Project planning is a big factor in getting ahold of your time.
When you have a large to do list, writing the tasks down and putting them into categories of priorities and special tasks is a different form of project planning. Your to do list is your project that you want to get done by the end of day so planning it like you would a project at work would be the smart way to approach it. It only takes about ten or fifteen minutes to write your tasks and goals down and think about what needs to be done and what could wait. With this information at your side, you can more than likely get a chuck of your list taken care of.