How to pursue your long-term goals proactively
For example, I check my emails or my support desk tickets and see what "fires" I need to put out or what things others tell me to do.
Thankfully, this doesn't happen too often, because I try to be proactive. Each night I create a schedule for the next day, so when I wake up in the morning, I know what I need to do.
The tasks I schedule aren't just what I "feel like" (well, some of them are). Most of the tasks have to do with long-term, yearly, monthly or weekly goals. I find that this keeps me on track :-)