In Steven Covey's successful book, The Seven Habits of Highly Successful People, the author outlines a four-quadrant method of time management that divides tasks into categories such as Urgent and Important, Not Urgent but Important, Urgent but Not Important, and Not Urgent and Not Important.

Like many of you, I have lived by these principles only to discover that the other side was working hard to create confusion by labeling everything either urgent or important or both. That means I have to work harder to sift through the dissonance and determine what is really urgent and important before I can begin to prioritize. If you have experienced similar confusion, here are a few things to consider. By the way, better time management is high on my list of 2005 initiatives (I don't really like the word resolutions ).

1) Read the email, but then pick up the phone. It is incredibly easy to send someone an email that requests completion of a task and sets an arbitrary deadline. We all do it. Multiply that request by 200 and you get an idea of how overwhelming these daily email requests can be. To preserve any semblance of sanity, I try to negotiate deadlines if possible and employ all my skills of diplomacy in the meantime. I always approach each request in the spirit of my willingness to assist (which is true), but in light of my packed schedule (also true).