220 Management skills Some people find it difficult, if not impossible, to plan their work ahead. They find that they work best if they have to achieve almost impossible deadlines. Working under pressure concentrates the mind wonderfully, they say. But ordinary mortals, who work under a variety of conflicting pres- sures, cannot rely upon crisis action to get them out of logjams of work. For most of us it is better to try to minimize the need for working under exceptional pressure by a little attention to the organization of our week or day. At the very least you should use your diary for long-range planning, organizing your weekly activities in broad outline and planning each day in as much detail as possible. You can then use a daily organizer to good purpose. Use your diary Attempt to leave at least one day a week free of meetings and avoid filling any day with appointments. In other words, leave blocks of unallocated time for planning, thinking, reading, writing and dealing with the unex- pected. Sit down at the beginning of each week with your electronic, desk or pocket diary and plan how you are going to spend your time. Assess each of your projects or tasks and work out priorities. Leave blocks of time for dealing with e-mails and other correspondence and seeing people. Try to preserve one free day, or at least half a day, if at all possible. If it helps you, record on Microsoft Outlook organizing software or on paper what you intend to do each morning, afternoon and, if it's work, evening. Use a daily organizer At the beginning of each day, consult your electronic, pocket or desk diary to check on your plans and commitments. Refer to the previous day's organ- izer to find out what is outstanding. Inspect your pending tray, in-tray and incoming e-mails to check on what remains and what has just arrived. Then enter or write down the things to do: meetings or interviews; respond to e-mails; telephone calls; tasks in order of priority: ­ A: must be done today; ­ B: ideally should be done today but could be left till tomorrow; ­ C: can be dealt with later. Plan broadly when you are going to fit your A and B priority tasks into the day. Tick off your tasks as they are completed. Retain the list to consult next day. You can use your electronic organizer to do this. But many successful