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Good morning.

This is Laura.

Welcome to the Before Breakfast podcast.

Today's tip is that when you realize you can't complete everything on your to-do list,

identify any tasks that would result in serious consequences if you left them undone.

This provides a quick way to figure out what to do first.

I was reminded of this tip to ask what is most consequential, recently while reading through

Dick Zeller's book, Successful Time Management for Dummies. As long-time listeners know, I advise

considering your to-do list a contract with yourself. When you put a task on the

to-do list for the day or week, you are promising yourself that it will get done. But occasionally

our days go wildly off the rails. A very sick kid needs your care and presence. A dramatic plumbing emergency means there is water everywhere, or let's just hope it's water.

An important work project lands on your desk with a very tight deadline.

Suddenly, the reasonable to-do list that you are planning to complete becomes impossibly long.

So you have to regroup.

When you need to choose what to-do from your to-do list,

Zeller advises asking,

what, if not done today, will lead to a significant consequence?

I think this is a wise question. When you are feeling

stressed, it is tempting to look at your to-do list and choose the simplest or fastest tasks to complete.

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