Busy Is Seldom Efficient, Effective or Productive

As we near the end of another year; are you any closer to realising your goals this time round? Or do you feel disillusioned, where you feel like you have given your all, spent the year frantically busy, but your results indicate that you have, just been spinning your wheels, yet again. You feel trapped on a hamster wheel of constant frantic activity, overwhelm and discontentment, where each year seems to just blend into the next one and nothing seems to change. Benjamin Franklin said it so well when he said "Don't confuse motion with action"

I want to offer you some practical tools and tips, to help you to finally break free from this frustrating cycle of discontentment and frustration. Your current ineffective, unproductive and inefficient daily routines are clearly not working; it is now time to build a new success habit set that will serve you better and allow you to turn your time and effort into success.

Go back to basics and address, these few crucial issues:

Create a clear vision of what you want to achieve each year.Build momentum and maintain direction, by turning this vision into a set of clearly defined goals.Prioritise and choose only one banner goal or huge hairy audacious goal, which would completely change your life if you achieved it.This one goal is all you are going to focus on this year.Break this goal back into a number of smaller, bite size projects. These projects are far more believable and make achieving your banner goal feel possible. As you travel on your success journey through the year and complete each project, you move one step closer to creating the life of your dreams.Break your year back into four 90 day segments.Choose three projects to complete during each 90- day segment. The secret to finally begin to see results is to focus all your attention on a maximum of three projects at a time.Break each project back and build an action list of individual actions, for each project. These are individual actions that you will take every day, which will help you to complete each project.These action lists are your source documents and are the foundation of the process I am going to describe to you below.

Now that you have documents detailing exactly what needs to be done every day, it is time to develop a daily routine that will help you to consistently carry out these actions. There are three major issues you need to address, to ensure that you actually get to make a difference in your life from this moment forward. The first one is the new habit, where you schedule time into your schedule every day, to carry out the actions from your action lists. The second one is a set of guidelines, routines and commitments you make with yourself, to help you consistently take the actions every day. Finally you need to measure your performance, daily, weekly and monthly, to ensure that the actions you are taking, are indeed delivering the desired results.

Meet Your Future

This is a really simple concept, where you schedule time into your itinerary every day to carry out the activities from your action lists. Each Sunday, during your weekly planning session, set time slots aside every day, in your dairy, to finally start working on your goals. These are unchangeable time slots that are penned into your dairy and nothing short of a fire or major crisis can change them. When you are "Meeting Your Future" every day, close your door, disconnect your telephone and ensure that nothing can disturb you. This is your special time where you work on your future and a crucial part of the reason why next year, is going to finally result in progress. By strictly adhering to this one new success principal, you will finally start to see results and within a reasonable time you will eventually realise your banner goal and completely change your life.

Code of personal Achievement

This is a daily commitment that you make with yourself to carry out five crucial tasks, which will promote your success and allow you to develop a new success habit set. Look at your banner goal and identify five actions, which, if you carried them out every day, would help you to achieve it. Now introduce these into your daily routine and apply sufficient willpower, to ensure that you carry out all five of these activities every day. Your head must never hit the pillow each night until these five activities are complete. How you choose to introduce these new daily routines into your life depends on your own unique circumstances. You could either use the time set aside each day to "Meet Your Future" to carry out these activities or you could make them a part of your normal daily schedule. I have found both have their place and depending on what you are attempting to achieve, either can serve you.

Science has shown that it takes about 90 days for any new activity that you repeat, to become part of your habit set. It will thus take substantial willpower initially to carry out these five activities, but over time, as you get closer and closer to the 90 days, the activities will just become part of your habit set. After each 90 days passes and you will have replaced your old unproductive habits with a new success habit set. If you apply this principal in your life, you could have introduced 20 new success habits into your life each year. Imagine how your life will transform, with 20 new success habits introduced each year.

Performance Management System

Whatever gets measured gets done. This is a simple system that starts during the planning process. A set of measurement criterion are established, to measure your progress, daily, weekly and monthly, to assess if the actions you are taking are keeping you moving in the right direction you want. If your actions are delivering the outcomes you want, keep doing them if not then have the foresight and courage to change them for ones that do. This is an on-going and never ending process of Plan, Do, Review and Improve. As the year progresses, keep repeating this cycle until you complete each project.

This system I have described above is really simple and easy to do. The only challenge you have is that as easy as this process is to do, so easy is it not to do. Make a different choice this year and give this a try, I guarantee you will enjoy far better results if you do.

http://www.andrewhorton.co.za

Hi my name is Andrew Horton; I am an inspirational Speaker, Master Teacher, Radio and TV Host, Global Traveler and Author. My area of focus is in the field of human behavior, expanded awareness and enlightenment. I travel the planet constantly researching, learning and seeking ways to unlock the mysteries of the human mind. I delve into the inner workings of the universe, always looking for ways to understand my role in making things better and contributing to the improvement of the human experience. Please visit my website to sign up for a daily inspirational message, by following this link Daily Inspirational Message. This is your daily call to action, a reminder to do things better each day. Visit my website at http://www.andrewhorton.co.za/

Time Management Tips - Create Effective Boundaries Using 5 Essential Questions

Time management tips give you power. Setting successful time boundaries is one of the most significant time management skills you can develop. Once you cultivate the understanding of how to say "no" to distractions, and make it stick, you own your time.

Boundaries fail all the time, of course. How often do you personally approach setting boundaries with reluctance, with undue force, or avoid the challenge altogether? Well, it doesn't have to be that way!

Your key to success lies in sorting 2 things out:
Where can you put a boundary in place regardless of others' response? Where is it not only helpful but also essential to negotiate with others?

Most boundaries require both independent action and negotiating. So it's for you to distinguish between the two sets of actions. Once you do, you will experience enormous relief! You can then move forward proactively in all areas where that is appropriate, and openly negotiate where you need to. This reduces power-struggling and encourages genuine collaboration.

Earlier articles in this series discuss how to frame boundaries to claim all your proactive power. This article discusses 5 vital questions to help you anchor your new boundary with effective negotiation.

5 Essential Questions for Effectively Negotiating Time Boundaries

To set effective boundaries, you must identify your priorities, your strengths, and where success will require collaboration. Get ready to negotiate by working with the following 5 questions:
What issues are non-negotiable?
Let's say you need two hours of undisturbed time one day a week to function at your best. Write down exactly how this benefits you and your overall effectiveness. The more you focus on the actual goal, the more creatively you can approach how that goal will be implemented. Don't confuse firmness with rigidity!
Exactly where are you willing to compromise?
Listing typical activities you engage in on a particular day can help you spot what commitments you can delegate, drop or postpone during this two hour private time. Again, keeping your long-range objectives in mind might help you rethink outworn routines.
What issues require consensus?
Your commitments help shape your relationships. Respect is just as important as assertiveness when you make big changes. How does your taking a block of undisturbed time affect others' plans? Make a list of potential problem areas. The boundary won't be "watertight" until those issues are resolved.
What sort of cooperation will be needed?
You may not need cooperation to simply refuse to take calls for one day a week. But you need to have an agreed-upon process to handle emergencies. As you clarify what's of central importance to you, others' priorities may become more defined, as well. It's ideal if you can approach setting boundaries as an opportunity to renew and revitalize relationships.
What outcomes can you let go of?
Boundaries are exercises in selective control. Others have the right to try to change your mind (though you don't need to oblige them). Then again, you may choose to delegate tasks you'd formerly reserved for yourself. When you let go of responsibility, you may forfeit control over the outcome. How will you feel if others become more autonomous? Your boundaries may challenge you to grow in new directions, too!

Any number of win/win options exist. So consider doing some extensive brainstorming before setting boundaries. Then you'll be well prepared to craft satisfying resolutions.

So, what is your very first step in setting the kinds of boundaries that really give you back your time?

For a strong start, sign up for our free gift, "The New Finding Time Boundary Template: 9 Simple, Sequential Steps to Find More Time and Recharge Your Energy!" at http://thetimefinder.com/Template.html

This time template will help you move beyond overwhelm, disappointment, and frustration. Using a workbook format, with room to record your answers, you will discover that 24 hours really are enough!

Offered by Paula Eder, Ph.D., The Time Finder Expert.