In a previous job I was also trained on Franklin Covey methods. What stuck with me the most was the concept of the "four quadrants" that categorize most of the stuff we have to do in one day. In reality, we tend to have a reflex response to "urgent but not important items" and end up getting sucked into spending wayyy to much time on them (think emails). Instead the bulk of our day should be spent on the "not urgent but important" ones that usually make up the exact things the boss expects us to deliver by the next group meeting (and why we have a job).

At one point I literally created a quadrant on my bulletin board at my desk and labeled post-its with each to do item I needed to get done. I then prioritized them by placing them in the proper quadrant. Seeing it layed out like that really helped put my mind at ease, and when I did finish a task it felt good tossing that post it in the recycle bin!

Just in case the other two quadrants are: "not urgent and not important" and "urgent and not important (when you think about it, a lot of emails fall into this category — it's just that they always create a sense of false urgency because of that DING you hear when an email comes in, but their content or required action may not be that important!)".

Once you find your tool of choice, don't spend all your time tweaking. Set it up and start getting things done.

My tool of choice is Toodledo.