City management, especially in regard to new residents, programs and services; and new software, instructions, or campaigns, involves a lot of first-time tasks and activities. Suppose you face a variety of unrelated tasks (and on what day does that not happen?). Or, you face a variety of related tasks on the same project. Asking yourself what is the most effective use of my time invariably helps direct you to that task, which at present, merits your attention.

At any given moment you have the opportunity to make a choice, even if a task or project has been going particularly well, you get to make the choice as to how to use your time starting at that moment.

Imprisoned by the Past?

What about when nothing seems to be working? In a study published in the Annual Review of Psychology, researchers Rachel Karniol, Ph.D. at Tel Aviv University in Israel and Michael Ross, Ph.D. at the University of Waterloo in Ontario, found that “People less able to relate the person of the past to the person they are now may be at greater psychological risk because they are thinking only in the present and their view of the future may not be developed.” If you’re unable to recognize how you’ve changed, you’re likely to allow your past to over-influence your decisions.

“Individuals often react to the present as if they were living in the past,” say the researchers. To make free and clear choices about what we want in the future, it behooves each of us to draw accurately upon our pasts, but also note what’s different about today. This means that you do not have to proceed as an extension of what came before.

Take a New Direction

Rather than living life by looking through a rear view mirror, boldly go where you’ve never gone before, and you’ll accomplish achievements that may have seemed beyond your grasp. You can proceed in a totally new direction if that is what makes sense at this moment. You can make a slight twist or turn.

Or, you can continue as you have been doing.

Jeff Davidson is "The Work-Life Balance Expert®" and the leading personal brand in speaking, writing, and reflecting on work-life balance issues. He's spoken to Fortune 50 companies such as IBM, Cardinal Health Group, and Lockheed; and to American Express and Westinghouse. He wrote Simpler Living, Breathing Space, and Dial it Down--Live It Up, among 62 other books. Visit www.BreathingSpace.com.