My wife taught me this simple method of making certain my daily activities were aligned with my stated goals. This was seven years ago when I was spending more time worrying about being a writer than actually writing.

Before you start your day, or preferably, when you plan your day the night before, draw a tic-tac-toe chart on a blank piece of paper.

The center square belongs to your most important activity - the thing you want to become or that will make the greatest impact on your life. Everyone over the age of 5 knows you can't lose at tic-tac-toe if you command the center square.

Click here to see an example of this chart - my tasks for today.

Fill in the rest of the squares with the tasks and activities that are important but not vital. Most of the things you usually occupy your time with can be postponed.

But not the thing that is supposed to be in the center - the activity that you have been putting off or pining away about because you haven't made time for it.

By putting your most important thing in the middle - and it could be 'going to heather's soccer game' - and keeping that goal in your mind as your most important commitment of the day, you can assure yourself that this day, hence your life, is aligned with your highest priorities.

While I advocate performing the center square activity before you get to anything else, sometimes that's just not possible.

For example, Julie just called down the stairs and asked me to do the painting at the carriage house [her studio], before her students arrive at 3 p.m. That means I'm going to have to interrupt my writing schedule and work over there from 12-3.

This makes the chart more valuable to me, as opposed to an exercise in futility. Which people over the age of 5 also know about tic-tac-toe.

With my day rearranged, I know that I'm going to have to come back home and do more writing later on - this may knock out one or more of the other activities.

But that's exactly the point. For me, writing is in the center square for a reason - even if I get knocked off my schedule, I can return to the chart and put my efforts into where I want them to be.