The simple act of planning every day in advance can make you one of the most productive members of your profession and eliminate the threat of procrastination and many wasted hours at work. Whatever you are trying to achieve in your worklife (or in your personal life, for that matter) can be broken down into smaller steps, and each of these steps need to appear on your daily list of priorities until they are accomplished.

Your most powerful weapon in increasing your personal productivity is your capacity and, perhaps more importantly, willingness to choose the most important objectives for each day. How do you choose the most important tasks for each day? Well, sometimes the answer is obvious if you have a manager or other boss who gives you specific to do lists on a regular basis.

Otherwise, it really goes back to your primary goals you have set for yourself. If you haven't done this, what are you waiting for? Decide exactly what you wish to achieve in each area of your life over the next six months, one year, and beyond. From these long-term objectives you can create smaller goals to serve as milestones along the way. These can then be broken down further until you have a list of monthly objectives, weekly objectives, and even daily objectives.

No matter what kind of project you have before you, making a list of everything you have to do in order to accomplish the primary goal is simple but of great importance. It doesn't matter what kind of system you are using, as both computer software and paper planners should seek to accomplish the same thing. More important than the technology is your decision and determination to accomplish each of the important items on your list one by one.

The simple act of deciding on the five or six most important items you need to accomplish each day can make you incredibly productive. You can make this list the first thing in the morning or during the previous night just before you go to bed. And don't overlook this tip because of its simplicity, as its effectiveness will be clear once you begin to implement this. You will become encouraged by the results, and this can create great momentum to propel you forward towards even greater results.

What you are really doing by creating a simple list each day is determining what kind of tasks are essential and the most beneficial among all the things you could be doing in any given day.