I’m one of those rare people who love to create plans for everything. If you can name any area in your life that you can have control over, I guarantee you that I have created a mission on how to improve that aspect of my life at some point. (Okay, so maybe I’m a little bit nutty in that respect, but that’s okay. )

Day to day planning is what I focus on now. To me, having a productive day is incredibly important. If I go to bed with a lackluster feeling, I’m almost certain to wake up in the morning carrying over some residual emotions from that. Or vice versa – a great day yesterday means a great start today. Planning has a lot to do with these feelings, obviously.

At first, I would plan out my days as if I was a productivity robot, able to burst through tasks effortlessly with a little time to spare. Back to back objectives with a little breathing room made up my schedules. I would think to myself, “this is what it means to be productive. This is what it means to schedule your time wisely.” Of course, I now know that life doesn’t work like that.

Something would always happen that would tear my plans to shreds. The task at hand would be completed way before my estimated time… not necessarily a bad thing. Or worse, the task at hand would take up way too much time, sometimes several hours more than I would have guessed. This happened way too often than not, and it often pushed other necessary, urgent tasks to the next day. While that would be okay once in a while, the cumulative effect wasn’t too pretty. I began to feel burnt out and stressed to the max.

Is it human nature to think that we’re more efficient workers than we really are? I’d like to think so. We all want to believe we’re great at barreling through tasks at a breakneck speed, able to conquer anything that we put in front of ourselves. The real world and our lives don’t work like this, however. We’re not perfect machines; we’re human beings. We plan for computers, but we behave like primates.

After these realizations, I began to plan in a different way. I had to be more flexible, more conscious in the realization that I can’t possibly execute my plans perfectly if I tried to box myself in a tight schedule day in and day out.

With a little trial and error, I worked out two planning guidelines that I use to allocate time to activities:

1. Only assign time amounts to those activities where time is the only requirement. There are certain things that I do that merely require I put in the necessary time. Piano practice is one of these. No matter if I choose to practice for one hour or three hours, I need to simply put in the time. Results will happen regardless, as long as I’m focused on the task at hand.
2. Schedule wide open spaces for activities that are creativity based. I love writing these blog posts and sharing my ideas with the world. Sometimes words flow effortlessly and I can create an inspired post at an incredible speed. At other times I decide to go at a slower pace, deliberately crafting my sentences and carefully choosing how I want to convey my message. These are the activities that I choose not to assign a time to.

Before I started planning like this, I would assume every task would be a #1 task. Somehow my brain thought that any objective could be assigned an allotted time amount and I would be able to finish that objective within that time frame. How wrong I was!

It’s true that some tasks will only require you to pump in the time. Running on the treadmill at the gym for 30 minutes will never, ever take 29 minutes or 31 minutes. Always 30. In order to knock off that exercise goal, all you have to do is put in the time. Easy. The same goes for any activity where time is the main measurable aspect of accomplishment, such as practicing a musical instrumental or studying.

But what about creative endeavors? It took me a while to realize that not all creative pursuits are made equal. There are instances where it’s fairly easy to finish up a project within a short amount of time. There are other even greater instances where more time is needed then you’d think. Countless times I’ve started writing blog posts that I think will only take me an hour to write and edit, but wind up being over 3 to 4 hours (or more) start to finish. Note that there’s nothing wrong with this – just the fact that it can and does happen.

Looking at planning through the nature of the tasks helped me create better plans that I can actually carry out. Try this method of planning out yourself. Plan for the human being that’s going to be carrying out your schedule – yourself.

Questions to ask yourself: Think of one of your current goal. Are you having trouble breaking up that goal into manageable chunks of time? What if you set aside one afternoon and freely worked on a section of that goal, without a time limit? Would you get more work or less work done? Why or why not?

Timeboxing is a fairly simple time management technique. When you have a task to accomplish, you set aside a certain amount of time to complete that task. You do your very best to complete that task, regardless of the final outcome. For example, say you’re writing a new blog entry on timeboxing. You give yourself an hour to do that task in, and however it comes out is how it comes out.

With timeboxing, the quality of what you’re producing is still very important, but the overall concept is to get a finished product churned out for you to use and for people to see. The end goal is a completed item, task, or project. You can assign any amount of time (30 minutes, an hour, two hours, etc.) to any task (cleaning, writing, reading, etc.) In addition, you can always go back and revise what you’ve hammered out.

I often use timeboxing when I’m practicing piano. Oftentimes, when you’re practicing a certain skill, like learning a musical instrument or a sport move, it’s easy to practice for hours on end but not get any real work accomplished. The more you practice, the worse your actual practicing becomes. Timeboxing practice into a limited amount of time forces you to make intelligent decisions based on the time you have and what needs to be done. If I give myself exactly one hour to practice, am I going to diddle around playing showtunes? Of course not! I’m going to be practicing Chopin. In this case, timeboxing works very effectively. When time becomes scarce, my practice sessions shoot up in value. Less time to mess around, more time to buckle down and get to work.

Here are some other useful uses for timeboxing:

• Highly creative work. Creative work needs to get done one way or another, and oftentimes amazingly creative people don’t bother with setting deadlines. But if no tangible work gets completed, how will the world see their gifts? Use timeboxing to get that creative work done, such as composing a song or writing a blog entry.
• Finishing off lots of little tasks together. Can you finish off 20 little things that need to be done today in a course of an hour? Batch them all together and knock them off one by one instead of doing one here, one there. Saves time and energy.
• Tedious, ugly, massive projects. Most goals that one will try to obtain in life can be broken down into numerous projects. Some of these projects will be enjoyable to blaze through; others, not so much. Use timeboxing to make an impact in completing the nastier projects bit by bit.
• Stuff you just wanna get done. Some stuff isn’t fun to do, but it’s not exactly something that can fall into a category. If it looks like a huge, looming, annoying project, use timeboxing to knock it off of your to-do list once and for all.

Remember, the goal of timeboxing is a totally finished item. You can always go back and revise if you feel the need to later, depending on the item itself.

What can you be timeboxing and completing today? Why haven’t you done it yet? Get to work!

Hyperactivity is not wasting your time wallowing in pointless, mundane activities. It’s easy to get lost in a day of internet surfing, TV watching, checking up on e-mail, Twittering, and doing a lot of other virtually worthless activities that won’t add up to any real value later on in your life. Instead, hyperactivity is choosing the one goal you want to ruthlessly go after with a vengeance and directing all of your actions and thoughts onto that goal.

Hyperactivity – in the personal development, goal setting sense – is not being impulsive, reckless, or “fly by the seat of your pants”. It’s calculated and driven. You’re getting the most amount of work done in the shortest amount of time. You’re making strategic decisions to go after the activities that give you the highest rewards in the end.

Suppose one of your 2009 goals is to create a blog that produces $3,000 worth of income a month. Difficult? A little bit. Will it take a lot of work? You betcha’. Possible? Entirely.

Using hyperactivity, you would determine exactly what you need to do for the blog to grow the quickest so you can make the most money in the shortest time possible (i.e., achieving your goal before your deadline). When you identified these activities, you would do them as quickly as possible while still keeping up a high quality of results.

If you needed to submit posts to blog carnivals, you wouldn’t think “Oh, gee, well, I don’t know if I can do that right at this time… I’m kind of busy…” Instead you would immediately do it – it’s a done deal. Essential activity identified and completed. If you needed to contact other bloggers in your field, you would put the activity on your to-do list and jump on the task as soon as it came up. If a new blog post needed to be written for the day, you would write, edit, and publish the post ASAP.

Most people think you need to work in something you love to do to be successful. That’s complete B.S.. Since when do you need to love what you do to be successful in it? The world is full of unhappy, seemingly successful people, right? The only thing different between unhappy successful people and happy unsuccessful people is the level of determination that each person brings to their own job.

Donald Trump is a master at hyperactivity and getting work done each and every single day, even during vacations. So is Madonna. You could easily become a blogging superstar in any field you chose – even if you immensely hated your field – if you only focused on what needed to be done.

The key here is choosing the right activities and doing them in the quickest amount of time. But how can you decide what to do vs. what not to do? Some questions you can ask yourself:

• What kinds of benifits will doing this activity bring me? If you’re a blogger, do you get an increase in traffic? Another post to add to your archives? Another income stream? Depending on your goals, you’re going to be wanting to focus more on certain tasks than others.
• Are there any other easier ways to be achieving this goal than what I’m considering? If you want to establish online connections, are you going to focus more on personally e-mailing other bloggers or sending them quick messages on Twitter? If you want to build traffic, are you going to focus more on blog carnivals, blog comments, or forum posts? If you’re tweaking the layout of your blog, are you going to make it more streamlined so visitors can find their way around the site easier or better at income producing? Think of all the outcomes of various possibilities and stack them up against each other in your mind.

Once you find the right activities you want to accomplish, put them in a to-do list in order of most important to least important. If you can’t decide on an order, write them in any order – you’ll be going through your entire list anyways. Read the first task, and do it. When it’s done, read the second task, do that immediately. If you need to take a break, do it in between tasks, not while you’re working on something. Breaks should be quick and refreshing. As soon as your break is up, move on to the next activity.

Hyperactivity sounds draining, but in reality it’s incredibly motivating and worthwhile. You build self discipline by pushing yourself to get through beneficial tasks that might otherwise slide to the side. You reach your goals much faster than you’d ever believe because you’re working so intently on what needs to be done.

Do you really need to check how many people visited your site 5 times a day? Do you really need to be working on that e-book nobody is going to be reading because you haven’t built your traffic up yet? Do you really need to be checking your e-mail 10 times a day, just to see if that one person has returned your request? Cut out nonessential tasks. Only do what’s necessary. Do as much of it as possible.

What’s one of your goals that if you went at with a fierce sense of determination could you make a huge dent in? What if you went at that same goal with an identical attitude for 30 days straight?

So what are you waiting for? Get started today!

Today’s secret has to do with “extreme goal achievement” – what are the specific steps you can take to always get amazing, fast results when you embark on achieving your goals?

Think quick. Act even quicker. Get results now.

If you suddenly found yourself under the ice in a frozen lake, seemingly unable to escape, what would be racing through your mind? Chances are you would feel extremely claustrophobic, frantically trying to escape the sheer coldness of the icy water surrounding your body. You would be smashing the thin layer of ice above you with your fists with all your might, eventually shattering a hole in the ice above your head, big enough to escape.

To you, this might be the world’s strangest metaphor. To me, this is the perfect example of how the process of achieving your goals should ultimately feel like. You must think and act quickly. If you didn’t get the results you want, modify your game plan slightly and keep on going.

So as you can see, there are three major parts of extreme goal achievement – thinking quickly, acting swiftly, and obtaining the results from your actions.

1. Thinking quickly. The most successful people in the world have a knack for thinking quickly on their feet. They see an opportunity, a problem, a possibility, and they immediately brainstorm action plans for success. They don’t wait for permission from another person for them to start.
2. Acting swiftly. Once these people have plans ready to go, they immediately get started. They take the initiative and go for what they want, acting as if they’re going to get exactly what they dream of. The most successful people don’t wait for others to give them the green light to start. They begin ASAP.
3. Obtaining the results. The world’s most successful people gather their results and observe what worked and what didn’t work. They make immediate changes to their goals and plans, and then they try something fresh and new. They don’t sit around and balk at horrible results; they accept the fact that what they tried didn’t work, and then they try something brand new.

The easy part is reading about the three parts of extreme goal achievement. The hard part is applying them to your life to consistently get great results. To do this, you have to ingrain this method of thinking into your memory.

Make this line of thinking a way of life.

Thinking like this is a habit. It’s a total way of life.

Most people think incredibly successful people, from entertainers to athletes to business people, got to super-stardom in their respective fields through a blind stroke of luck. And in some cases, that’s what propelled them to achieve the results they earned. Sometimes exactly what a person needs is an unforeseen opportunity for them to shine so their talents can be fully recognized by everybody else.

But in most cases, this isn’t what happens. The top people do what I described above. They think quickly when they see a brand new opportunity arise that hasn’t been taken advantage of yet. Once they formulate a plan, they act swiftly, trying to score the results they desperately dream of obtaining. And once they finish their plan, they obtain and glance at their results. What succeeded? What failed? What can they do even better next time to obtain even better results?

98% of people aren’t like this. Most people are fairly lazy. They really don’t care to rise above the mediocre. If you asked them where they want to be a year from now, they might be able to mumble a fuzzy, vague answer at best; if you asked them where they want to be five years from now, they’d have no clue whatsoever.

Then somebody comes along, blows away the entire status quo, becomes a celebrity in their chosen field, and the average people wonder why they couldn’t achieve those same results.

The amazing news is that you can achieve those results. You can become a blogger making a full time living online. You can go to college and get that degree you’ve always wanted. You can find your soulmate and start a family with them. But these things take time and effort; they require you to put forth an incredibly amount of self discipline and change your entire “normal” line of thinking.

Extreme goal achievement shouldn’t be a secret. In fact, it’s not too much of a secret anymore – I’m sharing exactly how to achieve your wildest goals right here in this post. But in the end, it’s up to you. You have to take those first steps. You have to find an opportunity, you need to create an action plan and work that plan as quickly as possible, and you need to measure up your results to find out how you can optimize your actions to work even better in the future.

It doesn’t matter what field you’re in. It doesn’t matter where you come from in life or where you want to go. It’s all the same, to everybody. Goal achievement, across the board, is universal.

Think quickly, act swiftly, obtain results should be your mantra. Say it until you’re sick of it and see if it doesn’t make you into a better, more successful person.

Okay, okay, I totally admit it. I’m one of those people who loves to become more productive with each passing day. But while sometimes I think reading lists like this is just a form of simple procrastination, some of the lists I find are genuinely useful.

This blog post is all about 20 ways I have personally tested and used to make myself become more productive on a day to day basis. Try out some of the tips yourself. If they work wonderfully, you’ve gained a new productivity booster that’ll last you a lifetime. And if not… well, at least you only wasted a day of your life.

1. Keep a list of inspirational quotes at hand. Whenever you feel down and unmotivated, whip one out and think about its meaning for a little bit. Then get back to work!
2. If you can’t get out of a creative thinking rut, get up and walk around. Doing a bit of (very) light exercise will get blood flowing to your brain and naturally make you more alert, allowing you to kick your productivity up a notch.
3. If you’re chugging away at an absolutely boring task, take frequent breaks. Work for two minutes, then listen to your favorite song. Rinse and repeat as many times as needed. Eventually you’ll build enough momentum where you’ll continuously work on your task without taking so many breaks.
4. Snack (preferably on healthy foods) throughout the day. It’ll keep your energy levels up.
5. Look your best! Even if you’re your own boss and work at home throughout the day, seeing yourself  dressed up and looking gorgeous in front of the mirror is a confidence booster. More confidence = more motivation. More motivation = more reason to be productive.
6. Find a soul stirring reason why you’re doing the work you do. I’m not talking about a mission statement or a goal. I’m really talking about a reason as to why you’re working on your project to begin with. If you can find that passionate reason, you’ll gain motivation and productivity.
7. Experiment with brightness in your work area. I work best when my working area is brightly lit – the brighter, the better, but not so bright as to think I’m staring into the sun.
8. While on that note, experiment with the room temperature as well. I used to have an awful problem with procrastination and feeling sleepy, until I realized that the cold temperatures where I work were making me sleepy to begin with.
9. Make your work space so clean it’s absolutely nauseatingly beautiful to anybody who passes by. Not a single messy spot should be visible to the eye… or to anybody with x-ray vision with the power to see through desks. A neat working space has the same effect as de-cluttering your mind. Thinking becomes easier.
10. Light candles. Seriously! For me, whenever I light my buttercream candle, the vanilla scent actually boosts my productivity. Experiment with different scents  to see what they can do for you.
11. Have you ever tried to work with white noise in the background? It’s pretty soothing. For me, music is too distracting, probably because I’m a musician at heart. However, white noise works wonderful. Try out this tip by turning on a fan on low in the background while you work.
12. Take frequent looks out your window.  When I glance outside into the world, I’m reminded that I’m not alone on this planet, and that I’m connected with everybody else. That alone is motivating enough for me to continue on with my work with an increased productivity rate.
13. Take frequent looks at your clock. When you realize time keeps passing you by as you procrastinate,  you’ll suddenly feel an urge to actually get something worthwhile accomplished.
14. Work with somebody else. Find another person who can act as your assistant for the day, and get him or her to help you with your mission. Work always goes quicker and more productively if you can find somebody you trust who knows what they’re doing as well to aid you.
15. Find somebody who’s an expert at what  you’re doing, and pick at their brain. How do they schedule their days? What kinds of advice can they give you to make your work more efficient? (For example, if you’re learning piano on your own, wouldn’t taking piano lessons from a master at piano make sense?)
16. If possible, focus solely on one task or project for the entire day. Without having to switch tasks every hour, you can seriously boost how productive you become. Your mind won’t have to change modes of thinking so often.
17. Have to tackle a project that’s extremely boring? If possible, do a lot of little, easy tasks that are super simple right before starting that certain project. The momentum you gain from doing simple tasks you love will carry on well into that boring project.
18. Take everything one step at a time. Don’t worry as much about getting a lot done (save for unless you have a deadline) but getting quality work done. More isn’t better. Better is better.
19. While doing your work for today,  mentally think about where you’re going with what you’re accomplishing. What do you want to do tomorrow? Use that knowledge to trim the fat off the projects you’re working on – get rid off all nonessential tasks as much as possible.
20. Tackle your daily tasks out of order. If you’re forced to do a list of items, break the order that you would normally accomplish each thing. It won’t feel like such a chore to get so much work done, and you might find that pairing different tasks in a different order will get them done more quickly.

Now, stop reading this blog and tackle that task that you’ve been procrastinating on. You know you wanna finish that task once and for all!

In my last article on present and future mindsets, I explained two thought patterns 99% of the population operates on through a daily basis – a present-based, pleasure oriented mindset, and a future-based, goal oriented mindset. The self-help world loves to stress how important future-minded thinking is. One reason for this is that thinking about the future obviously works fantastic when you’re strategically thinking about which goals you want to achieve. And this reason makes sense, too – thinking too short term can severely hamper what we think we can accomplish.

But then something strange happens. We begin to think that if we don’t apply future-minded thinking to everything in our lives, we’ll never achieve our goals. Somebody else will always be vying to be one step ahead of us, and we can’t have that, can we? This is the mindset that leads to people trying to make incredible self-discipline jumps that they can’t handle: they try to get up every single day at 4:30am without any practice; they try to eat purely healthy foods; they cut out every single “bad” time wasting activity they can think of. The future-based mindset thinks of “fun” activities as unneeded time wasters. Enjoying yourself leads to not getting any work done on your goals, and that’s not acceptable.

It’s just too bad – human beings don’t work like that. We aren’t wired to have a future-based lifestyle. People need balance; we want to work hard and achieve our dreams, but we also want to have a little fun (or a lot of fun!) along the way. If I’m feeling emotionally drained, I’m going to feel apathetic. And if I feel apathetic, I’m surely going to encounter decreased motivation. We need to have fun! We need to enjoy ourselves and not become too wrapped up in the future.

Self help guru Steve Pavlina often talks about how he picks goals that are intrinsically fun and worthwhile to go after – goals that excite him in the present. To me, this is the epitome of perfect goal setting. When your goals are incredibly fun and motivating to work on every step of the way, you’re killing two birds with one stone: the present-based mindset is being satisfied because you’re immensely enjoying yourself, and the future-based mindset is happy because you know you’re working to create the life you dream of.

If you’re having trouble finding motivation, quit working on your goals and enjoy yourself! Most of the time, probably 98%, a clear lack of motivation is a hint that we aren’t giving ourselves permission to have fun in the present. While our minds might be saying “all work, no play!” our emotions are screaming out “We need some play, some of the time!”

When you’re feeling unmotivated and apathetic, do something that makes you feel happy and content. It’s as simple as that. Play an old video game that you love. Take a long walk outside and enjoy nature. Watch your favorite sitcoms. Have a deep conversation with a close friend. When you feel happier and fulfilled, return to working on your goals. You’ll have increased motivation and a drive to accomplish work that only happiness can bring.

Our human ability to imagine a better future for ourselves and translate our vision into words is something most people take for granted. As a result, most people don’t bother setting goals – they have a general idea of where they’re headed and where they want to go, which is good enough for them. And that’s totally okay! You don’t need clearly defined goals to have a sense of direction in your life. (This also includes people who set goals in only a specific area in their life and let all of the other facets slide – e.g., the manager who only sets goals to meet certain monthly quotas in her business.)

In Philip Zimbardo’s awesome book, The Time Paradox (opens in a new window), he explains there are several perspectives human beings look at time through: the past, the present, and the future. The past perspective is concerned with past events and how we relate to and think about them; the present perspective is concerned with how we’re going to find immediate happiness in our lives; the future perspective is concerned with what actions we can take right now to achieve our future goals. While the three time-frame labels aren’t exactly breathtakingly new, the unique twist on looking at the time-frames makes the book incredibly worthwhile to read.

I’ve read parts of it, and already it’s changed my views on thinking of my personal goals and my limited time. In this blog post, I want to share two mindsets with you that he talks about in the book – the “present-minded mindset” and the “future-minded mindset.” Both are ways of living and analyzing time management with. Utilizing both of their unique benefits in your life can make your life a more richer, rewarding experience.

The Present-Minded Mindset

The present-minded mindset is being totally focused on the present moment, with no regard for how your decisions will affect your future at all. Generally this means being focused on what can make you pleasured and happy immediately, without looking at the long term consequences of your actions.

Smoking is an example of a present-minded action. So is eating that double quarter pounder with cheese you just ordered from McDonald’s because you’re a bit hungry and need some fuel. Drinking copious amounts of alcohol, gambling, and whittling away your time at video games are all activities that make you happy solely in the present. These choices lead to future consequences down the road – lung cancer, a failed liver, a highly developed character in a video game – but your focus isn’t on the future. It’s completely on the here and now. What can you do right now to give yourself a little thrill?

You see this mindset with teenagers and young adults. Do you have a one night stand to make you satisfied, or do you wait it out just a bit longer to find somebody you’re more comfortable with? Risk vs. reward thinking is subtle here – you may know promiscuous sex can lead to unwanted pregnancies and STDs, but that’s not what’s on your mind. Your mind is set on what the immediate rewards are, so why dilute that with thinking about future consequences? The rewards you’d get from having sexual activity right now is far greater than analyzing the pros and cons in your mind.

The Future-Minded Mindset

The future-minded mindset is being totally focused on the future, with all of your current actions stemming from a desire to want to build a better future for yourself or others.

Why do high achievers always achieve so highly and make the rest of the population scratch their heads in awe and wonder? It’s not because they’re that different than you – it’s because they’re solely focused on the future. They have specific goals that they must accomplish at all costs, and they eschew everything that doesn’t lead directly to their desired results.

Future-minded people have no will to engage in pleasurable activities that only benefit them in the now. Choosing between watching a half hour TV show and reading a book about their desired work field, they’ll always choose the book. Distractions need to be dealt with and removed ASAP; what matters most is getting results. Anything else isn’t worth the battle.

Delaying gratification whenever the future rewards outweigh the immediate benefits is something future oriented people are masters at. If I told you that I would give you either $50 today or in two months I’d give you $100, would you choose the former or the latter? Future-minded people would immediately choose the latter. To them, the choice is simple – there’s a bigger reward to be had in the future if short term happiness is skipped.

Combining the Two Mindsets for Amazing Goal Achievement

When people set goals, it’s rarely in a present-minded mindset. Goals start out with a future-minded thought, e.g., “I wish I made more money!” Then they turn into some kind of  more specific statement, “I will make $3,000 a year completely through my personal development blog.” It’s only then do we turn our goals into a present-minded version, “I make $3,000 a year completely through my personal development blog.”

Writing out your goals completely in the present seems like a fabulous idea on the surface – if I can imagine my goals are real right now, that would make me want to act in congruent with those goals. If I feel like I’m already making $3,000 a month through my blog, I might be more apt to continuously deliver actions that really do get me those results; I’d create an awesome self-fulfilling prophecy for myself. But is a present-minded model of goal setting really worth it in the end? It’s both yes and no. If present-minded written goals conjure up thoughts of immediate happiness and instant gratification, then they can be pretty effective. Otherwise, I would personally would stick to future-minded goal setting.

It’s important to have a razor sharp focus on the future to know specifically where you are headed in all areas of your life, but it’s also equally important to enjoy your present moment as much as possible.

Present moments allow you to have immediate fun; future-minded thinking allows you to gaze into the future and allocate your time to goal achievement. Living solely in the distant future can drain your happiness bit by bit because you don’t feel as happy as you should; living without a regard for tomorrow can make your life miserable in the future. Becoming so obsessed with the risks in life can lead you not take calculated risks that could end up being major rewards.

Where do you fall in the grand scheme of things? Do you focus more on the present, skipping out on your long term goals to have fun right here, right now? Or is your focus more skewed towards the future, missing out on fun right now for a better life someday? Focusing on the future but also having fun in the present is the way to go – but you can’t go wrong consciously choosing the way to spend your time, every day.

Trying to organize your time when you have an excruciatingly busy life is like spending $2,950 of a $3,000 monthly budget, and then asking “How can I better manage the $50 I have left to get the most out of life?” It’s simply not possible, it can’t be done.

Better time management needs to start at the very basics, with a fresh clean slate. You’re given 24 hours in one day – that’s a pretty great starting point. You’re also given 7 full days in a week – another fabulous reference point! The trick is to build up from there, divvying up how much time you want to spend on various activities:

• How much time are you going to sleep per night? 6 hours? 9 hours?
• How much time will you purposely devote to your family?
• How much time absolutely needs to go to your job?
• How much time would you love to spend on free time activities that have no relevance to your future, such as video games or shopping?

You need present-minded activities to keep the fun in your life, but you also need to consciously choose how to allocate your time to future activities. (When I say “consciously choose,” I’m referring to making it a point to say “I will spend X amount of time doing Y activity because it needs to get done.” You’re choosing your activities with an intent in mind, and that purpose is what guides you to make your time management decisions.)

This is why having priorities and goals is so vital to managing time. If I’m unsure of what I’m going after, it’s easy to dawdle and get nothing of value done. Sure, I might do some activities that have a great deal of intrinsic value to me, like playing Sims 2, but that’s not going to directly being affecting my immediate life. But if I know my goal is to be able to play a Chopin nocturne perfectly from memory, I know what my time should be funneled into.

Instead of scheduling activities and then looking at time management techniques, start backwards and work your way up. If you had $3,000 to spend, would you invest it in building stronger ties with your family or friends? Advancing in your career? On fun and games? Likewise, if you only had 24 hours to get your affairs in order, what would you invest it in?

Start with just your time, and fill in your activities accordingly!

But it took me a while to realize one important thing: having great time management isn’t always about learning new tips and tricks on how to cut corners and schedule better. Amazing time management is about having a mindset that’s dedicated to using your time the best way you can, as well as having the tools and resources to make that happen.

I’m not talking about other characteristics such as self-discipline, perseverance, or focus, although those traits are fabulous to have. I’m referring to a way of thinking. Imagine, just for a second, that every five minutes for the rest of today, you would remind yourself, “What should I be doing with my time, right now?” Would the outcome of your day be substantially different than where it’s currently headed?

Without having the “mindset” of time management, all of your efforts to become better at rearranging your time will be in vain. Have you ever tried to learn a brand new skill – such as blogging or playing the piano – when you were in a totally lazy mood? “Ugh, I can’t stand to do this anymore!” was probably your rallying cry. You felt discouraged, unmotivated, and apathetic. Likewise, learning time management skills without having the appropriate thought process will leave you flat on your face.

Implementing the Time Management Mindset

Applying a new line of thinking to time management is fairly easy, and it only requires several simple steps.

1. Pick a day to test the mindset. (This is important. You want to be able to devote yourself to a thought-pattern change for an entire day, not a couple of sporadic times throughout a random day.)
2. Think of an action you do fairly frequently throughout the day, such as looking at a clock, putting down your pen, or taking a sip of water.
3. Whenever you perform that action, immediately ask yourself, “What should I be doing with my time, right now?” If you slip up and forget to ask yourself, just re-ask whenever the question comes to mind.

You’re most likely thinking what a silly, ridiculous method this is right about now… but that’s totally okay! The goal isn’t to make your brainwaves on a constant “oh my god I need to figure out what I should be doing RIGHT NOW” tangent, but turn your thinking into a more consciously aware process. After asking yourself this question enough times, you’ll start thinking about what you really should be doing with your time a bit more often.

Conscious thought is exactly what personal development is about. Refocusing your attention on what’s absolutely needed and then performing those related actions is paramount to your success. If you want to be a popular blogger making $10,000 a month, you need to constantly refocus your attention on what needs to get done, not what you “think” should get done. There’s a major difference. This goes with any skill and task – e.g., raising a family, building a website, learning a musical instrument, or writing a book. You name it, and “What should I be doing with my time, right now?” can easily be asked and applied.

Any sort of internal value or trait shift takes time and discipline.  But it’s well worth the efforts in the end. Can you start asking yourself, right now, what you should be doing with your time? Got an answer? Good. Now go do what you should have been doing all along!

This approach can – and does – work decently well. But that last line – “when they need the help and assistance of other people, they ask” – that’s a little bit bothersome, isn’t it? Wouldn’t it make sense to find people you need to achieve your goals beforehand?

Let’s proactively switch up the status quo for a minute. What if we consciously made the decision to enlist other people in our goals to create a win-win situation for both parties, before we even began our goal?

There are at least three major benefits of this method:

1. You save money.

Let’s pretend your the director of a production of “My Fair Lady.” The show is premiering in exactly one week, and you have no pianist. You need a piano player ASAP, but the only one you can find is charging you $500 to do the entire run of shows. You might be forced to pay up. You have no choice because you don’t have time to comparison shop. You might lose money, the show definitely might lose money, but you’re stuck between a rock and a hard place.

What’s sadly ironic is this is exactly how some theater directors operate. Waiting until the last minute to find specialized help, they complain because the services they get are inadequate or majorly expensive. Oftentimes, these directors can’t find any help in the little time they have left.

Do your goals have any specialized compartments that require you to pay another person for their services, such as a web designer, photographer, or musician? Can you network around beforehand to find the necessary help at a cheaper rate instead of waiting until the last minute?

2. You save time.

When you were a little kid solving a puzzle, what’s the first thing your parents had you do? Find all the outside pieces, pop them in place, and slowly connect your way into the middle. But what happens if you tried to work this method backwards – connect all the inside pieces first, and save the outside border for last? You’d be in for a long puzzle.

Goal achievement should work the exact same way. Find people who can help you achieve your goals before you start. Figure out exactly what types of people you’re going to need and contact them ahead of time. Connect the puzzle pieces and create a strong border. Otherwise you might come to a crucial point in your goal without any connecting pieces, and then you’d be out of luck.

3. You make connections.

The majority of life is all about making honest connects with other people. You can’t survive shunned off from socialization… unless you’re good at making money online. In nearly every career, you need people. People are the reason you can make more money, get that promotion, and find your soul mate. The more connections you have, the more likely you are to advance your life at a higher rate than normal.

* * * * *

What can you do right now?

Think of your most pressing goal. Have you been going at this goal alone, or with others? If you had no choice but to network with other people to get the job done quicker and more efficiently, who would you ask for help? Who’s services would you enable? Can you make contact with these people ASAP and see how they can aid you?