I often feel overwhelmed by the amount of projects on my plate at a given time. These days, our personal and professional lives get so mixed up together that there are no clear lines between them. This has it’s benefits and flaws, but it is the way it is.

With so much to do, how are we supposed to effectively manage the information overload? I constantly have 5-10 projects for clients, 5-10 internal projects, writing, and all the personal projects like clean out the garage or pressure wash the porch. In addition, I get hundreds of emails a day and at least 10-20 phone calls and voicemail messages.

If I don’t respond for a single day, I’ve overloaded and feel buried under a pile of catch-up work. So how do you effectively manage projects and still find time to have a personal life?

I don’t know, but over time I have been getting better at prioritizing exactly what I really need to be doing. The first step, I believe, is to determine if it’s really even worth your time at all. If it isn’t, don’t do it. If it is, then you  move on to managing all the important things on your to-do lists.

I have read some of the big productivity books such as The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People and The E-Myth Revisited, and while the concepts in these books is sound, there is no practical information on how to apply them.

My wife just gave me Getting Things Done by David Allen. I have been wanting to read it for some time, and from what I have read so far it has some solid, practical advice on how to actually get stuff done. I’ll post a more thorough review once I’ve read and applied some of the principles and recommendations.