Plan Your Day and Stick to Your Plan

by: Inez Ng

How many times have you remarked to someone that there are not enough hours in the day? The sad truth is, not matter how much you wish it, it is unlikely that you can get more than 24 hours in each day. So, the trick to time management is really how you get the most out of the hours you have. One way to do that is to become an exceptional planner of your day. It is not very difficult – just takes some basic knowledge and a lot of discipline. As a coach, I can help you with both, but the knowledge is what I’ll cover right now.

Set aside time to plan

This is really the first step. You have to make planning a habit, and do the task religiously. I set aside an hour on Sunday mornings to plan my week. In order for me to make sure that the week goes according to plan, I have to have “a plan” to start with. In the beginning, it may take you longer than an hour, but once you’ve done the planning for a while, you’ll get more efficient at it. You will also feel much more focused when you have identified what you want to accomplish for the week.

Schedule at least one week at a time

Some people only plan one day at a time, but I think that you need to be more forward looking than that. So, I suggest you focus on at least one week at a time, but also review what may be coming up in the next month while you are considering what to prioritize for the next week. The more proactive you are about your life, the less often you will find yourself having to react to unforeseen situations.

Identify your “big rocks” for your week

If you don’t know what I mean, you have to read Stephen Covey. He made a masterful illustration using a bucket, some sand, and several rocks of various sizes. He explained that the sand represents all the busy work that we have to do, like answering the phone, reading email, filing away papers, etc. The rocks represent all the important things that we have to do, such as setting goals for the year, launching a new project, creating a vision for your team, etc. The bucket represents all the time we have for all the demands of our lives.

What happens with most of us is that we fill up our buckets with the sand first, and then we can only put a few rocks on top, and there’s no more room for the rest. What he suggested is that we put all our rocks into the bucket first, and then fill in all the available spaces with the sand. And miraculously, everything fits in our container!

This is the philosophy you need to employ when you schedule your week. Identify all your big rocks, and block out the time to handle these first. Then worry about the sand afterwards. We have to make sure that we handle the important stuff first, and not let the busy work consume our days.

Think 24/7

I am not suggesting that you plan to work 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. But I am suggesting that you account for 24 hours a day, 7 days a week in your schedule. If you neglect to consider Saturdays and Sundays because those are your “days off”, you may find on Sunday night that you have not handled any of the household chores that you needed to get done. Or if you are planning on having a dinner party on Saturday night next week, you had better block off some time Friday or Saturday to straighten out the house, or go to the market.

Plan personal and play time

Don’t think that a schedule is only for work, this is a plan for your life. So, make sure that you block off time for exercise, or “date night” with your spouse, or cheerleader time for your kids’ games in your schedule. Remember that the goal is to have time to handle everything that’s important to us, not just things that are important concerning work. If you want Friday to be a mental health day, block that off. You don’t need to put in any more details than that. But you know that if you don’t plan for it, it won’t happen.

Leave some contingency time in your schedule

You know better than to expect that your days all go exactly as planned. Just when you are about to really focus on that important analysis you needed to do, your boss calls you into a meeting where your expertise is desperately needed, and your schedule is shot. So, don’t cram every hour of your day with activities. Leave some contingency time for you to catch up when the unexpected happens.

Discipline, discipline, discipline

Once you have your days scheduled, you need to exercise discipline and stick to what you planned. Do everything you can to eliminate distractions and really focus on what you have to do. You will be amazed how much more productive you can be. So, close that email program, turn the phone ringer off and let voicemail handle the calls, close your office door for an hour of so. Then when it is time for you to handle email, and phone calls, and drop-in visitors, give all your focus to those activities then.

Source

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Plan Your Day and Stick to Your Plan

by: Inez Ng

How many times have you remarked to someone that there are not enough hours in the day? The sad truth is, not matter how much you wish it, it is unlikely that you can get more than 24 hours in each day. So, the trick to time management is really how you get the most out of the hours you have. One way to do that is to become an exceptional planner of your day. It is not very difficult – just takes some basic knowledge and a lot of discipline. As a coach, I can help you with both, but the knowledge is what I’ll cover right now.

Set aside time to plan

This is really the first step. You have to make planning a habit, and do the task religiously. I set aside an hour on Sunday mornings to plan my week. In order for me to make sure that the week goes according to plan, I have to have “a plan” to start with. In the beginning, it may take you longer than an hour, but once you’ve done the planning for a while, you’ll get more efficient at it. You will also feel much more focused when you have identified what you want to accomplish for the week.

Schedule at least one week at a time

Some people only plan one day at a time, but I think that you need to be more forward looking than that. So, I suggest you focus on at least one week at a time, but also review what may be coming up in the next month while you are considering what to prioritize for the next week. The more proactive you are about your life, the less often you will find yourself having to react to unforeseen situations.

Identify your “big rocks” for your week

If you don’t know what I mean, you have to read Stephen Covey. He made a masterful illustration using a bucket, some sand, and several rocks of various sizes. He explained that the sand represents all the busy work that we have to do, like answering the phone, reading email, filing away papers, etc. The rocks represent all the important things that we have to do, such as setting goals for the year, launching a new project, creating a vision for your team, etc. The bucket represents all the time we have for all the demands of our lives.

What happens with most of us is that we fill up our buckets with the sand first, and then we can only put a few rocks on top, and there’s no more room for the rest. What he suggested is that we put all our rocks into the bucket first, and then fill in all the available spaces with the sand. And miraculously, everything fits in our container!

This is the philosophy you need to employ when you schedule your week. Identify all your big rocks, and block out the time to handle these first. Then worry about the sand afterwards. We have to make sure that we handle the important stuff first, and not let the busy work consume our days.

Think 24/7

I am not suggesting that you plan to work 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. But I am suggesting that you account for 24 hours a day, 7 days a week in your schedule. If you neglect to consider Saturdays and Sundays because those are your “days off”, you may find on Sunday night that you have not handled any of the household chores that you needed to get done. Or if you are planning on having a dinner party on Saturday night next week, you had better block off some time Friday or Saturday to straighten out the house, or go to the market.

Plan personal and play time

Don’t think that a schedule is only for work, this is a plan for your life. So, make sure that you block off time for exercise, or “date night” with your spouse, or cheerleader time for your kids’ games in your schedule. Remember that the goal is to have time to handle everything that’s important to us, not just things that are important concerning work. If you want Friday to be a mental health day, block that off. You don’t need to put in any more details than that. But you know that if you don’t plan for it, it won’t happen.

Leave some contingency time in your schedule

You know better than to expect that your days all go exactly as planned. Just when you are about to really focus on that important analysis you needed to do, your boss calls you into a meeting where your expertise is desperately needed, and your schedule is shot. So, don’t cram every hour of your day with activities. Leave some contingency time for you to catch up when the unexpected happens.

Discipline, discipline, discipline

Once you have your days scheduled, you need to exercise discipline and stick to what you planned. Do everything you can to eliminate distractions and really focus on what you have to do. You will be amazed how much more productive you can be. So, close that email program, turn the phone ringer off and let voicemail handle the calls, close your office door for an hour of so. Then when it is time for you to handle email, and phone calls, and drop-in visitors, give all your focus to those activities then.

Source

Robert Recommends...

• 
  


• Seventh Journey Trailer – Looking Ahead


• 
  


• Who Am I Being?


• 
  


• Proverbs on Freedom from Limitation


• 
  


• The Role of Attitude In Your Success


• 
  


• Do You Love the Work That You Do?


• 
  


• 5 Steps To a Positive Attitude


• 
  

Plan Your Day and Stick to Your Plan

by: Inez Ng

How many times have you remarked to someone that there are not enough hours in the day? The sad truth is, not matter how much you wish it, it is unlikely that you can get more than 24 hours in each day. So, the trick to time management is really how you get the most out of the hours you have. One way to do that is to become an exceptional planner of your day. It is not very difficult – just takes some basic knowledge and a lot of discipline. As a coach, I can help you with both, but the knowledge is what I’ll cover right now.

Set aside time to plan

This is really the first step. You have to make planning a habit, and do the task religiously. I set aside an hour on Sunday mornings to plan my week. In order for me to make sure that the week goes according to plan, I have to have “a plan” to start with. In the beginning, it may take you longer than an hour, but once you’ve done the planning for a while, you’ll get more efficient at it. You will also feel much more focused when you have identified what you want to accomplish for the week.

Schedule at least one week at a time

Some people only plan one day at a time, but I think that you need to be more forward looking than that. So, I suggest you focus on at least one week at a time, but also review what may be coming up in the next month while you are considering what to prioritize for the next week. The more proactive you are about your life, the less often you will find yourself having to react to unforeseen situations.

Identify your “big rocks” for your week

If you don’t know what I mean, you have to read Stephen Covey. He made a masterful illustration using a bucket, some sand, and several rocks of various sizes. He explained that the sand represents all the busy work that we have to do, like answering the phone, reading email, filing away papers, etc. The rocks represent all the important things that we have to do, such as setting goals for the year, launching a new project, creating a vision for your team, etc. The bucket represents all the time we have for all the demands of our lives.

What happens with most of us is that we fill up our buckets with the sand first, and then we can only put a few rocks on top, and there’s no more room for the rest. What he suggested is that we put all our rocks into the bucket first, and then fill in all the available spaces with the sand. And miraculously, everything fits in our container!

This is the philosophy you need to employ when you schedule your week. Identify all your big rocks, and block out the time to handle these first. Then worry about the sand afterwards. We have to make sure that we handle the important stuff first, and not let the busy work consume our days.

Think 24/7

I am not suggesting that you plan to work 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. But I am suggesting that you account for 24 hours a day, 7 days a week in your schedule. If you neglect to consider Saturdays and Sundays because those are your “days off”, you may find on Sunday night that you have not handled any of the household chores that you needed to get done. Or if you are planning on having a dinner party on Saturday night next week, you had better block off some time Friday or Saturday to straighten out the house, or go to the market.

Plan personal and play time

Don’t think that a schedule is only for work, this is a plan for your life. So, make sure that you block off time for exercise, or “date night” with your spouse, or cheerleader time for your kids’ games in your schedule. Remember that the goal is to have time to handle everything that’s important to us, not just things that are important concerning work. If you want Friday to be a mental health day, block that off. You don’t need to put in any more details than that. But you know that if you don’t plan for it, it won’t happen.

Leave some contingency time in your schedule

You know better than to expect that your days all go exactly as planned. Just when you are about to really focus on that important analysis you needed to do, your boss calls you into a meeting where your expertise is desperately needed, and your schedule is shot. So, don’t cram every hour of your day with activities. Leave some contingency time for you to catch up when the unexpected happens.

Discipline, discipline, discipline

Once you have your days scheduled, you need to exercise discipline and stick to what you planned. Do everything you can to eliminate distractions and really focus on what you have to do. You will be amazed how much more productive you can be. So, close that email program, turn the phone ringer off and let voicemail handle the calls, close your office door for an hour of so. Then when it is time for you to handle email, and phone calls, and drop-in visitors, give all your focus to those activities then.

Source

Robert Recommends...

• Seventh Journey Trailer – Looking Ahead


• Who Am I Being?


• Proverbs on Freedom from Limitation


• The Role of Attitude In Your Success


• Do You Love the Work That You Do?


• 5 Steps To a Positive Attitude

The Role of Attitude In Your Success

The Role a Positive Mental Attitude Plays in Success

by: TJ Philpott

Enough can not be said about the influence a positive mental attitude can have on your life. By adjusting your attitude to think primarily positive thoughts you can literally make all your efforts easier and more enjoyable as well! As a result your ability to become successful in any facet of your life is greatly increased since you more or less expect to succeed.

Let’s break down exactly why it is that by maintaining positive thoughts you can actually increase your chances to become successful.

Dilutes Negative Feelings

Your self doubts and recent setbacks are now de-emphasized allowing you to be more proactive and productive. Negative feelings can sap your energy and will power as fast as a switch can turn off electricity.

Creates the Motivation to Take Action

The feeling of well being that a positive attitude can give you also supplies you with the willingness to move forward and take action. This is simply because you feel good about things and therefore success is the only thing you expect!

Helps Build Momentum

As your passion or zeal builds so does your momentum, much like running down a hill! The deeper you get into your pursuits, the greater the momentum is you are building since you are seeing results/progress which motivates you to continue forward.

Helps Sustain Efforts

Momentum (Photo credit: LD PIX)

Your own momentum coupled with feeling good about what you are doing will help you work through many obstacles you may encounter. Setbacks are not something likely to discourage you to the point of quitting. These will be view more as learning opportunities.

Creates an Attraction

There is no doubt that if you are truly passionate about something others ‘pick up’ on this and it increases their curiosity. This also increases your level of attraction as well making the support of others easily available. This type of support is a great source of encouragement for those times that things may not be going your way.

Possessing a positive mental attitude immediately decreases your stress levels but it also increases your chances to become successful at just about anything. It all starts with your attitude, which by the way is actually a choice you make, and your willingness to maintain positive thoughts. Your thought process is normally projected in the disposition you display to others. If your attitude is negative, this will only succeed in making you less attractive to others while also increasing the difficulty of everything you do. A negative person is only working ‘against’ themselves! Maintaining more positive thoughts on the other hand tends to give you a much ‘sunnier’ disposition. Having a ‘can do’ attitude will make success come much more easily to you for reasons as explained in the 5 examples reviewed above. So why not give yourself and those around you a break starting today and choose to be more positive. When you consider this will give you a greater chance to become successful, along with a less stressful life, it seems this choice is an easy one to make!

Source

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The post The Role of Attitude In Your Success appeared first on Robert JR Graham.

Proverbs on Freedom from Limitation

Breaking Free From Self-Limiting Habits

by: Innocent M Gathungu

‘We need to think differently to shift our paradigms

to a new, deeper, “inside-out” level’; Stephen R. Covey

In the Seven Habits of Highly Effective People, Stephen R. Covey describes habits as “consistent, often unconscious patterns which constantly, daily express our character and produce our effectiveness, or ineffectiveness”.

Who we are and what we become is a direct result of our habits. It is in the realm of habits that our character is born, nurtured and outwardly expressed. What we see from the outside is a direct reflection of those deeply embedded habits that have gradually, steadily and consistently ingrained themselves into our psyche. Our behavior is therefore informed by these habits, which with time become so deeply ingrained into our minds that changing them is like attempting to break mountains with bare hands.

Breaking free from these deeply-embedded habits is a tall order, especially if they have been acquired over a long period of time. The longer it takes to acquire certain habits, the more difficult it is to break them. And this is not necessarily a bad thing; especially if the habits acquired are positive. Positive habits should be encouraged, even developed where they are lacking.

According Mike Bressica, success comes from behaviors, which start out as thoughts. To change your habits or behaviors, you will need to have different thoughts. What occupies your mind; your thoughts; propels you to behave in a certain way. If you don’t like the results of your behavior, all you need to do is to change your thoughts. The Bible talks of renewing our mind as a way of transforming ourselves into good, acceptable and perfect people that always seek to do the will of God (Rom 12.2).

Renewing or shifting from our current thoughts to those that we desire brings about transformation or change in our lives. This is what is known as having a paradigm shift; adopting a new way of thinking, of doing things, of behavior.

The good thing about habits is that they are acquired over time through learning, nuances, brainwashing and experiences. Since they are acquired, they can be replaced by changing the thought patterns that fostered them in the first place.

To replace negative, self-limiting thought patterns, which Mike Bressica calls “mental patterns of failure”, we must set as a first goal to reduce the impact of these patterns. And this cannot be done overnight. Just as it took time to acquire these mental patterns of failure, it will take time to release them and replace them with ‘mental patterns of success’.

Paul talking to the Church in Rome expressed his frustration with his inability to rein in his patterns of failure. It appeared to him that he was fighting a losing battle with his mind as he found himself doing the very evil that he did not want to do; and not doing the good that he wanted to (Romans 7: 19).

Like so many of us, Paul was at a crossroad. On one side lay the old self-limiting patterns of failure; and on the other, his desire to release these negative patterns, which always led him to do evil, and replace them with those that would propel him into a transformed life of doing good.

Highly successful people are those who rid themselves of their patterns of failure by brushing off distractions. When you have no pattern of failure limiting your progress, you are able to overcome temporary setbacks at the thought level. Since the battle for success is won or lost at the thought level, your success or failure in this arena is what makes you successful or unsuccessful. Success comes naturally when you learn how to control your thought patterns. As Bressica says, if you muster the art of thought control, you will not be ‘tempted to act opposite to what you know is best. You can keep fear at a minimum. Doubt is nowhere to be found.’

But how do you unlearn limiting thought patterns that you have picked up from childhood? How do you break down inscrutable blocks of negative habits that have been distilled and cemented into your psyche since childhood? To merely tell you to change your paradigm would be as vain as telling a hungry person to be filled without giving him food to eat. What we hear, see, experience or sense has a direct bearing on the formation of our habits; which are informed by thoughts, and which are then acted out in the form of behavior.

Thoughts are the foundation on which our habits are formed. These habits, depending on their nature, in turn inform our actions or behavior; and success or lack of it solely depends on the actions we take. To take that crucial first step in starting your own business, you must first of all unlearn the employee mentality and start seeing yourself as a successful entrepreneur.

But to achieve this paradigm shift is no mean fit. What with years of being told to study hard so that, when you grow up, you will get a good job? To break away from this mold of thinking and start seeing or thinking yourself as a successful business person requires much more than positive affirmations such as ‘I can do it’. If ‘I can do it’ is out of tandem with your thought pattern, then, try as much as you will, you can’t do it.

I believe with all my heart that if you can think it, you can do it. The writer of the Book of Proverbs (23:7) knew this all too well when he said that ‘as one thinks in his heart, so is he’. Your thoughts define the kind of person you become. Countless times we blame external circumstances while in reality the core cause of our failure can be found in our thought patterns.

About The Author

Innocent Mwangi is a motivational writer and speaker. He specializes in helping people attain their highest potential. Visit his websites at http://ift.tt/1lM3jEI; http://www.ssmk.net; http://ift.tt/1lM3jUY; http://ift.tt/1g7QhSD.

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The post Proverbs on Freedom from Limitation appeared first on Robert JR Graham.