the daily schedule allows for a cushion of several hours. Interestingly enough, this level of organization lends itself to a reduced number of critical issues. Hmm, go figure.

Imagine having control over the destiny of your day, your firm, or your department. The tools are available to aid in this quest. Database maintenance, online or in-house, reduces the amount of cold sourcing, a time-consuming task, needed when commencing a recruitment or departmental project. Calendaring morning events with strict adherence to the "half-time" policy further facilitates its success. Keeping a strict "email check" plan eliminates time squabbled away on the internet or responding to trivial emails.

Differentiate what you conceive as mandatory and then make a list - a chore sheet, if you will, to hold fast to during your first four to five hours of work. Make your chore sheet binding, checking items off as completed. The sense of accomplishment will follow you throughout the rest of your day, allowing even more work to be achieved in a single day than thought possible.

The flexible nature of the second half of your day creates allowance for, not only making uninterrupted follow-up calls, but also a chance to respond to those trivial emails. Having the afternoon to be utilized at your own discretion may seem a completely foreign concept, but it is plausible. This time will also allow for innovation for "a better way." After all, isn't that what we are all seeking?

Imagine this: Getting all mandatory work done before lunch.

“Stop thinking in terms of limitations and start thinking in terms of possibilities” - Terry Josephson

"Half the day is gone by ten o'clock." - my Mom