In the past week, at least four of my customers in Jerusalem have turned round to me and complained: “I work very hard yet remain behind the ball game in completing my tasks”.

And how do they know that? Well, the ‘to do’ list piles up ever higher, as – more crucially – the bank reserves run down, because they are not able to complete deliverables on schedule.

Well, this is not a new subject. Moses wondered how he would get 600,000 Israelites out of Egypt on time. Today, there is plenty of on-line advice. Just take these two articles, posted this week: –

• 6 habits of successful people by Peter Economy
• 5 incredibly effective ways to work smarter by Jeff Haden

Good reads. As a business coach, I am looking to offer my clients a practical methodology. So I have come up with two methods.

First: Do not lie to yourself, because you cannot cheat the clock. There are only 24 hours in a day. In an average day, you cannot work more than about 10 hours. Beyond that, there may be one-off longer days, but they are not repeated constantly and certainly not with quality output.

And here is the clever part, be you a rising star in your organization, manager, or senior exec; all of us have to divide up our day between three or four different categories of work: admin, r&d, marketing and production. (And do not forget lunch breaks, which our bodily car engines need). Yes, each section applies to us and thus needs dedicated time.

So, if you take on a task, which seriously minimalises your time investment in one or more of the other groups, you are going to end up …just where you do now want to be. Why? Because you tried to invent hours that do not exist.

Second: Turn your phone off, twice a day, for one hour at a time, at least. If somebody calls you, when you are trying to concentrate on a task, that interruption – even if you just look to see who it is – puts you back in thought time and your ability to complete a task. I cannot think of one person in the world who needs to be on call 24/7, 365 days a year…… and that includes you and me.

So pls, work out what you intend to do with your next ten work hours, of which 20% of which does not involve your mobile phone. Have a productive work day!