Many leaders I know struggle with over-commitment. Dozens of great opportunities come our way, but there’s no way to do them all—or at least do them all well.

Most of us long for balance in our life and margin in our days. We don’t like the feeling of being over committed, but we find ourselves there more often than we like. This is because any organization, church, or community group we choose to be involved in most likely has a shortage of good leaders. Once a leader becomes involved in the group, it’s only a matter of time before the requests to take a leadership role start rolling in.

One of the great stressors in life is that feeling that we’ve forgotten something important. Each day we are bombarded with so many demands on our time that we are simply unable to act on them all, forcing us to tread carefully through a time management mine field for most of the day.

Our inboxes contain requests for the trivial and the important, all watered down by endless junk mail that is specifically designed to grab our attention. Voicemails allow others to drop off assignments and due dates over which we have little or no control. Poorly led meetings eat up valuable time, and drop off the occasional action item as well.

My to-do list is at the center of my personal workflow. Like you, I am bombarded with scores—sometimes hundreds—of requests every day. They show up in my inbox, on the phone, and at my door. All of them want action now.

That’s why years ago, I learned the importance of creating a daily to-do list. It might sound simple, but I don’t know of a more important productivity tool.

Whenever I write or speak on the topic of delegation (as I did yesterday), I always get a question from someone who says, “But what if you don’t have a staff? How can you delegate?” This question typically comes from staff people, technicians, stand-alone professionals, or start-up entrepreneurs. It’s a great question.