If you want to manage your work time effectively, you need a goal.
(A goal isn’t a list of action items to take; it’s a target to aim for. For example: a work hours goal, or a billable hours goal, or a number of people hired goal. Or a revenue goal if you’re a business owner, or even a # of clients signed goal.)
Without a goal, you’ll be spending your work time less intentionally, more reactively, and you won’t make the progress you want to make.
Or said another way: you’ll feel like your plate is perpetually too full and you won’t be able to get ahead. You’ll feel like a cute little hamster stuck on a wheel. Working real hard but not getting anywhere.
Set a goal, make a simple plan that’s in line with that goal (let your goal inform how you should spend your time, not your inbox or employees or random advice you see on the internet), check in at the end of the week to make sure you actually spent your time on your priorities, and evaluate your progress on your goal at regular intervals (weekly – bi weekly!)