Millions of people suffer from stress brought on by having too much to do in their working lives. It's not a question of being able to do the work, nor of a 'fragile' mindset or anything along those lines; simply, it's a problem caused by the conflicting demands of the tasks that need to be completed and the insufficient time to complete them in. When there's not enough time, every task is pressured, every day brings on a cumulative stress, and a feeling of being overwhelmed can grow all too easily.

But it's not only your own health that can suffer from having too much to do in too little time. There's also a limit to how much work a business is actually capable of doing - and the company's health can be damaged from being weighed down under too heavy a workload. What happens if an organisation embarks on a project which can't be completed? A number of issues can arise, none of them positive: significant amounts of money might be wasted on the incomplete operation, as well as time that could have been put to more profitable use elsewhere; other projects or day-to-day business might be disrupted; and the loss of the project itself may deprive the organisation of much-needed improvements, expansion or new business.

However, there's no use in going to the opposite extreme, and avoiding projects for fear of not being able to complete them. The key to keeping your business in rude health - not to mention easing the stress on yourself and your colleagues - is to prioritise projects, to examine their demands, their risks, and the benefits that they will bring to the company. In doing so, you'll find no need to stress about time, because you'll always be able to allocate the right time and resources to the work.

So, if you're faced with a number of project proposals, how should you go about prioritising them? Let's say that you have a portfolio of five project proposals. The first step should be to identify the goals of each of the five and how they play in to the overall business strategy, and to rank them in order of benefit to the business. Perhaps, for instance, one might offer a substantial saving in overheads, whilst another gives the possibility of a slight increase in revenues: you'd probably look at the former as being of greater benefit to the business, and so you'd rank it more highly. However, you mustn't forget to bear risks in mind - after all, a project with a pronounced likelihood of harmful failure might not be the one the business needs to take on.

The budget demands and implications of each project is also a vital consideration. Committing to a project which is excessively expensive for the business is not just a waste of that money, but a waste of time and resources, in that it will inevitably detract from other tasks the organisation could be doing instead. Compare the costs, just as you compared the goals and risks. Then repeat this process with the resources the project will use up.

Comparing the different rankings together, and identifying which proposals score consistently highly (and which do not) will show you which projects give your business the most gain for the least contribution. Managing your schedules to accommodate these projects will allow you to be confident that you're always doing the most for your company, without the danger of running out of time and all the harm that that eventuality can bring. It would certainly be a wise idea to look at a short training course to get fully to grips with the vital role that prioritisation can play in time management for yourself and for the wider company, and the confidence it can engender, both in ensuring that there is enough time for the tasks that need to be done and in being able to say no to excess work that you know cannot be completed. It's a simple yet effective tonic to look after the health of any organisation, and of the staff employed by it.