Leadership jobs should come with a warning label: "Beware of meaningless tasks masquerading as fundamental job duties." As a case in point, meet Sam. By looking at him, you wouldn't guess that he is being managed by his job. He's bright, aggressive and results-oriented with a track record of success. As a reward for his accomplishments, he's recently been given a role that is ten times bigger in scale than his previous responsibilities. He arrives at the office at 7:00 and leaves at 8:00. His desk is a mess, his e-mails aren't answered in a timely fashion and his calendar is booked solid. His wife and children miss him and his boss wants a strategy.

Sam's a busy guy. Unfortunately, he's too busy doing the wrong things to think much about the right things. Many of you are in the same untenable position as Sam—working too many hours and lacking the time to intervene with yourself and find a better way. Psychologists say that some people are chronic time abusers because of deep-seated needs for control or approval or fear of being evaluated. For others, the underlying psychological motive confounding good time management is tied to an uncertainty of trusting and acting on one's own judgment.

While we all have our own personal neuroses, it's my experience that most people don't actively manage the content of their jobs because they have been lulled into the illusion of busyness by the steady drumbeat of e-mails, meetings, reports, presentations, budgets and telephone calls that constitute corporate life.

To gain control over your work (and personal) life, you have to gain control over your calendar. You must eliminate the meaningless distractions and focus your efforts where they count. Often, that's around the areas of strategy-making, informal influence, effective delegation, and monitoring. Much like gaining control over your finances, managing your time requires understanding where your time is going, outlining your priorities, defining a time budget and plan, changing behavior and monitoring the results.

Where does the time go? Analyze your calendar over the past four to eight weeks and figure out where you spent your time. Sam, for instance, was spending 10 hours per week on managing two large projects, 10 hours discussing minor projects, and another 10 hours responding to emails and open-door "drop-by" visits.

Know thyself. Identify how you want to allocate your time by answering the following questions: When and how much do I want to work, what do I want to achieve in my job, what activities are essential to my success and what activities do I disdain? These may sound pretty basic, but answering them requires a good understanding of your job, the existence of a long-term plan to drive your tactical objectives, and the self-awareness to know what you should keep and what you should delegate. If you are new to your job or don't have a long-term plan, allocate time in your schedule to gain these insights. Sam's goals included: