Sound familiar? No, I’m not talking about the song. I’m talking about the refrain in our lives. So many things to do, so little time to do it. These statements can really hit home.

We relate, then we laugh, then we puzzle over them, surveying our lives and the effect time has on them. It seems everyone is running out of time before the tasks are completed. It leaves for a great amount of stress in our lives.

Even the stress comes in different packages at different times and with different people. Are you perennially under pressure because of work, at the office and at home, that must be done? Do you suffer from deadline pressure? Do you find at the end of the day you haven’t even touched the important tasks?

There are steps that can make it a little easier and a little less stressful to get things done. The very first thing is to decide what works for you. Here is a system to consider, but be sure to adjust it to suit you and the way you work best.

First, you will need some way to keep track of the tasks. Are you a palm pilot kind of person or does a day planner work better for you? The key, after you’ve tried different tracking systems and found the one you like, is to use it for everything that needs to be done. No more scraps of paper or double calendars.

Second, find a good system to prioritize the tasks. It’s so easy to plug away at unnecessary tasks and find at the end of the day you’re no closer to your goals. You might label each task with an “A, B, or C” as you enter it on your list.

'A' tasks call for first attention. Their deadlines might be more immediate or they may need more concentrated time or time over a longer period. A speech at the yearly convention is a good example of an 'A' task.

'B' tasks are necessary tasks but less important than 'A' tasks or have a finish period which is farther out than 'A' tasks. A task that has a deadline three months away and will take an hour or two to complete is a 'B' task.

'C' tasks are those you would like to see done but they don’t have the impact on your goals as 'A' and 'B' tasks do. An example of a 'C' task is rearranging an untidy drawer. You can get to what you need but it does need to be reorganized. Right now you can tolerate it, but it is in need of attention when you can devote the time.

Having a master schedule of recurring tasks is a time saver. Checking e-mail and telephone messages at a particular time each day frees up lots of time for most people. It can become a real threat to our schedule if we allow ourselves to constantly check throughout the day. It disrupts our concentration and steals time away.

The third step to managing your time is to block out the time needed for a task. Let’s look at the 'A' task. You need to have an hour’s speech for your convention which is three months away. You want the speech to be completed three weeks before the convention so that you can send it to the planners to include in their catalogue of speeches and workshops. Working from that date, you set up a schedule of time blocks to work on the speech. In those time blocks, you list tasks to be done.

The schedule might begin like this: Target date to send speech - August 15 June 4 – Plan topic Set tentative title List areas to cover Break areas into sections Plan when to work on sections

Setting times to work on the speech, listing areas to work on, people who might be needed to help, will make the large task manageable.

Chunking is a useful way to work on large tasks. Breaking the task down to sizable chunks and scheduling chunks of time often allows you to accomplish more than if you tried to catch a few minutes then find yourself interrupted by something else.

In planning your schedule you might find that working on the most worrisome task or the one with the closest deadline will lower your stress level. And finding help, either by delegating to those who work for you or those in your family, or buying time by hiring someone to take chores off your list can be a great strategy. Having someone do the research for that speech, having three bins set up in the laundry room so your family can separate their clothes into colors, whites, and gentle, hiring a housekeeper even if only for big jobs or once a month, buys you extra time to work on tasks that only you can do.

Knowing what overloads you and contributes to your stress will help you stay within safe boundaries. Keeping stress low allows you to use your energy where it is most beneficial – on the tasks themselves.

Planning for crises and emergencies before they happen is another way to lower stress and use time well. In an emergency, time lost looking for equipment or telephone numbers can be another step toward true disaster.