This is critical. If you do not have your relationship with God in order, then how can you expect to know the right thing you are supposed to be doing? Spend time daily in God’s Word and in prayer. Ask the Lord to give you wisdom in setting your priorities for the day.

If you don’t know what God has designed you to do, then it is hard to know what your ultimate priorities should be. Seek to know God’s will for your life. Primarily, it starts with obeying God’s Word every day. When you obey the principles set out in the Bible then you will be sensitive to the Holy Spirit’s leading so that you can know and obey God’s plan.

This is a time to sit down and think about what has been accomplished over the last week and what is coming up in the next week or months. This doesn’t have to take too much time, but it needs to be done.

It may not be true with everyone, but many people I know have trouble turning down requests to do unimportant tasks.

You don’t have to turn down every fun project pitched your way, but if a project does not help you follow God’s will, then why would you agree to do it? Agree to projects based on your priorities and desire to do God’s will in your life.

Do Important Tasks, Not Just Urgent Ones: Sometimes urgent items are important, but many times they are not.

If you will not respect your own priorities and tasks then you can’t expect others to respect them for you.

I carry a sheet of notebook paper folded into an 8-page booklet for this purpose. I find this is the best way to capture ideas quickly and then I can transfer them to other places as needed when I take time to sit down and think.

You must know what needs to be done and what can be put off during that time. If you don’t know what is on your calendar or your to-do list, then you cannot devote your attention to the task or person at hand.

Live as if Today Were Your Last: The Bible says we aren’t given any promise of tomorrow (Proverbs 27:1). You need to live so that you accomplish what you believe is important at the moment based on your priorities and God’s will at this time (James 4:14). This may be playing a board game with your children, preparing a sermon or fixing a leaky tap or valve. I can’t tell you what is important, but you should know what that is. If you aren’t sure then you need to spend time with the other tips here.

While we should live knowing that tomorrow may never come, we also know that it is wise to plan for the future. Proverbs 6:6-8 says we should take a lesson from the ant that plans for the future. Proverbs 16:9 says that we should plan and allow God to direct in and through our planning. If you don’t sit down and count the cost of a project, there is no reasonable way to expect that it will be accomplished. Planning is necessary.

While you must plan, you should also be flexible in those plans and allow the Holy Spirit to guide you (Proverbs 16:9, 2 Corinthians 5:7)