I recall in my first few years as a junior executive in a mid-sized company I felt like I wasn’t in control of my day. The number of people who could call me and ask for something was more than ever before. I felt responsible for so many products and people. It was overwhelming. I often felt like my day had a mind of its own, and it went whatever direction it wanted.

I would spend days catching up on email, running from one project or another and leaving the office with so much work not-done that I felt like a failure. My day felt out of control. I wasn’t making enough progress on the things that were falling on my desk. I was losing the battle on all fronts.

I decided I needed to regain control of my day. I took stock of my work, and planned to choose my day. I started with a high-level decision about what my priorities were for the quarter. I asked myself “where do I need to spend my time to achieve the biggest results?” It was a risk to focus on a few things, but I knew I was bad at trying to focus on everything.

At the beginning of each week, I would review my calendar for the week ahead and measured it according to my priorities. I was looking in particular at those activities that only I could do and required my attention. I was also comparing the time spent with progress I needed on the one or two key priorities. And finally, I was working to be sure I had enough open time to deal with surprise things I knew would come up.

Each morning I looked at the meetings on my calendar again and evaluated them against my plan for the week. I became better at declining meetings that could happen without me and did not impact my priorities. I actively looked for opportunities to delegate responsibility to my staff as both development opportunity and time savings for me. I limited the number of meetings each day to allow for some free time to talk to my staff. I planned to limit the number of different topics I was switching between in a day.

One of the most useful outcomes was that I had a scorecard for success for each day. At the beginning of the day, I would set a goal that I could achieve. When I prioritized my tasks well, I would achieve my goal. I didn’t do everything asked of me, and there was work I left not-done. My scorecard reflected my success at staying focused.

I became better at finishing the most important work. I regained my sense of success in my role even when there was work I could not complete. I could demonstrate that I was making forward progress on the key projects.