I will borrow from the famous carpenter saying, measure twice, and cut once . When you are up to your armpits in chaos, already 3 hours behind and it's not even Noon and you have more work on your plate that when you started the day, guess what, you're done like toast. It is virtually impossible to turn a day like this one around. Once the disasters start to come, fast and furious, all that you are left with is just trying to survive till the end of the day. We have all experienced days like this one. The question is, what are we prepared to do so we don't experience any more like it? Try this,

• Spend 5 minutes per hour on planning your activities for every hour you will work the next day.
• For every hour of production or work you want to do the next day, spend 5 minutes on thinking about what and how you are going to do it.
• For an 8-hour day, you will spend 40 minutes, the day before getting ready for it.

When I say this in a seminar room, in front of 40 people, the room goes deathly silent. I can see them thinking, is this a joke or what, I'm already behind, I can't even begin to do what is on my plate now and he wants me to spend more time, time I clearly do not have, on just thinking about what I'm going to do? Yes, this must be a joke.

No it's not a joke. I'm deadly serious. If you are not serious enough to actually think about, plan, organize, prioritize your activities for tomorrow or any day for that matter, then you will be sentencing yourself to many more chaotic and unsatisfying days ahead.

It's ironic that the very commodity that we seem to be in so short supply of, time, is the commodity that will allow us to get control back, be more productive, get more done and ultimately become happier, if we just bite the bullet and use what we are already using, but in a more useful manner.

Forty minutes is not a long time. When was the last time you spent 40 minutes just getting your ducks in a row for the next day? Never, sounds about right for most people. Do not knock it until you have tried it.