Managing your priorities based on what you need to achieve requires you to be proactive as opposed to reactive with your time.

Productivity levels vs. Business requirements

Some people are most productive early in the morning, others peak in the afternoon. Schedule your important tasks where possible to take advantage of this.

Business levels of course also play a role, there is no point scheduling time for project work on a Monday morning if you know this is your busiest day operationally of the week.

Whenever possible plan your daily schedule to match both your own prime time and the best time for the business. 

Step 1 - Identify available time - How many hours do you have available in the working day?

Step 2 - Schedule essential actions - What actions have to be done by you in the working day?

Step 3 - Schedule high priority activities - Schedule in any urgent/important activities first and then the important not urgent

Step 4 - Schedule some contingency time - Your experience will tell you how much, this will allow you flexibility to rearrange tasks but still have time to work on them

Step 5 - Schedule discretionary time - this is the proactive time available to work on your goals

Step 6 - Analyse your activities - If you find you have little or no discretionary time, then you need to question again if all the tasks are necessary that you are completing. Who could possibly help you? Can things be dealt with in a more time efficient way? Can you delegate things? Can technology help you in some way?