In 2015 I started a new job. I struggled to break into the corporate world. I had exciting and interesting jobs previously but finding a career path took me a long time. Once I found it, I clung to it. Unwilling to be anything but the best possible employee.

Starting out that was great. With any new job I started at the bottom. The workload was manageable. I was single and energetic. I threw all of my time into work.

Soon after, I met a woman that enchanted me. I progressed at work and took on larger initiatives. Within a year I had a new role at the company. My one constant was that my role continued to change and demand more from me.

At home, I spent more time with this incredible woman. We went to found fun activities and took every opportunity to spend time together.

Pretty soon, something had to give. I began completing work too close to the deadline. I didn't feel like the work I did had the polish I expected from myself. I was pulled in a dozen directions - always getting more work with ever shorter due dates. I began to scramble.

I didn't have more work than I could do, but I did have more work than I was able to manage without a system.

I had a healthy commute and have always loved audiobooks. I took a break from Tom Clancy and began listening to business books. One of the very first business books I played was How To Win Friends and Influence People by Stephen Covey.

The book itself is excellent but in it I found a seed of guidance that would transform work and has played a big part in how I generally organize my life. The frustrating part is how simple - even obvious - it is. But within days of implementing it I was again churning out excellent work. Polished and on-time.

Additionally, I grew my stature within the company. I was sought for new projects and took on higher profile roles. No, this framework isn't magic. But, if you are unhappy with your current work product and want to get back to excellence this just might be what you need.

This one is super useful but it takes some honest analysis - which can be a challenge.

The two concepts are Importance and Urgency. Quickly, let's define how both are used:

The purpose of this exercise is to evaluate which tasks do I feel like I should be doing versus which tasks should I actually be doing. For me this was a HUGE surprise. I was attaching urgent to most tasks - but only a few were truly urgent.

Here's how it looks and works:

Write down EVERYTHING you need to do, place each task into one of the four quadrants. I use the blue Not Important / Not Urgent quadrant for future things. If I never get to them it doesn't matter.

Okay, go back and review Important / Urgent.

Does it ALL really belong there? Move out everything that FEELS urgent but isn't really urgent.

Next, move out the things that are urgent to someone else but not urgent to you.

Be ruthless here. You can probably empty out that quadrant except for a few items.

Okay, how does that look? Most of us think the majority of our work is urgent but actually it isn't. That's a really good thing!

Box 1: These are your priority. Things that really need to be done immediately. Get to work and knock these out. Do your best to keep this box empty. When a task hits this box make sure it is the next thing you do (or else it really shouldn't be here).

Box 2: This is your sweet spot. This is where you bring your unique value. It's where you think and analyze. This is why your company hired you and not another applicant. Spend most of your time working here - these are real value add tasks.

Box 3: These tasks usually have a time limit - if not done by X time or date they won't get accomplished. That's okay. If they don't get done just mark them off the list and move on. Why? Because they aren't important. They aren't advancing your goals or aims. Do these ONLY when Boxes 1 and 2 are empty OR if Box 1 is empty and Box 2 items can wait.

Box 4: If a work task ends up in Box 4 it probably shouldn't be done. It's neither urgent or important. I use Box 4 for future items. Some may be big like "start a new company" or small like "go to the library for new book". Use this however you like. If these items never happen that's okay too.

Most of the tasks I stayed late to accomplish felt important but were not. They took time from the truly important work. Reprioritize and be ruthless.

An excellent piece of fraudsters from the Financial Times:

Thanks so much for reading. If you found this helpful or think a friend might please share!

Let me know what you think, I'd appreciate any feedback. I'm working to build in public so I appreciate the support.

Also, I'm on Twitter @lotofmoderation. I'd be honored to hear from you.