» Tools to Help You Achieve Your Goals

If you don’t know where you’re going, how do you know when you’ve got there?

Unless you’re focused on a clear goal you can find yourself drifting through life, not quite sure why you aren’t achieving the things you want to. But having a goal isn’t enough on its own, you need to take action to put your plans into practice, and your action is most likely to be successful in moving you towards your goals if you can plan and manage your time effectively.

Effective planning and time management can mean the difference between the satisfaction of knowing you are achieving things and moving forward, and the frustration of realizing that yet another day/week/month has gone past and you still haven’t gotten around to those tasks you meant to do before summer arrived.

Planning and time management are skills that everyone can acquire. There are many tools around to help. Learn more about an effective program for achieving your goals here.

Paper or software?

You won’t go far if you try to carry everything around in your head. There are two main choices for planning purposes:

1. A paper based system

Paper based personal organizers offer a wide range of tools to help you set goals. Daily, weekly, monthly and yearly planning sheets, to do lists and the like let you detail  milestones you want to reach, deadlines you need to hit, and the tasks that will let you achieve these.

You can keep your paper system with you wherever you are, so if you’re relaxing in the garden and want to check something out you can do it quickly and easily. The sheets can be  arranged to suit, so you can keep your to-do list in the front of your organizer or with your current diary page, as you choose.

Put your ultimate life goals together with motivational quotes on one sheet that you can keep easily accessible for those times when you need a boost to get back on track.

The downside is that paper gets filled with words, and unless you complete everything on your to-do list in order (which isn’t always going to happen) you can find yourself spending time transferring information from one sheet of paper to another. If your handwriting leaves something to be desired you might also feel you need an interpreter to work out just what you wrote.

Then at the end of the year you have to buy new inserts.

And while it’s great being able to keep your organizer with you wherever you are, what would happen if you lost it? Would you be able to remember all those tasks, deadlines and the like?

2. Electronic systems

Software packages that perform clerical activities usually include extensive sections incorporating a calendar, diary, task lists, automatic reminders etc., often with inter-related functions so you set automatic reminders of deadlines for tasks.

The benefits of electronic systems include their very complexity – rather than putting  information in different places you just put it in one place, tick a few boxes, click a couple of buttons and you’ve set yourself a detailed task with an interim reminder and a final deadline. Simple!

An electronic system can makes it easier to access different types of documents and  programs at the touch of a button. Look at your budget spreadsheet with your project plan. Far easier than carrying around lots of different paper and having to sort through it to find exactly what you want.

On the downside, while it is also possible to keep an electronic system with you, it may be less practical in some situations. You’re driving and need a telephone number to tell someone you will be late. It’s not one you use regularly so it’s not on your mobile – it’s on your laptop. Your battery runs out just when you need to access important information. You’re in an area where you can’t get an internet signal.

And that complexity can also be a negative. Default settings may not suit your preferred style of working so you lose time searching around to find out how to stop that irritating sound or message popping up.

Then just as you’ve finally got your head round the software, and got all the settings as you want them, there’s an upgrade. All those things you really need have been moved and you spend ages searching for them or working out what the programmers have replaced them with. Frustrating to say the least.

Paper or electronic planners will help you achieve your goals

So you can see that both methods have good and bad points, and will appeal to different people. You may be sold on one particular method until you find yourself in a situation where it fails you for some reason, when you realize that they can both have their benefits.

Remember that any system is only as good as the person using it. You can spend a lot of money on something sophisticated, with all sorts of whistles and bells, but if you don’t invest the time to learn to use it properly – or even use it at all –  it won’t work for you. And it’s not the system that is at fault, it’s you.

Underpinning any goal setting activity must be the right attitude. An attitude that says you want to achieve your goals, to manage your time more effectively, to get more done, to take responsibility for the things you have to do – and you are willing to make the effort that it will take to make this happen. That means making sure you open your paper organizer, electronic device, or whatever system you choose, look at what you’ve put in there, and DO IT!

To achieve your goals, first overhaul your attitude, then find a system that suits you. Learn more about an effective program for achieving your goals here.

What about you?
Are you a paper or software fan?
Have you had mishaps with either of these methods?

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