10SECRETS.(A)

Focusing on only priority tasks is one of the biggest mistakes busy people make. Priorities are handled - and replaced with new ones. Secondary chores, often as vital as the top-rung tasks in the long run, remain ignored.

The solution is to stop making single to-do lists, prioritized from the top down, says executive coach David Allen. Allen, whose clients range from Oracle Corp. to the World Bank, recommends taking advantage of every moment by

breaking down tasks into four categories: type, time available, energy available and priority.

Free Productivity" (Viking Press, 2001). "At any point in time, the first thingto consider is what could you possibly do where you are with the tools you have?"

If you have all your tasks listed on a single to-do list, but you can't do manyof them in the same context, "You force yourself to keep reconsidering all of them," he explained.

Time available. If you have 10 minutes to kill, find a short task to do, Allen says. If you have only a master list of major items, you won't be able to do any of them in 10 minutes and you'll wind up wasting the time. Waste 10 minutessix times a day, and you've lost an hour. Repeat that five days a week, and you've lost more than half a day.

"If you need to do those shorter tasks anyway, the most productive way to get them done is to use the little 'weird time' windows throughout the day," Allen said.