When I asked my father, then aged 85 and about to move out of the home he’d built with his own hands 25 years earlier, whether there was anything more he really wanted to do, his response was memorable: “You can always think of more things to do in a day than you can get…
Category Archives: Goals
Claim your spot in the "Plan to Thrive" teleclass
Does business planning really matter, or do all business plans sit forgotten on a shelf? According to a recent study, lack of a well-developed business plan is a factor in 78 percent of all small business closures. In fact, planning is one of the best practices you can habitually engage in to bring success and…
Worth Repeating – July posts from New Leaf News
I’m sharing a few posts from the New Leaf archives. Here’s what was on our mind in Julys past. How can you make progress on a goal that, for lack of a “natural” deadline, seem to take a back seat to everything else? Here are a couple of ideas to help you get it done….
In-Box Zero
Remember merit badges, those embroidered circles used to mark achievement for Boy Scouts and Girls Scouts? Now there is a company that makes merits badges for grown-ups, and there’s one I desperately want to earn: In-Box Zero. My goal of an empty email in-box is more elusive than live tech support. I crossed into the…
Time Myth: "I have to run faster to get everything done"
We all have certain beliefs and assumptions that we make about time. One common assumption I encounter: getting more done requires running faster. Some time management systems encourage us to work faster to save maybe 10 or 15 percent of our time. And while a saving of 10 percent is always welcome, there are much…
Quote: write your goal
A quote for the day: The discipline of writing something down is the first step toward making it happen. – Lee Iacocca
Five steps for ending "tolerations"
I call them “tolerations” – those little irritants we hardly notice. Maybe it’s something small, like a sticking wheel on a desk chair. Maybe it’s something you try to ignore because you feel you can’t change it, like a noisy neighbor. It could be your life-long habit, such as piling your papers rather than filing…
Plan from your passion
Last week I received the audience feedback from a conference workshop I led in November. One respondent commented anonymously: “So inspiring, clean. Made a promise to myself as a result of this session.” This is what I live for! I was leading my popular session “Plan to Thrive – how to shape, track, and follow…
Getting it done without deadlines
There is a certain category of tasks that languish on our lists because they lack a firm deadline. Catching up with filing is one example; everything with a deadline can come before filing. Writing a book or developing a new product can be another example unless you have a publisher and a contract, in which…
Where do I begin? How to set goals that matter
Over the years I have heard a lot of debate about the best starting point to use when setting goals. Begin with the ultimate vision? Begin with an analysis of current conditions to identify opportunities? Like a ship’s sail in fickle winds, the prevailing view has shifted one direction, then turned back again. I thought…