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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Two recent news stories add further weight to the importance of getting in the right frame of mind for successful weight loss:

A recent study from Brookhaven National Laboratory, reported by Time Magazine, found that men were more successful in weight loss than women because of their greater ability to repress their emotional cravings for food. The study involved volunteers fasting for seventeen hours, then being presented with the sight, smell and even taste of a favorite food, but not allowed to actually eat it.

Instead they were told to think about something completely different for 40 minutes while certain parts of their brain, that have a role to play in eating, were monitored.

Could you not think of your favorite food for 40 minutes?

Mental torture or what? Imagine fasting for a whole day before being bombarded with sensations of a favorite food (chocolate in my case), then hearing those immortal words: ‘Don’t think about  chocolate for the next 40 minutes’. And to cap it all, the chocolate is left there in full view and you’re not allowed to close your eyes except for normal blinking!

I’m surprised the researchers survived to write up their findings.

It seems that all the volunteers were able to lower their sensations of hunger, but the women struggled to repress their emotional cravings for the food, while the men were better able to do this. Here’s a method that can help anyone get their mind onside for successful weight loss.

The second piece of research was carried out by Dr Sarah Armstrong, director of the Healthy Lifestyles Program at Duke Children’s Hospital , and reported in Time Magazine. Dr Armstrong took a group of obese teen girls through a 6 month weight loss program, dividing them into 3 groups.

The only difference in the program followed by each of the groups wasn’t about food at all.

One group read a novel about an overweight teen who learned about healthy eating and lifestyle. Another group read a novel without this heroine, and the third group read nothing at all. At the end of the study, girls in the first group had lost more weight than those in either of the other two. Seems they had identified with their overweight heroine without realizing it.

Read more about how your mind can influence weight loss here

The Journal of the American Medical Association recently reported that the proportion of overweight and obese 6-11 yr olds appeared to have plateaued at about 32% between 1999 and 2006. So if you’ve got 3 or more kids between age 6 and 11, statistically speaking one of them will be obese. It doesn’t bear thinking about.

Obesity across all age groups costs billions in health care costs and lost productivity. Experts predict that overweight and obese people will form the majority of the population in the UK in 10 -15 years.

Excess weight brings with it so many negative factors related to physical and emotional well-being, but so often dieting and exercise alone aren’t enough. Here’s a method that makes sure your mind is fully supporting your weight loss strategy.

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It’s been quite a winter.

Freezing cold temperatures leading to frost, ice and snow bring delights for children, who get time away from their frozen schools to play to their heart’s content.

But for many this same bad weather brings worse tidings. Aches and pains often feel worse in the cold, damp weather. Ice and snow can cause additional grief for back pain sufferers, picking their way cautiously as soon as they step outside their front door. Clearing paths for safe walking also takes its toll as susceptible muscles are called into action to wield cumbersome spades and shovels.

Driving in difficult conditions calls for extra concentration, which often leads to more mental and physical tension than normal. Maneuvers are made with extreme care, holding the body  ready to react – or more likely over-react – at the first hint of a skid.

Find lasting relief from back pain

Even playing with the kids is not always safe. Moving too quickly to dodge a snowball, or return a well aimed hit; dragging a sled behind you, complete with child; these pleasurable activities can easily aggravate an existing condition, or be the trigger for new pain.

Back pain sufferers deserve a solution to their back pain.

Rubs and medications may provide temporary relief, but they don’t always get to the heart of the problem.

Learn how to get effective, lasting relief from back pain.

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Watch Your Back!

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January is a dreadful time to start a diet for weight loss.

Even if you did over-do it during the festive season, getting back into the swing of working and seeing the long year stretching ahead doesn’t inspire you to want to give up your favorite foods and treats, even if successful weight loss is the prize. In many areas the weather is at its worst, and what you crave are comfort foods and lots of them, rather than small portions of things you wouldn’t normally choose to eat.

If you’re suffering from the economic downturn in any way (and who isn’t?) then chances are you’ll shy away from anything else that makes you feel down. And after the euphoria of the few early but unsustainable pounds dropping away, diets usually make you feel anything but upbeat.

Add to this the fact that, if you listed weight loss as a New Year resolution, you’ve more chance of failing because of the psychological pressure you’ve put yourself under.

But all this doesn’t mean that you can’t succeed in reaching your ideal weight this year. Successful weight loss is still an attainable goal.

But you need to change the way you look at the challenge, the way you think about it, and use a method that will help you succeed in your weight loss efforts without getting dragged off track by all the doom and gloom you see around you.

Find out more here…

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January is three quarters over already. How are your New Year resolutions going? Have they all been abandoned or are you still struggling along with some of them? Have the goals you set already been missed?

It’s no real surprise that most New Year resolutions fail. Maybe it’s because we put so much pressure on them, so much focus on commitments made on that one day to somehow live up to all our expectations. Why should there be just one day of the year when we make a commitment to make changes in our lives?

Surely our dreams and desires deserve better treatment than being rolled out as resolutions each year?

If you want to make this the year when you finally make real changes in your life, forget January 1st. Don’t worry that your recent plans have already fallen by the wayside, it’s not too late – your future starts this very second! Just decide that you’re going to make changes, to make a firm commitment to setting and reaching your goals, starting right now.

Check out this quick and easy to use program to help ensure your success

And there’s more information available here to make sure you stick to your goals and finally reach them…

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