How to Manage Your Priorities

4Planning and Scheduling

Learning Objectives

By the end of this chapter, you should be able to:

•  Describe the key components of an action plan for managing your priorities.

•  Explain the criteria for determining whether you need an action plan for a specific task or project.

•  Develop an action plan to achieve a specific goal.

•  Describe the signs that an action plan needs to be revised or dropped.

•  Build and follow a realistic schedule.

Good intentions aside, we seldom get things done just by setting goals and deciding what is most important. Often, in fact, we embark on complicated projects with little idea about what needs to be done ...