You will feel less stressed when you use this simple idea. You'll make better use of the time you have and feel much better about how you use your time. To have this happen all you need to do is analyze the whole project and break it down into the individual actions involved. You may think of a project as some huge undertaking that you're involved in at work. But a project is anything that requires more than one action on your part.

If you don't break projects down into actions each time you think about the project you have to make a decision. Every time you think about the project you have to decide what your next step should be or you decide to table it yet again and think about it later. That means every time you think about the project you're doing unnecessary mental work that increases your level of stress.

So rather than having a list of projects you want to develop a list of next actions. When you're feeling overwhelmed because you have so much to do and not enough time and you're looking at a list of projects it only makes you feel more confused and frustrated because you're too frazzled to make a good decision about what you should do next. Contrast that to when you're in the same situation and you have a list of actions in front of you. When you have a list of actions there are fewer decisions to make. You can look at your list and scan down the list and choose one action you can do now. There are two ways you can approach that choice.

One way you might approach that choice is to make it based on the amount of time you have available at the moment. No matter how well you try to plan your day there will be little odd time lots anywhere from 5-15 minutes throughout your day. Not enough time to delve into anything too complicated, but just enough time to do some quick tasks.

That choice may also be made based on priority. Now as you scan your list of actions you're looking for the one most important action you can take. This is the action that has the potential to produce the greatest results. As you get in the habit of making choices based on their greatest potential for value you're developing good time management skills that will help you to get more value from your time and have less stress.

Get more focused by having a list of next actions. Don't close shop for the day until you've had a chance to scan your list actions to choose the 1-3 most important actions you'll take the next day. Plan when you'll take those actions. If you get in the habit of doing this when the next day comes you'll know exactly what you want to do and when and if you'll hold yourself accountable you'll get a lot more done with better results and less stress.