Too much to do. It's awful, isn't it? There's a tee shirt slogan that says, "I can only help one person a day. Today is not your day. Tomorrow doesn't look good, either."

I like to work deeply and focused intensely on a project I'm doing, instead of scattered about, jumping from email to phone call and all over the place like the way so many people work.

I get alot done, I think, by working this way. I call it, "Alternating Neglect". I'm not unlike most people...I procrastinate. When something calls for my attention, I'm on it and all over it until completion. But insodoing, in being so one-tracked minded, the completion of projects usually comes at the expense of avoiding something else--often a price to pay.

So then I hear complaints from another domain in my world... Example, "Mommy, you never have dinner with us any more," Or, "It's getting late on that marketing project and I need an update soon..." So, when others start screaming, that's where I go next, repeating the insanity of alternating neglect (Kinda like the "squeaky wheel gets the grease" cliche).

How to be a better time manager? Has anyone licked this gigantic problem? What works for you? Do prioritize? Plan your day? Make lists? Keep a calendar? It all sounds good. What really really works?

How is your email account? Are you like me, saving everything to folders and putting red flags on things, then never unflagging them or cleaning out old files? DO you pay your bills on time? What's your system?

What do you do with all the papers that come in the mail you need to respond to? I dump it all in a basket for later. It looks like crap.

I do have a filing cabinet at home and love it. I keep important papers organized, but the day to day stuff drives me mad.

Do you hate "social calls" as I do? Friends who want to "talk"? Who the hell has time to "talk"? Send me an email. I don't have an hour to chitchat. Am I mean?

Invitations to go anywhere make my heart beat fast. If I go out, I will surely get behind in my work.

I work 7 days a week always at my computer.

I want to find downtime...play my guitar. Get some fresh air. I think of it EVERY DAY and yet, never do it.

Looking for words of wisdom.. I know all the "book stuff" about time management, and I've even lectured in the classroom about it. My students who know me know this, "Do as I say, not as I do."

How can I be better?

Readers? Please advise.