I know your life is busy. I know you’re juggling a million and one things while trying to stay on top of your seemingly endless to-do list. Sure you enjoy the hustle (most of the time!) and you also thrive on the challenge. But sometimes you wonder if there was an easier way to get it all done. Good news -- there is. And it’s called your daily routine - a simple, yet powerful practice that high-achievers and peak performers use to manage a crazy workload and avoid overwhelm. Best of all, it’s a practice you can use too. This time-tested practice involves more than ticking off the items on your to-do list. Instead, setting a routine inspires you to establish helpful habits which lead to greater levels of success and a more meaningful life. In fact, it’s a practice that can help you achieve your goals, juggle multiple balls, and make your success inevitable. So if you’re curious to develop a daily routine that works for you keep reading because this article will show you how. Here’s why your daily routine is a non-negotiable success habit A routine is simply the set of habits that help you get things done. In other words, habits that you feel compelled to do (often on autopilot) because things feel amiss if you don’t. [Ever gone to bed without cleaning your teeth!] Chances are, you already have a routine. True, you may not have consciously designed it, but there are likely a set of steps you take to get yourself ready for work or get the kids off to school. The secret is to intentionally create a routine that helps you switch on your A-game so you can fire on all cylinders, switch on productivity like a tap, and stay on top of your goals and commitments. But why is it routines work so well for this? Check out these scientific reasons: Firstly, a daily routine helps you cut down on wasteful multitasking and decision fatigue. If you follow a repeatable structure, you can work through essential tasks while spending less mental energy in the process. Secondly, a routine guides you to focus on one task at a time. Multitasking is one of the greatest productivity lies. Doing multiple things at once doesn’t get stuff done faster. Instead, it drains your mental energy leaving you with less bandwidth for dealing with more complex issues later. Thirdly, routines are vital to our development as humans. If you’re a parent, you’ll know that kids thrive on routines -- but did you know that adults do too? A routine helps build confidence, organization, and self-control making us better equipped to deal with the demands of modern life. It’s why plenty of top performers swear by them including: - Winston Churchill woke up at 7:30 am and stayed in bed to eat breakfast, catch up on the news and dictate to his assistants. By 11:00 am, he’d head out to take a walk and start work for the day (always with a whiskey and soda!). At 1:00, he’d take a break for lunch and often play cards with his wife until 3:00 pm. After working for a few more hours, he’d take a quick 30-minute nap at 5:00 pm to recharge in time for dinner and drinks with friends at 5:30 pm. At midnight, he’d squeeze in an hour of reading before heading to bed. But that’s just one man. Mason Currey has compiled the daily habits of some of the world’s most successful people in his book, “Daily Rituals: How Artists Work”. For example: - Maya Angelou would wake up at 5:30 am, have coffee with her husband a 6:00 am, and be off to work by 6:30am in a small hotel room she reserved for writing only. By 2:00 pm, she’d wrap up for the day and head home to re-read her work, disconnect, and prepare dinner. - Novelist John Grisham wakes up at 5 a.m. in order to arrive at his home office desk by 5:30 so he could write one page before heading to his day job as a lawyer. - Toni Morrison drinks a cup of coffee and watches the sun come up before she sits down to write. How to create the right daily routine for you The most effective daily routines are those that are designed to help you stick to good habits and achieve your goals. With a finite amount of time in your day, high-performers know they have to leverage their minutes to cultivate focus and concentration to get everything done. And it’s not about mastering a monster to-do list alone. The right daily routine should create time and space in your day for everything that’s important to you. So as well as creating focused time for work, your daily routine should consider your health and wellbeing, your relationships, your hobbies, and anything else that lights you up. If you fail to make time for these things there’s a good chance they won’t happen -- and that won’t lead to a happy or fulfilled life. Your daily routine is also about prioritising. High-achievers know they can’t do everything. It’s why they prioritize their workload to ensure there’s time (and bandwidth) to get the most important stuff done. So when it comes to creating a daily routine that works for you, the first step is to figure out what’s most important to you. Get clear on all your priorities (and your goals) and you can get clear on the habits needed to make it all happen For example, let’s say you want to achieve the following: Daily power walks to boost your health Regular journaling to clear your mind and cultivate self-awareness Time to prepare ‘proper’ food from scratch Quality time with your children Nurture your mind by reading more Date time with your partner Focused time to write the book you’ve had in your head for years As well as sufficient time to plough through all your work/business related tasks and to-dos. It sounds like a lot, but it all becomes possible when you create a daily routine -- and stick to it. For example, you might: - Timetable a daily power walk after you’ve completed the school run - Put aside 30-minutes to journal when you’re back from your walk - Timetable a one-hour slot to work on your book - Schedule an uninterrupted block for building your business/work time - Include a buffer here to allow yourself to switch from work to home mode - Finish work by 5pm - no excuses - so you can prepare food - Spend quality time with your children until their bedtime - Read for 30-minutes before you go to bed What might a daily schedule look like for you? Stay disciplined around a flexible routine You won’t get results from your daily routine unless you stick to it, sounds obvious, but life will throw those unpredictable spanners into the works. It’s why you want to get your schedule out of your head and onto paper using a tool such as the Self Journal. Practice timetabling your day to get everything done and you’ll increase the likelihood of making it all happen. Writing it down also helps you to reflect on your scheduling choices too. So don’t be afraid to admit if something isn’t working. If you haven’t giving yourself enough time to connect with your employees or get your busy work done, you can adjust your timings. If you’re consistently missing your power walk, develop a new plan. As with any road map, your daily routine is a learning curve that can grow with you. So periodically switch and shake things up to ensure your daily routine empowers you to show up as your best self. Your daily routine can become a game-changer if you use it to get organized, get more stuff done, and fit in more of the things that matter. So start today. Make a list of what you want to create for yourself -- then schedule your day using a tool such as the Self Journal to make it all happen. It’s a powerful step you can take towards your best self.

If I told you the humble notebook could 10x your productivity AND your creativity, would you believe me? I know, it’s a big promise right, so hear me out… Apps and gadgets may be cutting-edge. But that doesn’t mean ‘old school’ tools aren’t effective anymore. In fact, adopt the tools that other people set aside, and you can get a massive edge. Take the humble notebook for example. There’s a good reason top performers including Bill Gates, Richard Branson, and Sheryl Sandberg swear by them. With 70,000 thoughts racing through your head EVERY DAY how can you get the maximum amount of stuff done? It gets worse… a big chunk of thinking is repetitive and low-level. Not only is this chatter distracting and brain numbing, but it eats away at your bandwidth too. And when you have less room for creative thinking and problem solving, it’s harder to be your best. But keep a notebook in your hand, and you can do things differently. Check out these 11 reasons why successful people take notes. 1. Prioritize your bandwidth Your brain is notoriously bad at remembering things! And even if you do manage to hold onto a thought, you’ll forget the detail AND prevent your mind going on another creative tangent. It takes a lot of bandwidth to retain information. So get in the habit of writing stuff down. Use your notebooks as an ‘external brain’, which can store information, memos, to-dos, and ideas for you. With your brain released of the responsibility of remembering, you can put your intelligence to better use. 2. Turn a profit Everything you see around you started as an idea in someone’s imagination. It’s as Napoleon Hill said, “Ideas are the beginning points of all fortunes.” If you’re not leveraging and exploring your thoughts, you’ll have nothing to turn into money! Carry a notebook and make note-taking a habit. Eventually you’ll hit on an idea that strikes gold. 3. Generate more great ideas Jim Rohn said it best. “Sometimes all you need to open the door is just one more good idea.” Make note-taking a habit and you’ll be primed to capture ideas as soon as they show up. It’s true that not every idea will be a winner, but every creator and inventor will tell you that they had plenty of failures before striking lucky. The more you write down, the more chances you have of coming up with something that could actually go somewhere. 4. Ramp up your creativity Steve Jobs said, “Creativity is just connecting things.” When thoughts and ideas stay in your head, they don’t go anywhere. But write them down and you can tug on different threads and see where they end up. With your thoughts staring back at you in black and white it’s a lot easier to see how the dots join up. And as you build up a bank of ideas to connect up, you’ll become a better innovator. 5. Work the creative process Good ideas aren’t predictable. You can sit for hours and get nowhere, then take a walk and suddenly your brain overflows with possibilities. That’s because great ideas rarely show up on demand. Instead, the best ones happen when your brain is relaxed or focused elsewhere. It’s why you get a brainwave or a Eureka moment when you’re walking in the park, taking a shower, or having a coffee with friends. An ever-ready notebook allows you to work this unpredictable process by ensuring you never miss a beat. 6. Retain more information It might be old school, but studies show over and over that pen and paper helps you remember more than digital alternatives. Something happens when you form words and letters with your own hands and in your own unique writing style. So indulge yourself in old school tools. You may find that you remember more as a result. 7. Expect ideas to flow The act of carrying a notebook is a declaration of sorts. It tells your brain that you expect to have ideas. That alone helps them flow more frequently. That’s because your brain is constantly solving problems based on the questions and situations you put to it. So if you’re mulling over an idea in the back of your mind or you’re looking for a way forward, having a notebook open is an invitation for the insights you want to flow. 8. No distractions Sure, your phone is equipped to take notes - so can your laptop or desktop, but beware! With digital, you’re always one click away from distraction. A notification, an interesting headline, or an entertaining Instagram story and before you know it - boom! You’re lost inside the digital abyss. High performance and productivity thrives on focus - not multitasking - and that’s what you get with a physical notebook. 9. Open doors Some ideas are dead ends, others open doors, and others grow into something extraordinary. But you won’t know which ones are which unless you write them down! That’s the value of a notebook. You can capture it all for processing and analyzing later. 10. Never lose a brilliant idea again Have you ever had a brilliant idea in the most inconvenient of places? If you can’t write it down you’re left relying on your memory - and that can cause a headache. Ideas are fleeting – if you don’t grab them they’ll slip through your fingers and there’s nothing you can do about it. But write them down and they’re yours forever. What’s more, when you write ideas down in the moment, you can stretch them and play with them. You can follow what comes after the initial insight - and maybe even stumble across something amazing. 11. Know yourself better Journaling is a powerful notebook practice that can help you reflect on your experiences, get in touch with how you feel, and work through challenges, roadblocks, and dilemmas. There are multiple ways to journal - so play around to figure out what’s right for you. You could journal to prompts (you’ll LOVE the Wordsmith Deck for this). You could write Morning Pages (Julia Cameron style) where you write a monologue of anything that flows to help clear your head. You could even journal around how you’re feeling or reflect on what you’re discovering. Whatever style you choose, I think you’ll be surprised by how much self growth this habit can drive. Always be ready Top-performers do note-taking differently. They know ideas aren’t predictable and they can struggle to switch their busy, creative mind off. They carry a notebook EVERYWHERE - so they can capture thoughts, random ideas, reflections, and brain dumps ANYTIME they show up. Time you followed suit? If so, we’ve got the tools to help. If you want something pocket-sized for idea generation on the go, pick the Sidekicks. These micro notebooks come in a pack of three and are ideal for popping in your bag or keeping in your jacket pocket. Gone are the excuses for being caught out empty-handed! And if you want something bigger, then Scribe is for you. This top-notch notebook contains a stack of high-performance features including a ribbon bookmark, perforated corners, and an expandable back pocket. Both notebooks are filled with high-quality, fountain pen friendly paper that’s a dream to write on. So start your note-taking habit today with a notebook that best matches your needs and personality.

Wouldn’t it be great if you did more of the things necessary to live your best life on autopilot? Instead of battling with yourself everyday, you just take action. No compromising, justifying, or excusing - just solid implementing day after day. That’s the benefit of establishing good habits. But how do you make good habits stick? Keep reading to discover some proven strategies you can start implementing today. Why build good habits? “We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence then, is not an act, but a habit.” - Aristotle It’s a fact that the repeatable actions you do - day in, day out - shape and influence the person you become. So if you never exercise, rely on caffeine for energy, and eat junk food, you can’t expect to be in peak health! Similarly, if you hide your skills, feel reluctant to send emails, and rarely put out an offer it’s hard to grow your business. The person you are today isn’t the result of what you did yesterday. Instead, who you are right now is the net result of all your habits from previous days, weeks, and months. In short, if you want different in the future, establish new good habits today. Specifically, make the actions that lead to your goals automatic and success is almost inevitable. Do this and you’ll be able to achieve anything you want. Remember, your goals are never the result of one big action. Instead, big goals lie at the end of a long chain of bite-sized daily steps. But if you can identify the small everyday habits that close the gap, you can achieve anything. There’s just one problem... Good habits are not always easy to bed in. Here’s why... Why is it so hard to make good habits stick? If you’ve ever wanted to start something new, you’ll know how incredible you feel at the beginning. The excitement of fresh possibilities lifts and energizes you. You feel inspired and motivated - ready to go in and bring your dream to life. Then reality strikes! You realize just how far away the end line is. You feel overwhelmed by the sheer scale of what you’re attempting. You question who you are to even attempt this. Fear crops up left, right, and center, which sends your self-doubt into overdrive. With no experience you feel unsure where to start and what to do next. And to top it all off, your everyday life is calling! You’ve still got to show up in all your other roles and responsibilities. Then, before you know it, you find yourself falling back into the old groove, living life the way you did before you had the idea to change. Truth is, we’re creatures of habit. We don’t like change - especially change that pushes us out of our comfort zone and increases the risk of failure. It’s far easier to stay where we are in what we know. It’s why you’ll hang up your running shoes, put away your journal, stop meditating, revert to a TV binge, put down the phone, or fold away your dreams. But just because the odds are against you doesn’t mean your powerless. In fact, just knowing what you’re up against when creating a new habit can empower you to keep going. And the journey can become a whole lot easier when you try these powerful habit sticking strategies. How to develop good habits that stick - strategies that work 1. Set yourself up to win Remember, new habits push you out of your comfort zone and force you to do things differently. [And humans don’t like change]. That’s why you want to make your new good habits insanely easy to win. The secret is to start super small, and then build on that as your resilience grows. For example: - Want to get in shape? Don’t aim for a 3-mile run on day one. Instead, start with a 20-minute walk.  - Want to build your business? Start with one sales call, one piece of content, or one email a day - not all three. - Want to start meditating? Don’t feel pressured to sit for 30-minutes from day 1, instead start with a one-minute session and build on that. Make it super easy to win so you can clock up the successes and motivate yourself to keep going. 2. Know your WHY New habits are painful because they force you to do something different. If you enjoy drinking lots of coffee, it’s going to be a challenge to replace some of those cups with water! So make it easier on yourself to navigate the inevitable ups and downs by understanding the reasons you want change. When you know your why (and it’s something you deeply want), when you’re tempted to let new habits slip, you can reason with yourself. For example, saying you want to lose weight is one thing… But knowing you want to lose weight to keep up with your kids, fit back into your favorite jeans, and feel better in yourself, is a whole thing. 3. Reward yourself Don’t underestimate the power a reward can have on your motivation and desire to keep going. What will you give yourself for sticking to a new habit for a week, a month, three months etc? Is it a day at the spa, a trip to the movies, a day off in nature, a manicure, a massage? Whatever floats your boat, dangle that carrot and use it as ammunition to stay committed. 4. Leverage accountability You don’t have to tackle your habits alone. You’ll get much better results if you surround yourself with people who’ll support and encourage you. Tell people what you’re aiming to do. Trust the people who’ve got your back to hold you to a higher standard. Sure, publicly announcing your intentions can be scary, but because we hate to lose face in the eyes of others it’s also a powerful motivator. 5. Track your habits New habits require you to be patient. When you’re taking baby steps everyday, you won’t see a difference immediately and that can make you frustrated. In this age of instant gratification, we want results NOW! One way to see your progress - even when it’s not obvious - is to track your habits. Check off every day you do your habits and in time you’ll build a chain. This creates visual proof of your commitment and reminds you how far you’ve come. But that’s not all... You’ll eventually reach the point where it feels more painful to break the chain than to keep up with your habit. Sure its a hack, but it’s one that will empower you to get the long-term results you want. The tool that makes good habits stick “Motivation is what gets you started. Habit is what keeps you going.” - Jim Ryun If you’re looking for a tool to help you track and establish good habits, the Habit Roadmap is for you. With the Habit Roadmap, you can track your daily habits over a 13 week period. It’s easy to use too: Set your targets Check off each day you complete your habit. Chart your progress and create a winning streak until the chain is so long you don’t want to break it. Habit tracking is a method used by countless top performers - and now you can do the same with the Habit Roadmap. Get yours today.

Life is so busy. There’s so much we need to do and even more that we want to do. It’s no surprise you’re looking for that one magical tool to improve your life. I’m here to tell you that tool is your daily planner. I hear you! How can a simple ‘notebook’ make such a profound difference to the way you think, feel, and act? Take a look at the seven inspiring reasons a daily planner will boost your positivity, productivity, and performance. 1. Free up bandwidth When you’re juggling work, life, commitments, appointments, to-dos, memos, as well as inspired thoughts and dreams your head soon feels full. So full that you can find your mind feeling foggy and overwhelmed. You’re a high achiever so why do you feel like a scatterbrain who forgets birthdays, races to do things art the last minute, and struggles to remember where you put that important memo? It’s enough to have you tearing your hair out! A daily planner helps you get a grip of everything you have going on by creating an external brain. Instead, of piling on the pressure by trying to remember everything, brain dump into your planner and free up the bandwidth you need to focus on more valuable tasks. Use your planner to keep track of appointments, deadlines, and to-dos and you can stop wasting time rifling through a ton of sticky notes trying to find the thing you know you write down. Use your daily planner to increase mental clarity and you’ll be the one who’s always on the ball - instead of the one who’s always dropping it. It’s a quick solution for less stress and more self-esteem. 2. Boost productivity We all get the same number of minutes each day - so why is it some people are able to have it all while others can struggle to scratch the surface of their to-do list? Use a daily planner to run your day (rather than allowing the day to run you) and you can create effective, high performance days that move the needle while keeping you out of the weeds. With a planner, you can work smarter, not harder and get more done in less time. Here’s how: - Prioritization: Not all tasks are created equally. Some tasks will deliver a much higher return than others. Use your daily planner to figure out where the leverage lies and you’ll move the needle further and faster. - Beat Parkinson’s Law: Ever spent all day on a task that should only have taken an hour? You can blame Parkinson’s Law for that. This law states that tasks will take as long as you give them. With a planner, you can set deadlines to help you complete everything more efficiently. It’s the shortcut to getting more done. - Cut procrastination: Distractions are all around us. If we’re not mindful, valuable minutes can disappear - with nothing to show for them. Use your planner to set a schedule for the day and you can keep yourself focused and boost your productivity. 3. Achieve more goals. With a finite amount of time available everyday, it’s important to spend it wisely. High-achievers are able to keep the day-to-day ticking over while working on goals that take them closer to the life they want. That’s because the right daily planner is about more than checking off items on your to-do list… It will also help you take more accountability and ownership over your life by giving you space to mastermind your goals. So use your planner to schedule the tasks and activities that move the needle. Instead of squandering time, you’ll be able to close the gap between where you are now and where you want to be. It’s how a planner can help you achieve your potential and become the person you always wanted to be. 4. Create work-life harmony When your head is all over the place and you struggle to stay on top of your work tasks, life can feel one-dimensional. But you can change that when you use your daily planner to plan your life instead of just your work. The life you want is hidden in the white space of your day. Graduate from to-do lists and instead schedule everything you want to achieve into a dedicated time slot on your daily timeline. With a fixed amount of time to complete a task, you’re more likely to finish it in an efficient timespan - instead of allowing tasks to swallow your day. Schedule your day in this way and you’ll unlock time gaps, which you can use for all the things you want to do - but struggle to make time for currently. It’s how your daily planner will help you have it all - business/work success, fulfilling relationships, great health, plenty of self care and ‘me’ time, and as well as space for creative activities and personal development. 5. Nurture positivity It’s not unusual to feel stretched and stressed. We’re busier than ever. We’re made to feel inadequate by social highlight reels, and we beat ourselves up for falling short of where we want to be. It’s not a surprise that negativity can take hold and when you feel down on yourself it’s harder to achieve the things you want. A daily planner can lead to a mindset shift by nurturing positivity. Firstly, you get a shot of feel-good when you check off a task that’s done. That spark of accomplishment throws fuel on your motivation and helps keep you going. Incorporate a gratitude practice (like the one you’ll find in the Self Journal) and you can train your mind to be more positive too. Spend time highlighting the things in your life that you’re grateful for and you realize how abundant your life is already. It’s a simple, yet powerful practice that can help you feel more optimistic about the road ahead. 6. Build habits We are the sum of our habits. We become the things that we consistently do. Get into the habit of intentionally planning your day and you’ll find you’re able to do more with your time and your life. But why stop there? Your daily planner can also help you track other habits that are important to you. For example, you can track the amount of water you drink, the number of steps you walk, the number of social posts you write - whatever metrics are important to you, you can track them. The Self Journal has a dedicated section for tracking your habits. Simply write down what you want to do (and how many times a week) and check off each day that you make it happen. Before long, your daily checks will create a chain until you reach the point where it’s more painful to break the chain than it is to keep on doing the positive habit. It’s how your planner can help transform your life - one day at a time. 7. Monitor your progress When life is busy and you’re juggling a million and one things, it’s easy to lose track of how far you’ve come. Your daily planner provides the reference point that allows you to see how far you’ve moved the needle. Daily reflection allows you to review your day so you can pull out any lessons learned as well as log your wins. Weekly reflection helps you get a bigger picture of your progress giving you the space and insight to make changes going forward - so you can keep evolving into the person you want to be. Get the New York Times’ Favorite paper planner “My favorite paper planner is the Self Journal, which helps you plan your day, write goal-oriented to-do lists, track progress toward long-term goals and more. (My favorite feature is that it forces you to build time for reflection daily and weekly.)” - Tim Herrera, founding editor of Smarter Living There are so many planners to choose from - especially in the digital age. But to unlock all the benefits a daily planner can offer, opt for a paper planner. You escape the distractions associated with digital and there’s something special about putting your ideas onto the page in your own handwriting. The Self Journal was the first paper planner to incorporate daily gratitude with practices scientifically proven to boost your productivity, positivity, and performance. Use it to plan your day, your week, and your month and mastermind your goals. Trusted by over 170,000 high achievers, it’s your shortcut to the successful life you want.

A paper-based organizer planner is a powerful and proven way to jumpstart your productivity and performance. Free of the distractions that plague apps and online tools, you can maintain your focus and get more done. In recent years, the paper planner market has grown. Nowadays you have a lot of choices. But which structure is best? What should you track and think about on a daily basis to think bigger, achieve more, and enjoy today? Here are eight sections that are essential for your success. 1. Somewhere to write down your goal On a daily basis, you’ll be faced with countless distractions and temptations. You do have enough time to do it all - but only if you’re able to divert your focus and attention to what really matters. Writing out your goal every day serves a number of purposes: Firstly, it reminds you of the direction you’re headed. As a result, you can focus on and prioritize those tasks that are going to keep the needle moving forward. Secondly, when you write out your goal, you tell your Reticular Activating System (RAS) what to look out for. Your conscious brain can’t physically cope with the amount of information it receives every day. To prevent overload, you have to filter stuff out. The RAS is there to identify and draw your attention to the things that matter to you most. Keep your goal front of mind, and don’t be surprised if perfect opportunities fall into your lap - because you’re proactively looking for them. 2. Today’s targets Take a quick look at your master to-do list. If you’re anything like me, then you’ll have a long list of things you need to do (and want to do). Worst of all, there’s absolutely zero chance you’ll get it all done today! If you stay focused on what you can’t do, you’ll ramp up the overwhelm and reduce your output. Instead, pin down up to THREE tasks that - if you do nothing else - will make the day a win for you. Pick your highest priority to-dos or activities, get them scheduled, and make sure they happen. End the day with these three wins under your belt and you’ll feel accomplished - even if some stuff has been left untouched. It’s a high-performance strategy that the right organizer planner will help make permanent. 3. Space for reflection No high-achiever gets through life without making mistakes. When you’re thinking big and thriving in discomfort, mistakes are inevitable. It’s how you grow into your potential. Mistakes are never real mistakes if you learn from them. But they can become a problem if you continue to make the same mistakes over and over. That’s why the best organizer planners have space for daily and weekly reflection. At the end of every day and every week, look back and write down what you learned. Maybe it was a new skill or an insight about yourself. Perhaps you noticed a habit that’s holding you back or a new strategy that’s getting results. Capture your lessons learned and you’re less likely to lose them. Better still, you empower yourself to use these insights to help you grow and achieve your goals quicker. 4. Prompts to captures your wins If you’re reading this, there’s a good chance you’re your own worst enemy! You want to be successful and that means you have big expectations of yourself. It’s a common trait amongst high achievers. It’s also one of the problems with your goals… They’re a constant reminder of how far you’ve yet to travel!   A positive mindset is an asset that will empower to succeed. As Henry Ford famously said, “Whether you think you can or you think you can’t, you’re right.” Writing down your wins on a daily and weekly basis (even the super small ones), will give you the motivation and reference points you need to keep going. Create a catalogue of successes and on those days when it all feels too much, you can quickly remind yourself just how awesome you are. 5. A gratitude practice When I first started using an organizer planner, I didn’t really get why gratitude was such a fundamental part of a high-achiever’s day. I’d always seen gratitude as a practice that showed you had good manners - like saying please and thank you to people. But it turns out gratitude is so much more than that. Start your day by proactively feeling grateful for the things you already have in your life and you realize just how abundant you really are. When you feel successful and abundant in the moment, somehow it’s easier to take the next steps towards your goal. In the same way that you shouldn’t only acknowledge big wins, take note of the small things. When you look back over your life, it’s often the little things that mattered most. By all means, write down that you’re grateful for your highest ever month or the new client you secured. At the same time, feel grateful for the wind on your cheeks and your best friend’s smile. Bookend your day with gratitude and it will create a difference you can feel. 6. A daily timeline The most productive people budget their time in the same way a wealthy person budgets money. What gets measured gets utilized well - so make sure your organizer planner allows you to break down your day into 30-minute chunks. Here’s what most people get wrong… They write out their daily to-do list, but have no idea how long each task should take to complete. Instead, they simply work through their list - then wonder why so much is left undone by the end of the day (sound familiar?) There’s a reason this happens: - Parkinson’s Law states that tasks will eat up however much time you give them. Give a task an open-ended window and it will take you all day. - Without a clear timeline for your day, you have no idea if you’re ahead or behind. As a result, you’re more likely to procrastinate - then panic when the clock starts to run down. A daily timeline allows you to map tasks to specific time slots. With a fixed time window for every to-do, you’re less likely to procrastinate (deadlines are good for that!) You can also plan a more realistic day. Rather than adding stuff to your list that’s never going to happen, you can set yourself up for a win. One more thing… 30-minute time slots work best because they allow you to chunk your day into bite-sized pieces. Also, 30 minutes equals one Pomodoro too! 7. Habit tracker “Depending on what they are, our habits will either make us or break us. We become what we repeatedly do.” ―Sean Covey You can’t sprint your way through a marathon. Instead, you have to pace yourself. It’s the same with your goals. Success doesn’t strike like a bolt of lightning and ‘overnight success’ is usually the result of a lot of hard work behind the scenes. Goals are a long-haul game and the quickest way to win is to develop ‘good’ habits. Take consistent daily action towards your goal and you have more chance of winning than a series of frantic sprints every now and then. What habits will help you cross the finish line?   - Drinking 8 cups of water a day - Writing 500 words a day - Creating a new piece of content every day - Playing games with your children every day - Cooking food from scratch every day - 5 sales calls a day - A workout every day - Meditating every day Whatever those daily actions are for you, you’re more likely to stick at them if you monitor your progress. So check your organizer planner has a place to track your habits. Then get tracking! Mark off every day you succeed until you create a streak. Eventually, you’ll reach the point where it’s more painful to break the chain than it is to keep going. 8. Space to plan your work AND your life The right goals will help you transform your life. But success can be cut short if you don’t have work-life harmony. It’s no good building a successful business if it causes your relationships to fail. It’s no good working all hours on your goals if your health suffers to the point where you can’t enjoy your achievements. Bear in mind that what gets planned gets done. So pick an organizer planner that allows you to plan your life as well as your work. Focusing on to-dos alone may keep the needle moving, but don’t forget to enjoy today. This means planning in your workouts, making time for family, and scheduling time to read or run (or whatever makes you happy). Use your planner to plan it all - and you might just have it all as a result. The original organizer planner When you have goals to hit and a better life to create, you need to get organized. You need to plan your day, nurture positivity, make time for priorities - and free up time for yourself. The Self Journal provides you with the monthly, weekly, and daily structure you need to become your best self. Perfect for setting your goals and masterminding your plan, this organizer planner will help you stay on track - so you can become the person you always knew you could be. Inside the Self Journal, you’ll discover space for: Writing out your goal Prioritizing your workload Reflecting on what you’ve learned Tracking your wins Bookending your day with gratitude Planning your day in 30-minute chunks Tracking your habits And planning for work-life harmony In other words, the Self Journal contains the structure you need to think bigger, achieve more, and enjoy today. Get started with yours today.

Struggling to find enough hours in the day to get everything done? Stress piling up because you have too many tasks and too few minutes? It’s a common problem, but things CAN change. The purpose of time management is to help you work smarter so you can get more done in less time. And to help you approach your day with this mindset, here’s a list of 21 time management examples for high performance. Use these examples to streamline your day, boost your efficiency, and reduce your stress! 1. Make your master to-do list A key factor in your ability to work smarter (not harder) is being able to focus on the task at hand. If you have a million and one things rushing around your head at any given time, it becomes extremely difficult to focus. You start one thing, remember something else, and jump into that. As a result, your day gets fragmented and your time slips away. It’s much more effective to create a master to-do list. Download your brain onto paper so you don’t have to worry about remembering everything. With this list complete, you can free up vital bandwidth to invest fully in your projects, appointments, and get-togethers. It’s the smart thing to do! 2. Prioritise your to-do list. It’s true. A master to-do list can add to the overwhelm. When everything is written on paper, there’s no hiding or denying from what’s on your plate! Good news. You can push through to-do list stress by remembering that not every task is created equally. With a finite amount of time each day, you need to discern between the essential and useful items on your to-do list. You need to pin down the tasks you’ll do today, and those you’ll leave for another time. Be mindful that your priorities will shift daily. After all, time management is about more than getting work done; it’s about making more quality time for your life too. So get ruthless. What MUST be done, what COULD be done, and what can you SCRATCH.  Use these simple rules to get a handle on your to-do list and it will feel a lot more manageable. 3. Plan your day with a planner One of the most effective time management examples is the way you approach your day. Do you leave it all to chance, or are you rigorous in your time allocation to your top priority tasks? If you don’t own your time, you’ll lose it and one of the most effective ways to stretch out your day is with a daily planner (such as the Self Journal). Instead of working randomly through your to-do list, allocate the tasks you’ll complete to a specific timespan. Treat individual tasks like you would appointments, giving them a distinct time slot in your schedule. With a clear plan of how your day will map out, you reduce decision fatigue (saving more time). With the planning part taken care of, you can just get on with your day and get more stuff done. 4. Plan tomorrow before you finish today Do you plan your day in the morning before you start? Or do you plan the previous evening? According to some of the world’s top performers, today doesn’t end until you plan tomorrow. It’s easy to see why. Planning ahead gives you an edge. Instead of spending the first 20-30 minutes brainstorming your day in the morning, you can jump straight into action. Over a week, those 30 minutes saved each day could free up an extra 2.5 hours. There’s another reason to plan the night before. Your subconscious brain is a powerful tool. If it knows what’s coming up, it’s already busy processing and problem solving. Sleep can help with this too (ever noticed how you wake up with the answer to a question that’s been bothering you?) 5. Plan your week Plan each day, but also plan the week with a tool such as the Weekly Action Pad. Each Sunday, pull out your master to-do and pin down the tasks you must get done within the next 7 days. Prioritise each task, group by project/client/category, estimate how long each task will take, and write in your deadlines. With a weekly overview of what needs to happen you’re less likely to forget anything important. You’ll reduce stress too. With a clear overview of your deadline pattern for the week, you can allocate tasks accordingly to ensure you finish everything on time. Best of all, when you’re finished, you’ll find that daily planning is a breeze! Abraham Lincoln famously said, “Give me six hours to chop down a tree and I will spend the first four sharpening the axe.” It’s just one reason why robust planning is a powerful time management example. 6. Consider the positioning of tasks during the day We all have different patterns of optimum output. Some of us are better in the evening while others swear by the idea that the early bird catches the worm. Some simple time management examples include figuring out when you’re at your best. Once you understand your energy levels and how they fluctuate throughout the day, you can schedule your tasks accordingly. Here’s a useful code to try: - E tasks are ENERGIZING - N tasks have a NEUTRAL impact on you - D tasks are DRAINING Don’t try to do a draining task when your energy is already low. It will only drag you down further. Instead, schedule this task when your energy is higher - so you’ll have motivation to push you through. 7. Be realistic. It’s no use piling up your day with shed-loads of tasks if there’s zero chance you’ll get it all done. Falling short can knock your confidence, so don’t set yourself up to fail. Instead, be realistic in your expectations for the day and for each task. Feel free to stretch yourself, but don’t overly stress yourself. Instead, plan achievable days that move the needle, make you feel accomplished, and inspire you for what’s coming next. 8. Eat your frog first thing in the morning Following on from point 7, there will always be one task a day that you’ll dread. It may be a big task, a challenging task, or a boring task - something that causes you stress just by thinking about it! Whatever task this is, GET IT DONE FIRST THING. Leverage your willpower and morning energy to put a big, fat cross though the biggest challenge of the day. You’ll be amazed at the difference it makes going forward. For starters, you won’t have any headspace taken up by a task you’re worried about. You’ll also give yourself a high for checking off a biggie. It’s a motivational boost that will keep you driving forward. Be on the watch for simple, but powerful time management examples. This is one we strongly recommend. 9. Set deadlines. Sticking with the theme of planning out your day… Have you heard of Parkinson’s Law? It’s this pesky principle that states that tasks will steal however much time you give them. In other words, give a 30-minute task two hours and that’s how long it will take! You can counter this law by giving each task a time deadline. Estimate how long you think each task will take and allocate that amount of time into your daily planner. With clear time windows to work with, not only will your time go further, but you can use the pressure to finish in a ‘sensible’ time span to work smarter. 10. Practice the principle of zero white space. In a similar vein… don’t leave big empty gaps in your daily schedule. Instead, adopt the principle of zero white space. Time is a resource, just like money. If you don’t manage it well, you’ll squander it. Allocate your time to nothing and you’ll get nothing in return. But schedule in tasks, breaks, social media time, conversations, dates, and everything else you love and you may find that you have time to do it all 11. Work in Pomodoros. Resist the temptation to chain yourself to your desk for hours on end. Instead, work in 30-minute chunks. ‘Sprint’ at a task for 25 minutes, give yourself a 5-minute break, then dive back into another ‘Pomodoro’. Focus and willpower are all finite. Giving yourself regular breaks throughout the day sustains your energy for longer and helps you make more of your time. 12. Stop trying to multitask ‘Multitasking saves your time’ is one of the biggest time management myths of them all. IT DOESN’T. In fact, multitasking actually steals your time, drains your bandwidth, and makes you more ineffective. That’s because your brain can’t actually multitask. When you’re doing more than one thing at a time, what you’re actually doing is switching focus from one task to another (and back again). Each time you switch it can take up to 20 minutes to get yourself back into full flow. So get disciplined. Commit to working on one task at a time and you will finish quicker. Not only that, give yourself the space to focus on one thing and you’ll pave the way for deep work and sharper concentration. It’s the shortcut to higher quality in everything you do. 13. Figure out how to get into your flow. Not only do you do your best work when you’re in your flow, but you’ll work quicker too. When you’re in the zone, your mind isn’t distracted or tired. Instead, it’s on form and on point. A flow state is an effortless state. It’s when the ideas rush like water, words spill onto the screen, and momentum just builds and builds. It’s when hours pass like minutes and stuff gets done. In comparison, when you’re not in flow, everything is hard. Your head is a mush, ideas get stuck, and you just can’t get yourself going. As a result, anything takes forever! You can learn to turn on your flow state at will. There will be certain triggers, practices, and rituals that make it easier for you to tune in and turn your best on. Figure out these triggers for yourself and you’ll be able to leverage and use your time like never before. 14. Eliminate distractions. If your mind is being pulled from one distraction to another, it’s almost impossible to get into focus zone. Instead, you’ll have to keep stopping and starting and that means you can’t leverage the power of momentum. That’s why eliminating distractions should be in your list of powerful time management examples. This practice involves: - Switching off notifications on your phone and computer so you’re not disturbed by constant ‘pings’ - Putting your phone on silent or airplane mode so you don’t get disturbed. - Logging out from social media while you’re working so you don’t get sucked in. - Locking your door and telling people to not disturb you. Be aware of anything that’s likely to steal your attention and eliminate it. Give yourself focus, protected time to work and you’ll be racing through today’s tasks like there’s no tomorrow! 15. Systemize and where possible automate repetitive tasks. If you were to take the time to map out what you do each week, I guarantee there will be heap of repetitive tasks in the mix. Tasks that you more than likely do slightly differently each and every time! You don’t want to waste time and bandwidth doing unnecessary things over and over. Instead, look to see where you can free up time by systemizing repetitive tasks and building out processes. Critically map out each task and in doing so you can streamline, chop out the inefficiencies, and unnecessary steps, and save time. 16. Don’t try and do it all yourself. It’s tempting to try and do everything yourself. You may even believe that you have no choice, but that simply isn’t true. Be honest with yourself and you’ll spot tasks on your list that you’ll be able to delegate or outsource. A better question to ask is who can you hire to help? What tasks can you hand off in your home, at work, and in your business? You may not be able to turn back time but you can buy more time by investing in people resource. Get a cleaner or a gardener at home. Work with a VA in your business. Invest in your team and delegate more responsibility to them. And commit to spending a bigger and bigger proportion of your time in your zone of genius. You’ll naturally work smarter when you’re doing what you love. 17. Get organized. Ridiculous simple, but so worthwhile! How many minutes do you add to a task because you’re hunting around for your notes, trying to find your pencil, or sifting through a ton of files? Make it easy to get started by keeping the tools you need nearby and giving all your essentials a home that’s easy to find. Reduce clutter, keep a clear workspace, and keep things simple. Reduce the friction from getting started and you won’t waste bandwidth. Instead, you can invest your all into what needs to be done. 18. Have an ‘extras’ list on the go. Finished a task early? Meeting got cancelled? Got a block of time you didn’t expect? Sure you can put this unexpected time to good use by taking a break, reading a book, or going for a walk. You can also invest this time working through your extras list. This is simply a list of tasks you can do when you have spare time. With a task list ready to go you don’t have to think about what you could do. You can just grab your list and check something off. Simple, but powerful. 19. Start the day with gratitude to fuel a positive mindset Your ability to get your head down, focus, and get stuff done is partly a function of how you feel. If you’re motivated and upbeat, it’s more likely that you’ll crack on than when you’re feeling low and miserable! It’s why we recommend a daily gratitude practice. Start your day listing out three things in your life that you’re grateful for. These can be big things or small things (like the clear blue sky). Appreciate what you already have in your life and you can’t help but feel good. It’s a simple practice, but one that switches on a positive frame of mind that will empower you to do the work! 20. Use apps and tools. Apps and tools will help you reduce mental fog, speed things up, and organize your day. We’ve compiled a list of 37 of our favorites. You can download them for FREE at the link below. 21. See time management as something that evolves with time and practice. I’ve given you a ton of time management examples already. Implement all of these and you will be able to work smarter, not harder. You will get more done in fewer minutes. And while there’s plenty in this list that will deliver immediate results, time management is a practice as well as a skill. It’s something you can sharpen and build on every single day. So as you dive into these suggested strategies, remember to reflect on how well they work for you. What did you learn? How could you improve? How could you sharpen your day even further? Commit to becoming someone who’s able to master their time, and you will. Effective time management is a skill and a discipline - and that means it’s something you can sharpen with commitment and practice. Here’s to working smarter so you can get more done in less time. Over to you. What are your favorite time management examples? 

There’s this great quote from Jim Rohn that says, “Ideas can be life-changing. Sometimes all you need to open the door is just one more good idea.” The question is do you find idea generation easy, or is it more like pulling teeth! Ideas hold the potential to change our lives because they open doors and create opportunities. They help you solve problems, start a business, launch new products, repair your relationship, inspire your child, and live your very best life. Ideas help you maximize the big and the little things. From figuring out how to rebuild your life after a catastrophe, to persuading an unpersuadable toddler it’s time for bed, ideas are fuel for growth, discovery, and evolution. If you can generate ideas at will, you’ll never be stuck. You’ll never be out of options. You’ll never lose all your control. Instead, you can dive into your thinking, figure it out, and mastermind your way forward. You’ll be the one who can answer the tough questions. You’ll be the one who others will turn to in tough times. You’ll also be the one who’s never broke for long because if you need to, you can come up with a long list of money making ideas - some of which will work. For as long as you can keep thinking of ideas, the door is never permanently shut. You can always walk down another avenue or try another path. Your options are only ever limited by the number of ideas you can generate. So if ideas are so powerful, what is the secret to having more of them? Here’s the really good news... Idea generation is a talent AND a skill We’ve all been around people who are able to reel off idea after idea. They’re so smart - it’s why you stand in awe and marvel at their exceptional intelligence! It’s frustrating. Why can’t you do the same? Perhaps you can... Some people do have a natural talent for thinking on their feet and making connections that actually go somewhere. The rest of us just have to work hard at developing the skill. Let me show you how you can do that. A step-by-step guide to idea generation  UNDERSTAND HOW YOU GENERATE IDEAS The dictionary says an idea is ‘a thought or a suggestion about a possible course of action’. If that’s the case, it follows that ideas come after a trigger. For example: - You’re asked a question - You’re stuck with a problem - You’re asked for your opinion on what you would do When faced with a trigger (like the ones above), your brain goes hunting for answers. There’s a lot it can dive into for example: past experiences, your personal beliefs about what’s right and wrong, stories you’ve heard, books you’ve read, conversations you’ve had, knowledge you’ve learned etc. In short, your brain gets busy digging around to find answers that fit. It sifts through everything then comes back with possibilities. That’s how you create ideas. The mistake most people make is they stop with the superficial, obvious surface level responses. If you want to be able to generate good ideas at will, you have to train your brain to go deeper. And one of the most powerful way to do that is to make idea generation a habit. PRACTICE EVERYDAY You can’t run a marathon without training. You can’t play an instrument when you first pick it up. You can’t build a successful business overnight. To achieve these goals you need to commit to a routine of consistent action. You have to train regularly, practice your scales daily, or commit to making sales calls everyday. When you take action consistently, you’ll activate the compound effect. You’ll also get better and more skillful over time. Where you started out as a novice, time (and committed action) can turn you into an expert. The exact same principle applies to idea generation. Make it a daily habit and with time you’ll get better at making new connections, seeing things differently, and thinking up something new. Practice regularly and good ideas will flow more easily. CREATE A HABIT YOU CAN TRACK A good way to make idea generation habitual is to set yourself a daily goal that you can measure and track. Build a chain of ‘checked’ days and you’ll soon reach a point where it’s more painful to break the chain than it is to practice your habit for another day. Here’s a suggested daily idea generation practice you could try: - Dedicate a notebook that you use solely for idea generation - Set yourself a challenge and come up with TEN ideas in response. For example: - Industries you could disrupt - Meals you want to cook - Content pieces you could write You’ll find that a few ideas will spill out effortlessly - then you might get stuck! You might judge ideas as not being good enough and not write them down. Resist that temptation. The act of writing an idea (even what you perceive to be a bad one) clears space for more thoughts to bubble up. It’s worth coming up with all ideas in a single sitting. Don’t let yourself off the hook! Instead, push through the resistance and force yourself to dig into the less obvious ideas (it’s the key reason for listing out ten). Under pressure to write ten, your brain will start thinking laterally and outside the box. When you have no option but to think of ideas, you’ll be amazed at the genius which can flood out. We always artificially limit our abilities. Generating 10 ideas every day will blast the lid off yours. REMEMBER WHY YOU’RE DOING THIS The goal of your daily practice isn’t to always generate ideas that you’ll use (although many times you will). Instead, this is about leveraging a habit that will enable you to generate a flood of ideas when you need to. Build your idea-generating muscle and next time you the a roadblock, you’ll be in a much better position to think yourself out of it.   FEED YOUR BRAIN Steve Jobs famously said this about creativity. “Creativity is just connecting things. When you ask creative people how they did something, they feel a little guilty because they didn't really do it, they just saw something. It seemed obvious to them after a while.” So good ideas are the result of connecting things up in different and unusual ways! If that’s the case, it makes sense to feed your brain with a wide range of influences - so you’ll have plenty of references to pull upon when you need an idea. The more you have to dig through, the richer your spectrum of ideas will become. This is your permission slip to go wild! - Pick up books that aren’t the genre you’d usually read - Take a different route home - Dive into a Facebook group of people who have conflicting views - Listen to debate shows - Visit a new city or a new country and see how different communities and cultures live - Change your job or seek out different projects - Force yourself out of your comfort zone - Watch TED Talks on subjects you know nothing about - Talk to a kid and see the world through their eyes - Journal to discover your innermost thoughts - Burn incense or aromatherapy oils to stimulate your senses - Pick a dish off a menu you don’t know how to pronounce - Listen to a podcast in a new genre - Read autobiographies to see how different people think You get the picture. Infuse your brain and senses with new influences and experiences and you’ll have a ton more reference points you can pull on when you need a good idea. PLAN TO IMPLEMENT THE GOOD IDEAS It’s going to be impossible to implement all the ideas you have. To be fair, you won’t want to! A lot of your ideas won’t be practical and they won’t fit with what’s happening in your life right now. But that doesn’t matter. Remember the goal of this habit is to get good at generating ideas - not necessarily to find good ideas. But when you stumble upon a good one, you will want to run with it. Here’s what to do with those ideas: - Brainstorm around the idea to flesh it out and figure out what’s involved - Set a goal (the Self Journal structure will help) - Figure out the first step (however small) - Execute on that first step to get out of the starting blocks and build momentum The life you want is a series of ideas away. All you need to do is keep opening more doors and stepping through them. Being able to generate ideas at will gives you a distinct advantage over everyone else because you get to find more keys. Are you ready to think bigger and achieve more? If so, commit to your idea-generation practice. It’s a simple, but powerful way to empower you to make the most of your life.  

Did you know that highly productive days don’t start when you wake up? In some cases, you’ve already lost the productivity battle if you wait until you’re sat at your desk with your morning coffee before you plan your day. The one day at a time approach doesn’t allow you to see the bigger picture. It puts you at risk of creating a backlog and unintentionally falling behind. It risks piling on the stress later in the week leaving you hitting the weekend feeling like a failure - rather than someone on top of their game. There’s an easy way to prevent weekends spent playing catch up. It’s to plan your week. And in this article, I’ll reveal the step-by-step process that will declutter your mind, sharpen your focus, and inspire you to get more done (on time) than you ever have before. 1. Start with a brain-dump Your mind is brilliant at creating, problem-solving, thinking, and deciding. What it’s not so good at is remembering a heap of small stuff. So don’t drain your valuable bandwidth trying to juggle your to-do list in your head. It’s ineffective, time draining, and exhausting! Instead, pull out your notepad and make a list of EVERYTHING you need to get done before the week is though. Capture it all - not just your work or goal related stuff, but all the little odds and ends you have to take care of such as errands or buying birthday cards. With your entire list on paper, you give yourself a realistic view of what you’ve got to tackle. At this point, one of two things is going to happen. You’ll either be pleasantly surprised that your week doesn’t look as hairy as you thought OR you’ll be freaking out at the sheer volume of tasks that are on your plate! But here’s the critical thing… Much better to know this now - before the week has begun - rather than waking up on Thursday morning then hiding in bed because there really is no time to tick through it all. 2. Get ruthless Let’s put it out there… You can’t do it all! Your time is finite and it is limited - so you have to make the most of what you’ve got. So the next thing to do is look through your to-do list and decide what has to say and what’s going to go. Remove anything that doesn’t have a deadline that involves the 7 days ahead. Remove tasks that if you’re honest, you don’t really need to do Highlight tasks that you can hand off to someone else - whether that’s delegating to your team, outsourcing, or ‘gifting’ to someone at home! In short, reduce the size of your to-do list so you’re left with the tasks that are most valuable, most important, and most urgent. 3. Get things in order When you look at your weekly to-do list you don’t want it to spark chaos, you want it to evoke certainty and calm. There’s an easy way to do this… Group tasks by projects. The way you do this will depend on the tasks on your list. For example, if you’re an entrepreneur working from home, you might group your tasks by client, or by business function (sales, marketing, operations etc.) You may have a separate project for your goal-related tasks and one for home. Segmenting your list in this way will help you see at a glance what you have to deliver for different groups of people. It’s another way to declutter your mind and ensure you don’t miss a thing. ----------------------------- Steps 1-3 are all about identifying what you need to do, eliminating what you don’t, and organizing your list so it’s useful ‘at a glance’. The next step is to figure out how you’re going to spread these tasks over the week - to maximize the chances of hitting Friday with it all done. Here’s how... 4. Prioritize Despite your best intentions, you may not get everything on your list ticked off. The secret to winning the week is to ensure your most important tasks are not the ones left untouched. To achieve this, look over your list and prioritize your tasks. 1 = urgent and important. These tasks MUST be completed 2 = important, but not as urgent as top priority tasks 3 = useful, but not urgent or as important as the other tasks on your list Guess which tasks you can drop if you run out of time! 5. Add due dates Time management is about doing the right tasks at the right time. So now you’ve got your prioritized, whittled down list, your next step is to add due dates to everything. If you’ve got a collection of 1s on your list, this step will help you figure out in what order to tackle those tasks. That’s because your due date pattern will make it really easy to see what tasks MUST be done by particular days. It’s a game-changer… Instead of doing tasks when you feel like it (or when you have zero choice), you can schedule your week strategically. You can spread out your workload and therefore avoid last-minute panic and unnecessary pressure. That in itself is going to boost your productivity significantly because you won’t feel so stressed. What’s more, because you know that you’ve allocated time to tackle other priority tasks later in the week, you can park them until that day. You don’t have to worry about them in the moment which means you can more fully concentrate on the task at hand. But there’s even more you can do to stretch your time... 6. Add time estimates Ever heard of Parkinson’s Law? It’s one of the biggest time stealers there is! Parkinson’s Law states that tasks will eat up the time you give them. Yup, that’s why that project which should have taken a couple of hours somehow consumed your entire day. There is a way to defeat this law - that’s by allocating each task on your to-do list a realistic time span for completion. And that’s your next job… go through your list and make a note of how many minutes each task needs. When making this decision, give yourself a bit of leeway, but also apply some pressure. Deadlines spark productivity because they don’t leave room for slacking and force you to step up and deliver. On the other hand, you don’t want to make it too tight that you panic, cut corners, and fail to produce a quality result. If you’ve never used time estimates before, this will be a learning process. You may find that you’re wildly out - i.e. you underestimate or overestimate how much time you need. That’s ok in the short-term. Over time, you’ll get to know your output better so you can estimate time more accurately. As well as helping you overcome Parkinson’s Law, time estimates ensure you plan days that are realistic. It’s pointless creating a daily task list that’s as long as your arm if there is no chance of you churning through it all. So use time estimates to better manage your minutes. It’s an advanced productivity technique that will help you win the week. 7. Use the E/N/D formula Next, look at all the tasks on your list and decide what tasks are energizing (E), draining (D), and neutral (N). This formula helps you understand the impact of each task on your energy levels. With this information to hand, you can schedule tasks in a more intelligent way to make maximum use of your reserves. If you don’t do this, you’ll risk scheduling a draining task when you’re already struggling to think straight. Just imagine how much longer that task will take to complete if you try to do it then! -------------------------------- Complete steps 4-7 and you’ll be clear on your priorities for the week, when they need to be delivered, and how long each task should take. Now, when you sit at your desk to plan your day, you’re not starting from scratch. You’re simply delivering a bigger picture plan - it makes daily planning easier, more effective, and much more productive. Here’s how... 8. Schedule each day You’ve got your Self Journal, you’ve got your mojo on, and you’re ready for a highly productive day. Here’s how to turn your weekly plan into a daily schedule that delivers big and transforms the day into a win. Pull out your weekly to-do list and pinpoint the tasks you must deliver TODAY. What are TODAY’S TARGETS? (i.e. the 3 things that will make today a win.) Identify the ‘frog’ - you’re going to tackle this first. Note the time estimate and block out that amount of time for the job. For example, if today’s frog is to write a blog post, you need 120 mins, and you’re starting work at 8:30, block out 8:30-10:30 for that task. Next, identify what other tasks you plan to tackle. Again note the time estimates and plan those into appropriate time slots. When ordering tasks, remember the E/N/D formula. Use energizing tasks to boost your motivation and make use of willpower (when it’s available) to check through those draining to-dos. Factor in proper breaks. You can’t work flat out! You need space to unwind, recharge, and take a breather - so don’t skimp on this time. The notes/ideas section of your Self Journal’s daily pages are a good place to list errands and extra tasks that you’ll tackle if you finish everything else. Now get to work! Remember to check off tasks as you complete them. Review your day as you work through it too. Did a task take longer than you thought? Did an unexpected priority force you to reorder your day? If so, remember to rework your plans to ensure you still end with a win. Win the Week with the Weekly Action Pad Ready to implement this system and take your weekly planning to the next level?If so, get your hands on the Weekly Action Pad.This one-page success tool follows the process above and will help you organize your weekly task list so you get the maximum amount done in the shortest possible time.It works perfectly with your Self Journal and makes daily planning a whole lot easier.To add this tool to your productivity toolkit, CLICK HERE.

You have big ambitions for your life. There are things you want to achieve in your business, in your career, in your personal life, and in your relationships. But you’re impatient! You’re not getting where you want to be fast enough! You’ve hustled, invested your willpower, and deployed the grit and determination to get closer to your goals. And it’s worked… You’ve achieved so much already. The problem is you’re getting more overwhelmed and closer to burnout as the days go by (and the finish line isn’t getting any closer). You’ve realized that what got you here won’t get you to the next step. You know you have a finite capacity to do things. It’s why working harder and harder won’t necessarily give you the results you want. Instead, you have to train yourself to work smarter. Here are seven ways to do that. Change your mindset We live in a society that values hard work. Think back over your life and you’ll notice how parents, teachers, and bosses taught you that hard work gets rewarded. It’s why high achievers are happy to pull all-nighters and clock up a crazy number of hours. But hard work has a capacity. Work too much, and you’ll undermine the very skills and talents that can help make you successful. You can’t focus or create when you’re exhausted. It can feel counterintuitive, but reducing the workload can actually free up the headspace you need to generate the ideas and insights that will help you step up. It’s time for a mindset change. Continue to value hard work. Continue to put the effort in that matches your expectations for yourself. But at the same time, value the things that don’t feel like hard work, but still generate results. This can include thinking time and relaxation time. It also includes time for conversations and time for yourself. Give yourself the space (and permission) to take your foot off full throttle and you’ll open up a new level of thinking that could provide the answers you need. Set goals Working smarter means investing more of your time on the things that move the needle in the direction you want to go. If you don’t have goals, how will you know you’re working on the right things? Set goals for every timescale of your life: - Create the big picture – how do you want your life to be in 10, 5, and 3 years time? - Create a 90-day roadmap – what significant goal can you achieve in the next 3 months? - Weekly targets – what do you need to get done by the end of the week? - Daily goals – what can you achieve today to get closer to your goal? With these milestones to guide you, it will be easier to make decisions about what you should (and shouldn’t) be doing. Need help setting goals? Check out these FREE downloadable goal-setting templates – for all areas of your life.                                                                                                                                 Get enough sleep When you’ve got deadlines and a to-do list that’s as long as your arm, working later and rising earlier feels like a logical solution. It’s a simple way to create more time in the day to get more done. But this strategy won’t serve you long-term because you’ll soon be exhausted. Don’t starve yourself of sleep. You need it to rest and rejuvenate.   Instead, ensure you get sufficient sleep as it’s going to keep your energy levels topped up so you have the physical and mental capacity to do it all. If you want a deeper dive into the role of sleep for your productivity, watch this short video.          Work on the right things Trying to do everything yourself is not a good use of your time. Working smarter means doubling-down on the things you’re really good at and finding alternative ways to do everything else. It’s a principle that applies to your home and professional life. Here’s a quick exercise to help you figure this out: Make a list of everything that you have to do on a daily and weekly basis. Separate this into three columns… tasks for work, tasks for home, and things for you. Next look through the list objectively: - Cross off items on the list that you’re doing because you’ve always done them – not because they need to be done. - Identify the tasks on the list that can only be done by you. - Identify the tasks that you really like to do. - Identify the tasks that could be done by someone else. With this exercise complete, you can figure out how you’re going to handle it all in the future. For example: - Is cleaning, ironing, gardening, or cooking the best use of your time, or can you hire domestic help to take care of those jobs giving you more time for your partner and kids? - How much of your workday is spent doing tasks a VA could take care of? - What work tasks are you currently doing that are taking you three times as long because it's not in your zone of genius? What could you outsource or hire someone else to handle? Get help with your work, and you’ll have more time to do the things that matter! Systematize It’s not how much time you work that matters. It’s how you use that time. You may think you’re working as hard as you can, but there’s a good chance you’re squandering time through inefficiencies. A simple way to work smarter is to look at where you can replace manual work for systems. What tasks and activities do you do every day (or every week) that you could replace with a system? For example: - Automate email flows - Lead generation and conversion - Create a robust system for filing - Smart schedule your day (with a tool like Dawn) Look where you can take manual work out of a task and replace it with automation. When tasks get done on autopilot, you free up a ton of time you can use elsewhere. Plan your day proactively If you don’t plan your day, you’ll reduce significantly the amount of stuff you’ll get done. There are lots of reasons for this: - You’ll work on the wrong tasks. - Take too long getting tasks done. - Underestimate the time needed to finish your to-do list. - Get distracted by new priorities and demands. - Procrastinate and waste time. - Tackle tasks in the wrong order. To name but a few… If you want to get more done in less time, you MUST plan your day in advance. This goes beyond writing a to-do list. This is about getting intentional with how you’ll spend every minute – so the day becomes a win for you. Here’s how to do it: - Write a prioritized to-do list - Estimate how long each task will take to complete - Schedule each task a specific time slot in your Self Journal - Plan it all – work tasks along with everything else - Stick to your plan – don’t be side-tracked by other people’s pressing priorities - Sit tight, work productively, and get it all done! Reflect The smart working practices that are going to work best for you are going to change over time – depending on where you’re at. This isn’t a one-time check-in. Instead, this is a discipline you want to sharpen over and over. So take time to reflect periodically. - Review what you’re spending your time on so you can see what else you can hand off - Check in with your goals to ensure you’re moving in the right direction - Assess your daily schedule to see how it’s working from you See this as work in progress and stay open-minded so you’re receptive to any new wins that come your way.