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Allow at least 25% more time than you've calculated for achieving your big goals, because there will always be unanticipated demands and opportunities, for instance, you never know when you might fall in love.

Try to make a plan at the beginning of the week to see where the days will be invested. Day by day planning is prone to lose a sense of the ultimate goals and priorities.

Set specific and comfortably achievable daily goals so that you know what you expect to accomplish every day.

If you do one thing, then you are by necessity saying "no" to doing something else. Be sure that's a conscious decision and you are aware of the opportunities you're turning down.

Be careful to what you commit yourself. It's very easy to feel important saying 'yes' to everything and everyone, then feel a fool when you let everyone down. Only take things on if you have the time and inclination to do them well, with lots of room to spare for the unexpected.

What's important is to act preventively to avert crises on the horizon, otherwise all you will ever be doing is reacting to crises.

Make sure you've made a considered decision on what really warrants your immediate attention. Once you're clear about such things, it feels a lot easier to say 'No, not yet' to seemingly urgent tasks that other people are pressing you for, but which you have confidently deemed not quite so urgent.

There are things that are very important in your life, like emotional-expression, physical exercise, and time with friends, but they aren't urgent. With this in mind, we mustn't let there be too many urgent things so that the important things get left out. This requires planning ahead, and saying 'No' when needs be, and of not being so greedy as to take on too much. It helps to remember that when you're saying 'No' to a tempting offer, you're actually saying 'Yes' to more important things. And when you're saying 'Yes', you're in effect saying 'No' to a whole range of other opportunities.

Keep a balance on route. Don't let your passion blind you to the other pillars of your life: your friends, your loved ones, your recreations.

You've got to be able to measure progress, so keep an eye on the clock and the calendar. Know what you need to achieve by when, then you'll know if you're on target. Find someone who can act as coach to whom you can report your progress.

Self-organisation is a key contributor to consistently high-performance over long periods of time. This requires a good grasp of how best to apportion your time and energy throughout the day and the week, work-time and leisure-time alike.

Is your use of your time each day and each week totally in line with your values in life? For instance, if you think that personal relationships are a real priority, then watching soaps for 5 hours per week could better be spent on the phone with friends, or making time so that you can have an afternoon with a loved one at the weekend. It's not uncommon to be accidentally allotting large chunks of our time to things or people for very out-dated reasons. Re-evaluate your life-priorities and reflect these in how much time you afford various things.

There's a huge pleasure in being organised, in completing things ahead of time rather than rushing to meet deadlines. Things always take up more time than you imagine they will because of preparation time and settling back into things.

You need rules for yourself about the minimum time you should spend with friends and loved ones and enjoying yourself, otherwise day to day pressures simply bully those essential ingredients out of your timetable. It is those essentials that give life quality and meaning.