Many of us set out each day, especially each Monday, with a spring in our step and the greatest of intentions to do many of the business tasks that we have been putting off for far too long.  History has shown, however, that as business owners or managers when we walk through the door to the office our best laid plans are going to be sidetracked.

Mondays seem to frequently start for me as mentioned above and then quickly spiral out of control; all of a sudden it is 6:30 or 7 pm and while I have been frantically busy all day, I have not checked one item off of my best laid Monday plan.  Unlike Office Space, as a CEO, this is what I call our Case of the Mondays.  While I will take our Mondays over the cubicle nation Mondays depicted in the movie any day, I still feel less than fulfilled after a day like this of heavy firefighting.

I recently read a great article by Peter Bregman for Harvard Business Review with tangible steps to managing your day.  As today is a Monday and we still have four more days left this week, I thought this might be particularly applicable to making the most out of not just tomorrow but the rest of the week.

[Below is an excerpt from Harvard Business Review]

An 18-Minute Plan for Managing Your Day

Yesterday started with the best of intentions. I walked into my office in the morning with a vague sense of what I wanted to accomplish. Then I sat down, turned on my computer, and checked my email. Two hours later, after fighting several fires, solving other people’s problems, and dealing with whatever happened to be thrown at me through my computer and phone, I could hardly remember what I had set out to accomplish when I first turned on my computer. I’d been ambushed. And I know better.

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