nd not urgent for a time.

From what category do you find the instant message, phone call, email and colleague stopping by your office? These are almost always urgent, but not important. It's this category that sucks you away like quicksand in an old Tarzan movie.

You want to avoid the quicksand, don't you?

Mastering time management can take time. Seek out help to learn the skills you need to succeed and then apply it the best you can each day. The more you focus

It would be all too easy to say the worst enemy of time management can be found in the mirror. In many ways it's true. Unfortunately there is a greater enemy and its siren song of efficiency, timesavings, convenience and myriad other buzzwords trap us into thinking it is there for our benefit. Chances are you have at least one of these enemies within reach. You may even have several of these enemies surrounding you right now.

Telephones, messaging devices, instant messaging software and email create sources of distraction that prevent us from attending to what is truly important. Cell phones have amplified these distractions by combining interruptions from ringing phones, test messages, and voice mail and asking us to carry them with us everywhere.

As I write this article, my pockets contain a phone with a built in keyboard for convenient key entry (that's what they tell me), a blue tooth headset (which I thought I lost this morning and spent 45 minutes searching for it), my video Mp3 player (because everyone can watch Battlestar Galactica while doing something else, right?) and my tiny laptop computer, connected to a public WIFI network, is blinking email notifications and IM notifications are popping up in the back from people who want to ask me a "quick question."

All this blinking and beeping happens constantly while I sip my Chai Latte.

I know I'm not alone experiencing this chaos. How can it be managed?

In time management, there are two major categories of things to be done. There's the important and the unimportant. Diving each of these two categories is the urgent and not urgent.

People who know what their goals are should know what is important and not urgent. Those are the things which should have priority because they gain us the most freedom over time. Occasionally something important becomes urgent. It can be allowed to interrupt our focus from the important and not urgent for a time.

From what category do you find the instant message, phone call, email and colleague stopping by your office? These are almost always urgent, but not important. It's this category that sucks you away like quicksand in an old Tarzan movie.

You want to avoid the quicksand, don't you?

Mastering time management can take time. Seek out help to learn the skills you need to succeed and then apply it the best you can each day. The more you focus o

software and email create sources of distraction that prevent us from attending to what is truly important. Cell phones have amplified these distractions by combining interruptions from ringing phones, test messages, and voice mail and asking us to carry them with us everywhere.

As I write this article, my pockets contain a phone with a built in keyboard for convenient key entry (that's what they tell me), a blue tooth headset (which I thought I lost this morning and spent 45 minutes searching for it), my video Mp3 player (because everyone can watch Battlestar Galactica while doing something else, right?) and my tiny laptop computer, connected to a public WIFI network, is blinking email notifications and IM notifications are popping up in the back from people who want to ask me a "quick question."

All this blinking and beeping happens constantly while I sip my Chai Latte.

I know I'm not alone experiencing this chaos. How can it be managed?

In time management, there are two major categories of things to be done. There's the important and the unimportant. Diving each of these two categories is the urgent and not urgent.

People who know what their goals are should know what is important and not urgent. Those are the things which should have priority because they gain us the most freedom over time. Occasionally something important becomes urgent. It can be allowed to interrupt our focus from the important and not urgent for a time.

From what category do you find the instant message, phone call, email and colleague stopping by your office? These are almost always urgent, but not important. It's this category that sucks you away like quicksand in an old Tarzan movie.

You want to avoid the quicksand, don't you?

Mastering time management can take time. Seek out help to learn the skills you need to succeed and then apply it the best you can each day. The more you focus

5 minutes searching for it), my video Mp3 player (because everyone can watch Battlestar Galactica while doing something else, right?) and my tiny laptop computer, connected to a public WIFI network, is blinking email notifications and IM notifications are popping up in the back from people who want to ask me a "quick question."

All this blinking and beeping happens constantly while I sip my Chai Latte.

I know I'm not alone experiencing this chaos. How can it be managed?

In time management, there are two major categories of things to be done. There's the important and the unimportant. Diving each of these two categories is the urgent and not urgent.

People who know what their goals are should know what is important and not urgent. Those are the things which should have priority because they gain us the most freedom over time. Occasionally something important becomes urgent. It can be allowed to interrupt our focus from the important and not urgent for a time.

From what category do you find the instant message, phone call, email and colleague stopping by your office? These are almost always urgent, but not important. It's this category that sucks you away like quicksand in an old Tarzan movie.

You want to avoid the quicksand, don't you?

Mastering time management can take time. Seek out help to learn the skills you need to succeed and then apply it the best you can each day. The more you focus

In time management, there are two major categories of things to be done. There's the important and the unimportant. Diving each of these two categories is the urgent and not urgent.

People who know what their goals are should know what is important and not urgent. Those are the things which should have priority because they gain us the most freedom over time. Occasionally something important becomes urgent. It can be allowed to interrupt our focus from the important and not urgent for a time.

From what category do you find the instant message, phone call, email and colleague stopping by your office? These are almost always urgent, but not important. It's this category that sucks you away like quicksand in an old Tarzan movie.

You want to avoid the quicksand, don't you?

Mastering time management can take time. Seek out help to learn the skills you need to succeed and then apply it the best you can each day. The more you focus

nd not urgent for a time.

From what category do you find the instant message, phone call, email and colleague stopping by your office? These are almost always urgent, but not important. It's this category that sucks you away like quicksand in an old Tarzan movie.

You want to avoid the quicksand, don't you?

Mastering time management can take time. Seek out help to learn the skills you need to succeed and then apply it the best you can each day. The more you focus on what is important, but not urgent, the more you be able to enjoy your work. Fewer important, and urgent, situations will arise. Your stress will lower and you'll find that you are able to get more done in less time. It takes practice, but any skills worth learning do.