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Effectiveness is the capacity to accomplish positive results in areas of life which matter to you

• Power is the faculty or capacity to act, the strength and potency to accomplish something. It is the vital energy to make choices and decisions. It also includes the capacity to overcome deeply embedded habits and to cultivate higher, more effective ones. Stephen Covey
• Personal effectiveness can be explained as an ability to achieve positive results in those areas of life which matter to you. Thiru Murugan
• Effective: Successful in producing a desired or intended result.  Oxford Dictionary
• Effective: Producing a decided, decisive, or desired effect.  Merriam Webster
• Effectiveness: Adequate to accomplish a purpose; producing the intended or expected result.  Dictionary.com
• Success,  Achievement,  Productivity,  Power,  Efficiency

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Effectiveness is being able to put your ideas into action and change your world in positive ways

• Effectiveness: the degree to which something is successful in producing a desired result. Oxford Dictionary
• To me success means effectiveness in the world, that I am able to carry my ideas and values into the world – that I am able to change it in positive ways. Maxine Hong Kingston
• To make ideas effective, we must be able to fire them off. We must put them into action. Virginia Woolf
• Ideas are cheap and abundant; what is of value is the effective placement of those ideas into situations that develop into action. Peter F. Drucker
• Genius is the ability to put into effect what is on your mind. Scott Fitzgerald
• The ability to convert ideas to things is the secret of outward success. Henry Ward Beecher

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Effectiveness is the ability to get things done

• You must be the kind of man who can get things done.  Ayn Rand
• You can’t just sit there and wait for people to give you that golden dream; you’ve got to get out there and make it happen for yourself. Diana Ross
• Life just doesn’t hand you things. You have to get out there and make things happen. That’s the exciting part. Emeril Lagasse
• If you don’t make things happen then things will happen to you. Robert Collier
• True happiness comes from the joy of deeds well done, the zest of creating things new. Antoine de Saint- Exupery
• Getting Things Done

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Effectiveness is about managing yourself and your time

• Highly effective people do not really manage time—they manage themselves. Stephen Covey
• The ultimate goal of a more effective and efficient life is to provide you with enough time to enjoy some of it. Michael LeBoeuf
• Until we can manage time, we can manage nothing else. Peter F. Drucker
• Time is the most precious element of human existence. The successful person knows how to put energy into time and how to draw success from time. Denis Waitley
• Time management

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1.  Get clarity on what you want and where you’re going

• The sooner you have a clear vision of what you want to be and the contributions you want to make, the more effective you’ll be in your life.  Stephen Covey
• The first step to getting the things you want out of life is this: Decide what you want. Ben Stein
• You must form a clear and definite mental picture of what you want. Wallace D. Wattles
• Discovering what you really want saves you endless confusion and wasted energy Stuart Wilde
• The more clearly we know what we want, the more obvious it will be what we should do. Tom Morris
• When you see a thing clearly in your mind, your creative “success mechanism” within you takes over and does the job much better than you could do it by conscious effort or “willpower.” Maxwell Maltz
• The greater clarity you can achieve in describing your ideal future, the more likely you are to create that future for yourself, and usually faster than you can imagine right now However, you can’t hit a target you can’t see. Clarity is essential. Brian Tracy
• Clarity,  Know what you want

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2.  Have a clear life purpose and mission and use it to direct your energy

• You will wake up every morning with a limitless reservoir of energy and enthusiasm. All your thoughts will be focused on your definite objective. You won’t have time to waste time. Valuable mental power will, therefore, not be wasted on trifling thoughts. You will automatically erase the worry habit and become far more effective and productive. Interestingly, you will also have a deep sense of inner harmony, as if you are somehow being guided to realize your mission. It is a wonderful feeling. Per Robin
• A good mission statement is the key that effective people use to discern which things are important—which things are really worth acting upon. Stephen Covey
• Purpose,  Create a personal mission statement

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3.  Live your life by clearly defined values and principles that matter to you

• Effective people manage their lives according to principles. Ineffective people follow other people’s agendas and manage their lives around pressing matters. Stephen Covey
• Effectiveness without values is a tool without a purpose. Edward de Bono
• Values,  Principles

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4.  Use goals as your roadmaps to where you want to go

• Nothing can add more power to your life than concentrating all your energies on a limited set of targets. Nido Qubein
• When you clearly articulate your intention or goal in writing and speech, your frontal lobes can more efficiently direct your motor cortex to carry out your desire as you actively engage with others in the world. It’s an extraordinary process: You begin with a goal- oriented thought, and the more you focus on it, the more your brain begins to plot out strategies to carry that thought into the world. Andrew Newberg
• An average person with average talent, ambition and education, can outstrip the most brilliant genius in our society, if that person has clear, focused goals. Brian Tracy
• Goal setting

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5.  Create action plans for each of your goals

• The payoff from good planning is enormous. It is estimated that each minute spent in planning saves ten minutes in execution. To put it another way, your investment in planning pays you a 1,000 percent return on the time and energy you invest. Brian
• Every minute you spend in planning will save you as many as ten minutes in execution. Brian Tracy
• When defining steps, break them into the smallest pieces or actions. Take a defined action and then see if you can make smaller actions out of this one action step.  This will help in successful completion.  Phyllis Reardon
• The secret of getting ahead is getting started. The secret of getting started is breaking your complex overwhelming tasks into small manageable tasks, and then starting with the first one. Mark Twain
• Action steps,  Goal setting

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6.  For any initiative or project, always start with the end in mind

• We are more in need of a destination and less in need of a roadmap. Stephen Covey
• Always start every endeavour with a clear sense of purpose. Stephen Covey
• Half of the secret to achieving clarity in any situation is asking, “What are we trying to do here?” David Allen
• Begin with the end in mind. Shape your future by creating a mental vision and purpose for any project, large or small. Stephen Covey
• To begin with the end in mind means to begin each day, task, or project with a clear vision of your desired direction and destination, and then continue by flexing your proactive muscles to make things happen. Stephen Covey
• Start with the end in mind

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7.  Prioritise only the things that matter and dump the rest

• Prioritize ruthlessly. The secret to booking your time effectively boils down to knowing what’s important and what can wait. Jeff Wuorio
• Doing more things faster is no substitute for doing the right things. Stephen Covey
• Efficiency is doing things right; effectiveness is doing the right things. Peter Drucker
• Working on the right thing is more important than working hard. Caterina Fake
• It’s incredibly easy to get caught up in an activity trap, in the business of life, to work harder and harder at climbing the ladder of success only to discover it’s leaning against the wrong wall. Stephen Covey
• There is nothing so useless as doing efficiently that which should not be done at all. Peter Drucker
• It is possible to be busy – very busy – without being very effective. Stephen Covey
• Focus,  Eliminate what is not important

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8.  Harness the power of focus and eliminate distractions

• Concentration is the key to economic results. No other principle of effectiveness is violated as constantly today as the basic principle of concentration. Peter F. Drucker
• Eliminating all distractions for a set time while you work is one of the most effective ways to get things done. So, lock your door, put a sign up, turn off your phone, close your email application, disconnect your internet connection, etc.  You can’t remain in hiding forever, but you can be twice as productive while you are.  Marc and Angel Chernoff
• To work effectively you need uninterrupted blocks of time in which you can complete meaningful work. When you know for certain that you won’t be interrupted, your productivity is much, much higher. When you sit down to work on a particularly intense task, dedicate blocks of time to the task during which you will not do anything else. I’ve found that a minimum of 90 minutes is ideal for a single block. Steve Pavlina
• Clearing distractions so you can focus on one single activity is incredibly effective, and breathtakingly joyful. Leo Babauta
• Focus

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9.  Get organised

• Getting your house in order and reducing the confusion gives you more control over your life. Personal organization somehow releases or frees you to operate more effectively.  Larry King
• Early in my career I felt that organization would destroy my creativity. Whereas now, I feel the opposite. Discipline is the foundation that allows you to be creative. Verna Gibson
• Anxiety is caused by a lack of control, organization, preparation, and action. David Kekich
• Get organised

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10.  Create positive habits, rituals and routines

• Creating positive rituals is the most powerful means we have found to effectively manage energy in the service of full engagement. Jim Loehr and Tony Schwartz
• Your success in life and work will be determined by the kinds of habits that you develop over time. The habit of setting priorities, overcoming procrastination, and getting on with your most important task is a mental and physical skill. As such, this habit is learnable through practice and repetition, over and over again, until it locks into your subconscious mind and becomes a permanent part of your behaviour. Brian Tracy
• Successful people are simply those with success habits. Brian Tracy
• Habit,  Routines and rituals

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11.  Make time for rest and renewal

• When you allow your mind to take a break, it comes back stronger, sharper, more focused and creative. Richard Carlson
• The mind ought sometimes to be diverted, that it may return the better to thinking. Phaedrus
• Sometimes the most productive thing you can do is relax  When you relax, your brain shifts into alpha state–the time when million-dollar ideas present themselves.  Marc and Angel Chernoff
• Suppose you came upon someone in the woods working to saw down a tree. They are exhausted from working for hours. You suggest they take a break to sharpen the saw. They might reply, ” I didn’t have time to sharpen the saw, I’m busy sawing!” Stephen Covey
• Rest and renewal,  Tiredness and fatigue

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12.  Put aside dedicated time to plan, think and reflect

• Follow effective action with quiet reflection. From the quiet reflection will come even more effective action. Peter Drucker
• An hour of effective, precise, hard, disciplined, and integrated thinking can be worth a month of hard work. Thinking is the very essence of, and the most difficult thing to do in, business and life. Empire builders spend hour after hour on mental work…while others party. If you’re not consciously aware of putting forth the effort to exert self- guided integrated thinking, if you don’t act beyond your feelings and you take the path of least resistance, then you’re giving in to laziness and no longer control your life. David Kekich
• Dedicated time to think,  Reflection,  Planning

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13.  Delegate and outsource to others where it makes sense

• Effectively delegating to others is perhaps the single most powerful high-leverage activity there is. Stephen Covey
• The effective person never asks HOW will I get to do this but rather WHO will I get to do this. Mary Cantando
• I outsource because it makes me more effective. It helps me focus on the high value, 20% tasks that make the biggest impact in my life. Celestine Chua
• Delegation,  Outsourcing

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14.  Practice calmness for it aids effectiveness

• The pursuit, even of the best things, ought to be calm and tranquil. Marcus Tullius Cicero
• Calmness is the cradle of power. G. Holland
• Being relaxed, at peace with yourself, confident, emotionally neutral, loose, and free- floating – these are the keys to successful performance in almost everything. Wayne Dyer
• Everything you do can be done better from a place of relaxation. Stephen C. Paul
• The cyclone derives its powers from a calm center. So does a person. Norman Vincent Peale
• Follow effective action with quiet reflection. From the quiet reflection will come even more effective action. Peter Drucker
• The constant, unproductive preoccupation with all the things we have to do is the single largest consumer of time and energy. Kerry Gleeson
• The less effort, the faster and more powerful you will be. Bruce Lee
• The more tranquil a man becomes, the greater is his success, his influence, his power for good. Calmness of mind is one of the beautiful jewels of wisdom. James Allen
• The power of calm: In matters of the mind, the more mental effort you apply to any given situation, the less will be the result. Richard Carlson
• Your ability to be productive is directly proportional to your ability to relax. David Allen
• The calm and balanced mind is the strong and great mind; the hurried and agitated mind is the weak one. Wallace D. Wattles
• Combine inner tranquility with outer effectiveness,  The power of calm

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15.  Harness and manage your energy to maximum effect

• It is not the degree of ‘willing’ or ‘trying’, but the way in which the energy is directed, that is going to make the ‘willing’ or ‘trying’ effective. M. Alexander
• The higher your energy level, the more efficient your body. The more efficient your body, the better you feel and the more you will use your talent to produce outstanding results. Tony Robbins
• There cannot be creation without a lot of energy. Emil Nolde
• Time is the most precious element of human existence. The successful person knows how to put energy into time and how to draw success from time. Denis Waitley
• Energy management

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16.  Be yourself rather than wasting energy on pretence

• You are more powerful, more effective, when you are completely yourself… Just stop adding unnecessary baggage to who you already are. Eckhart Tolle
• Be who you are

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17.  Only take control over what you can and allow the rest to flow

• Happiness and freedom begin with a clear understanding of one principle: Some things are within our control, and some things are not. It is only after you have faced up to this fundamental rule and learned to distinguish between what you can and can’t control that inner tranquillity and outer effectiveness become possible. Epictetus
• How would your life be different if you stopped worrying about things you can’t control and started focusing on the things you can? Let today be the day…You free yourself from fruitless worry, seize the day and take effective action on things you can change. Steve Maraboli
• Realise what you don’t control everything,  Go with the flow, Acceptance

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16.  Change yourself, inside out, rather than asking things to change

• We immediately become more effective when we decide to change ourselves rather than asking things to change for us. Stephen Covey
• The “Inside-Out” approach to personal and interpersonal effectiveness means to start first with self; even more fundamentally, to start with the most inside part of self with your paradigms, your character, and your motives. The inside- out approach says that private victories precede public victories, that making and keeping promises to ourselves recedes making and keeping promises to others. It says it is futile to put personality ahead of character, to try to improve relationships with others before improving ourselves. Stephen Covey
• Self-transformation,  Change

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18.  Focus most of your attention and energy on the present moment

• Anxiety is energy that cannot be used now. When you focus that trapped energy on action in the present moment, you release it and experience excitement and effectiveness. Neil Fiore
• Living in the present moment doesn’t mean you aren’t affected by, or that you don’t learn from, your past—or that you don’t plan for tomorrow (or for retirement and so forth), only that you understand that your most effective, powerful, and positive energy is the energy of today—the energy of right now. Richard Carlson
• Live in the moment

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19.  Challenge yourself regularly and stretch your comfort zone

• Comfort is state of being in which to find rest and renewal for a short time; it is a dreary and dismal place to remain permanently. If you don’t challenge yourself on a regular basis, your abilities and effectiveness will become stale and weak.  Marc and Angel Chernoff
• Stretch your comfort zone

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20.  Be opportunity minded

• Effective people are not problem-minded; they’re opportunity-minded. Stephen Covey
• Opportunity,  Proactiveness

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21.  Have the courage to take calculated risks

• We must have courage to bet on our ideas, to take the calculated risk, and to act. Everyday living requires courage if life is to be effective and bring happiness. Maxwell Maltz
• Courage,  Boldness,  Risk taking

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22.  Build your will power and self-discipline

• In addition to self-awareness, imagination and conscience, it is the fourth human endowment – independent will – that really makes effective self- management possible. It is the ability to make decisions and choices and to act in accordance with them. It is the ability to act rather than to be acted upon, to proactively carry out the program we have developed through the other three endowments. Empowerment comes from learning how to use this great endowment in the decisions we make every day. Stephen Covey
• People with good self-control mainly use it not for rescue in emergencies but rather to develop effective habits and routines in school and at work. Roy Baumeister
• Will power,  Self-discipline

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23.  Harness the power of commitment

• To increase your effectiveness, make your emotions subordinate to your commitments. Brian Koslow
• Commitment

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24.  Find balance

• True effectiveness requires balance. Stephen Covey
• To maintain the P/PC Balance, the balance between the golden egg (production) and the health and welfare of the goose (production capability) is often a difficult judgment call. But I suggest it is the very essence of effectiveness. Stephen Covey
• Balance

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• We are too busy mopping the floor to turn off the faucet.
• If you think you are too small to be effective you have never been in bed with a mosquito.  Betty Reese
• In the Middle Ages, they had guillotines, stretch racks, whips and chains. Nowadays, we have a much more effective torture device called the bathroom scale.  Stephen Phillips
• The right word may be effective, but no word was ever as effective as a rightly timed pause. Mark Twain
• The key here I think is to not think of death as an end. But to think of it more as a very effective way of cutting down on your expenses.  Woody Allen
• I’m great at multitasking. I can waste time, be unproductive, and procrastinate all at once.

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