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One motivational author who has been very helpful to me in my quest to get better organized is Brian Tracy.   His books on goal setting (Goals!) and preventing Procrastination (Eat That Frog!) have been instrumental in my keeping the various pieces of my life connected into a coherent picture rather than just being separate pieces of a puzzle.

I thought I would share some of the techniques from his book, although I must emphasize that to really understand them, you should take his book and read it, because it has a lot of explanations for why they work as well as examples of how they have worked for some of his clients.

Want to be more productive in 2015?   Follow these steps, which I have adapted from Chapter 1 of Eat That Frog! by Brian Tracy.

1.  Decide what you want to accomplish in 2015

This can be a daunting task, so I suggest you divide your life into various sections based on the Maslow hierarchy of needs

Here’s the 12 sections I’ve divided my life into based on this pyramid.

1.  Health

2.  Organization

3.  Finance

4.  Work

5.  Family/Friends

6.  Networking

7.  Spiritual Community

8.  Toastmasters

9.  Professional Development

10.  Reading

11.  Language Study

12.  Games

The physiological needs are taken care of by Health.   The safety/security needs are taken care of through Organization and Finance.   Work is transitional, because it has to do with Finance as well as love/belonging needs.   Family/Friends, Networking, and Spiritual Community are all having to do with love/belonging needs.   Then esteem needs are taken care of through Toastmasters, which helps give me self-confidence in communication and leadership skills.    Professional Development is transitional, because it helps me with esteem in the sense of achievement, but it also fulfills a self-actualization need.   Your list will be different of course, but it should at least cover the five sets of needs in the pyramid above.

Take each of the areas of your life and think of an accomplishment, or series of accomplishments, you want to achieve in 2015.

2.  Write it down

I take a notebook, put a column to the left marked “Purpose”, and then list the 12 sections mentioned above, giving about three lines each for section.

I create a second column marked “Goals”

I then start filling in accomplishments I want to accomplish in that area, but I write them in the present tense, so I say “I weigh 210 lbs” under Health, not “I would like to …”   By stating the accomplishment as if it has already occurred, you are sending a message to your subconscious that you are going to do what it takes to make it a reality.

I use the “rule of three”, which means that for each of my 12 sections, I list the three most important goals I have in that particular area.   This ensures that I am working on the goals that have the most “bang for the buck” during the year.

Also make sure you that the accomplishment is written with a specific, measurable goal.   I don’t say, “I have lost weight”, I say, “l have lost 20 lbs.”

I put at least one accomplishment, but a maximum of three for each area.

3.  Set a deadline on your goal, set subdeadlines if necessary

Put a third column to the right marked “deadline”.  For each accomplishment, put a deadline.

4.  Make a list of everything you can think of that you’re going to have to do to achieve your goal

Here you are going to take the completed skeleton list of goals, and you are going to start with a new sheet of paper, with “Purpose”, “Goals/Tasks”, and “Deadline”.    Each of the “Goals” you created in section 1 should be numbered 1.1 for the first goal in section 1, 1.2 for the second goal, etc.   Now go to goal 1.1, for example, “I weigh 210 lbs”, and start listing the tasks, in order, you will have to do to reach that goal, “Join gym,” “Buy new gym shoes,” “Hire personal trainer,” etc., however you decide to reach that goal, and for each task write 1.1.1, 1.1.2, 1.1.3, etc.   You are creating what is in essence a miniature project plan.    Then you can start filling in deadlines for each task.

5.  Organize your list by priority and sequence

Create a fourth column for “priority” to the right of “deadline”.   You will see that your goals can be sequenced by when their deadlines are.  Once you have put the first goal to be completed at the top, you can rename that as goal 1.1, the second goal to be completed as 1.2, etc.   (All of the tasks will have to renumbered as well, so that the first task under goal 1.1 is called 1.1.1, etc.)   Then put the priority of goals in the fourth column, with “A” being goals you feel you “must” accomplish in order to improve your life, “B” being goals you feel you “should” accomplish in order to improve your life, and “C” being goals you feel you “want” to accomplishment in order to improve your life.   Sometimes to create the task list you may have to draw a diagram with boxes or circles to figure out what needs to be done first to accomplish a goal.   You can do this on a separate sheet of paper.

6.  Take action on your plan immediately

What goals/tasks take place in January?   Create a monthly plan for those tasks.   Then for those goals/tasks, create a weekly plan for the first week of January.   Then create a daily plan based on the weekly plan.   I find that it takes about 3-4 hours to create a yearly plan, 2 hours to create a monthly or weekly plan, and about half hour to create a daily plan.

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