In this podcast episode, I talk practical ways to restore margin in your life and, specifically, how to shave ten hours off your work week.

This is something I am personally having to re-apply to my own life. In this episode I share some of my current challenges.

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I love to-do lists. Are you a to-do list person? Not sure? Take this one question quiz to find out if you might be an official to-do list person.

Question: Have you ever completed a task that wasn’t on your to-do list, and then added it on to your to-do list, after you completed the task, just so you could enjoy the twisted satisfaction of crossing that task off of your to-do list?

I have been using task-management software since the late 90s, when I first installed a program developed by Franklin-Covey. Since then, I have tried almost every system available, including Things, Remember the Milk, OmniFocus, Midnight Inbox, iGTD, Wunderlist, and many more.

But the one I have used for more than four years is Nozbe. In my view, nothing else comes close. The company just released a new desktop version (both Windows and Mac), which I have been beta-testing for the past few months.

Do you feel overwhelmed by your e-mail? Do you feel like you are hopelessly behind and will never catch up? Do you feel like stuff is falling through the cracks? If so, I have great news. In this episode I talk about how to take control of your e-mail inbox. Specifically, I outline four behaviors that will transform how you think about e-mail.

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I often write and speak on workload management. But even I occasionally get overwhelmed by the sheer volume of requests and assignments. I’m in such a state right now.

In the last week I’ve attended board meetings for three different companies. Two were out of town. In addition, I have spoken publicly five times and am right in the middle of reviewing the copy-edited manuscript for my new book.

I awoke this morning to the dragon’s hot breath on my face. I was disoriented, not quite knowing where I was. I struggled to open one eye. Then another.

And there he was. A dragon. A very big dragon. With three heads. Sitting in my bedroom, like so many mornings before, he was waiting. His heads swerved back and forth, dancing in the dim light. Each head alternately belching fire and hissing smoke.

Everyone’s heard of the “To-Do List.” Whether you use Outlook, Gmail, a dedicated task manager like Nozbe (which I use), or the back of a paper napkin, the idea is the same: you list in priority order the items you want to get done. Simple. Elegant. Powerful.

Until you have more items that you can physically get done.

Over the last few months, people have asked how I am doing since leaving my CEO post at Thomas Nelson. For the most part, great. I am really enjoying this new phase of my life.

But last week, I was feeling overwhelmed. It seemed that I was spending all day, every day mired in administrative detail—responding to emails, making travel plans, and filling out expense reports. Ugh.

Be honest. You’re distracted, right? In fact, that’s probably why you are reading this blog post instead of working on that project you should be working on now.

Maybe you’re like my friend, Justin, who told me a few weeks ago that he was having real trouble making progress on his book. “The deadline is looming,” he admitted. “But I can’t seem to get focused.”

I wrestle with this question everyday, if not several times a day. Most of the things pinging our brain for attention our merely urgent but often trivial.

In this brief, two-minute video clip, Behance founder and CEO Scott Belsky discusses how today often trumps tomorrow and what happens when it does. He then discusses how to distinguish between the urgent and the important.