The secret of avoiding work pressure is thinking ahead. Every day you need to review your progress towards objectives and decide how you can best use the time available to make further progress. You may find this is best done at the start of your working day but some people prefer to have a planning session just before they finish. Whichever you select - and you may need to experiment to find what suits you best- find some way of fitting the activity into your schedule. Never say, '1 don't have time to plan today'.

Managers at all levels occasionally find they have taken on more than they can cope with. This is not a crime, but you must examine the reasons for such a situation and then plan a course of action. Until the problem is resolved, most of your time and energy will go into worrying about the situation and you will feel unmotivated. Think too about how to prevent it happening again. This may require you to be firm and avoid agreeing to more than is realistic.

If a review of your working practices shows that you are too much of a perfectionist, do something about this. Modern definitions of quality refer to 'fitness for purpose'. If you bear this in mind, you may find it easier to persuade yourself to settle for an acceptable level of quality rather than perfection. When thinking about objectives and planning how to achieve them, consider how thoroughly you need to do something in order to meet your requirements. Unless you have spare time, do not spend extra hours on an activity in an effort to cover absolutely everything.

If your review of a period of time shows that you are spending time on things that are not really necessary or important, then think hard about whether you can afford this time. Many people file unnecessary papers and attend endless, unproductive meetings. Even top managers can be guilty of misdirecting their efforts by supervising subordinates too closely or failing to delegate. If you question the necessity of certain work, you may find it easier to avoid these misdirected efforts and this will better inform. your planning in the future. In order to complete a task well, it may not be necessary to deal with every detail.