A writer for Women's Day Magazine interviewed me as a subject matter expert on time management. Here is a tip I shared with the readers of Women's Day: Pay attention to your attention span.

Too often, we set out to do a difficult task, and we don't stop until it's done. Many times, that's because we procrastinate until the last possible moment. As a result, we make mistakes or simply lose energy and the whole thing takes longer than it should.

The wrong approach is that of trying to stretch a 20-minute attention span to an hour. In a fight against nature, your odds of winning aren't very good. Instead of that approach, work with what you've got.

The correct approach is this:

• Break large tasks up into manageable blocks, rather than trying to do them all at once from start to finish. Start early, and you won't have to do too much at one time.
   

• Arrange the blocks into your schedule.
   

• Mix blocks up by their demand on the brain. For example, if you have four blocks that require processing visual information (doing your taxes, reading your e-mail, writing a complaint letter, paying your bills) break them up by injecting blocks that don't require processing visual information (call a friend, walk the dog, clean the kitchen up).

As an example, I don't sit down and do my taxes all at once. Starting in early February, I do about half an hour of work, then stop. I can easily pick up where I left off.

Maybe on the first session, I import data from the previous year and go through the setup. On the second session, I start entering the current year's data. And on it goes. When I'm done, it doesn't feel like I've really worked very hard. And I'm done way before the normal "stand in line at the Post Office" timewaster that so many people engage in each year.