[emeraldlonewoulf]

Here is an analogy my mother gave me several years ago in regard to this very problem:

Think of all the time you have as being inside a jar. There is only so much, and then you have none. Take the big things, the really, truly important things, and put them in first, rather like a pile of rocks.

Then you have a jar full of rocks. but wait, there's space between. So you pick the gravel (the not as quite important things) and fit them in around the rocks. Then the jar is really full. But again, then you can take sand, and fill the space to the very brim. Now the jar has to be full, right?

Wrong. then you can pour water in, and it will fill the tiniest, tiniest bits of space between the sand.


And now, you have your time planned around the big important things, so they get done, but you can see where to put all the other little crap that has to be done in life, too. And around it you have the flexible, interchangeable stuff that doesn't matter when but it still needs to get done.

Just try to start by focusing on the big, important things, and then work the other stuff in around it.

I found this really helped when I was trying to prioritze and plan things, both in my daily home life and at work.