Why is it that some people are so good at effective time management? How do they find the energy to continually move forward, appreciating the successes and learning from failures? They seem to achieve so much more in the same time.
Successful people take a step back and take responsibility for their personal goals, checking that they are in line with their professional goals.
This makes it much easier to maintain a positive mindset or framework to achieving those goals.
For effective time management you have to own your decisions and take responsibility for the way you spend your time.
Do your activities move you towards achieving those goals or away from them? Pareto's principle states that 80% of your activities are only 20% effective in achieving your goals.
Successful people use their time more effectively because they make sure that they spend more time on the important activities that move them towards their goals.
Eisenhower summed this problem up when he said:

"What is important is seldom urgent and what is urgent is seldom important.
"

The destinction between important and urgent can be made as follows:

• "Important activities have an outcome that leads to the achievement of your goals, whether these are professional or personal.
  
• Urgent activities demand immediate attention, and are often associated with the achievement of someone else's goals.
  "

Label your "To Do" List 1,2,3,4.
You need to get the tasks in Box 1 done first.
These are the urgent as well as important things, like a deadline driven project, or urgent customer requests.
Make sure you do these tasks, but keep your focus mainly on tasks labelled "2″.
These are the important, non-urgent tasks you have to plan or they will become urgent.
In small businesses a really important, non-urgent activity is nurturing long term and profitable relationships with customers, suppliers and employees.
And also thinking and planning.
The tasks in Box 3 are not value added tasks, and you should try and delegate them to someone else.
They may seem urgent but they are not important, such as interruptions, some phone calls, some meetings, and other distractions.
Finally you should eliminate the tasks in Box 4 altogether as they are neither urgent or important, and these can include trivia and dealing with time wasters.
The long term result of prioritizing tasks is being able to structure your working day in a 'profit habit', doing more of the profit making activities, and not getting distracted.