Competing demands at the office can make it difficult for you to finish all your tasks on deadline. You may try to keep up by attempting to do too many things at the same time, which can lead to mistakes.

Prioritizing your day based on what’s most important is key to running a practice with as few hiccups as possible, says Rosemary Smyth, founder of Rosemary Smyth and Associates in Victoria.

Here are three tips on prioritizing your responsibilities:

1. Avoid multitasking
Try not to multitask. Instead, focus on one thing at a time, Smyth says. If you’re doing trades, for example, then just pay attention to the task at hand. Don’t conduct your trades while talking on the phone.

Multitasking is not as efficient as some people may think, Smyth says. Performance goes down when you’re trying to accomplish too many things at once.

2. Don’t over-extend yourself
Keep an eye on what’s claiming your time, especially if it’s your bottom-tier clients, Smyth says. For example, if you’re spending most of your time responding to phone calls and emails from your least profitable clients, it’s time to pass some those responsibilities over to an assistant, or find a way to answer all of their questions together.

Also, be careful not to make promises that you can’t keep, Smyth says. For example, don’t tell your entire client base that you can help them with their last-minute RRSP contributions. You may find yourself with 20 clients rushing to your office on the day of the deadline.

Try not to overestimate what you can realistically do in a day. It’s not fair to you — or to your clients.

3. Focus on your health
On an airplane, the flight attendant will instruct you to put your oxygen mask on first before helping others. The same applies to running your practice, Smyth says.

Take time to recharge, whether that means stopping for a nutritious lunch every day, making sure you’re hydrated or regularly taking short walks. Looking after your health can help you stay alert and enhance your performance.

This is the third part in a three-part series on prioritizing your workload.