When you have many different demands on your time, you must decide which ones to do first, when to do them and how to do them. It is useful to keep a to-do list on your desk, and then allocate the tasks to different days in your diary. Mark the tasks on your list as:

A: Urgent and important – do it soon!

B: Important – do it this week

C: Do it this month

Put both your personal and work tasks on the list, but try to separate them.

If you are too busy to do something, or it is inappropriate for you to do it, then you should hand the task to someone else. This is called delegating.

You must also plan your use of time and set your objectives. Objectives are the things that you plan to achieve. If you are clear about your objectives you can do things in a useful order more easily. Plan your objectives as:

• Long-term objectives (this year – for example complete my UNISA course)
• Medium-term objectives (this month – for example complete the funding report)
• Short-term objectives (this week – for example run a workshop for community)