The successful manager realizes that personal mastery of time management is not an option - it is THE essential pre-condition to success as a manager.

When I'm coaching managers, it's often difficult for them to grasp this concept - that you can be good - or excellent, even superlative - at everything you do as a manager, but if you're not totally on top of your personal time management, eventually your performance will slide, and will eventually collapse.

It's important to grasp this point: It doesn't matter how good you are at making decisions, communicating, taking risks, schmoozing customers, motivating employees, influencing others, or any other management skill - If you cannot master your time, managerially, you're dead.

Some day it will catch up with you. If not today, tomorrow. And if not tomorrow, the day after.

There are numerous schools of thought out there on the best way to enhance your time management skills from David Allen's Getting Things Done to Steven Covey's Urgent Vs Important model. My best advice is to find a system that works for you and then stick with it.