Regularly review your goals

• If you start by identifying the things you really want to accomplish in the next year, you can plan your tasks so that you are doing things each day to further those goals along. Leo Babauta
• Asking why you are doing something serves as a check and always moves your focus back to the big picture. Asking why helps you find out if your actions have come unglued from your goals. Stever Robbins
• The best way to work less is to make sure you only do work that helps you reach your goals and purpose. Your entire ladder of goals and subgoals must be aligned, otherwise you’ll waste work. Your Life Map, or goal ladder for your life, becomes a way to pull yourself back when you get sucked into the details. Stever Robbins
• I’m not a big believer in long-term planning and far-off goals. In fact, I generally set 3- month and 6- month dreamlines. The variables change too much and in-the-future distance becomes an excuse for postponing action. Timothy Ferriss
• Planning,  Management,  Time management,  Effectiveness,  Productivity

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Plan your week ahead

• Have a regular weekly planning session in which you plan ahead the activities of the coming week. This simple process will ensure the things which you consider to be most important are not lost in the daily hustle-bustle of accomplishing the activities which are urgent.  Stephen Covey
• So far, you’ve figured out your purpose, values, roles, and first things. How are you going to make sure your first things really are first and stay first? The best way we’ve found is through weekly planning. Stephen Covey
• By planning ahead one week at a time rather than each day, you gain a better perspective of what is urgent and what is important. Stephen Covey
• Commit to investing from twenty to thirty minutes a week in weekly planning. Follow these steps as you plan: Write down your key roles. Select one or two of your highest priorities to focus on this week. Look at the week and schedule your tasks and appointments. Stephen Covey
• Your weekly planning session should follow this sequence: 1. Mission     Roles   3.  Goals   4.  Schedule   Stephen Covey
• Either you run the day or the day runs you. Jim Rohn
• Planning

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In your weekly planning, schedule your most important activities

• Schedule the big rocks (your most important tasks) into your calendar and routines at the beginning of each week. Stephen Covey
• If you don’t put the big rocks in first, you’ll never get them in at all. What are the big rocks in your life? A project that you want to accomplish? Time with your loved ones? Your faith, your education, your finances? A cause? Teaching or mentoring others? Remember to put these Big Rocks in first or you’ll never get them in at all. Stephen Covey
• Get the big rocks in. Big rocks are your quadrant 2 tasks – the important but non-urgent tasks. When big rocks are in place, you can easily get the small rocks, gravel, sand and water into the jar. Much easier than if you tried to do it the other way round, isn’t it? Celestine Chua
• Fit in the big rocks first and the smaller stones will fit between the spaces. Stephen Covey
• You will never “find” time for anything. If you want time, you must make it. Charles Bruxton
• Schedule appointments with yourself and create time blocks for high-priority thoughts, conversations, and actions. Schedule when they will begin and end. Have the discipline to keep these appointments. Joe Mathews
• The key is not to prioritize what’s on your schedule, but to schedule your priorities. Stephen Covey
• Create time zones for specific important activities. The idea is not to fill the entire week with time zones, but to set aside a few specific periods during which you can concentrate on non-urgent and important activities relating to your goals.  Stephen Covey
• What will be done at any time will be done at no time. Thomas Fuller
• Put first things first

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In your weekly planning, identify your roles in life and create goals for each

• A tightly focused series of seven to ten categories in areas that you are particularly responsible for, interested in, or pay special attention to, just to keep your ship afloat and sailing steadily. David Allen
• In your life, overall, you probably have seven to ten areas into which you could logically group your interests and activities. Typical categories here include your relationships, your household, parenting, finances, self- expression, career, service, and health. David Allen
• Much of the frustration many people feel comes from the fact that they are succeeding at one role but failing at others. To lead a well-balanced life, each of your personal roles must work together for the accomplishment of your mission. Stephen Covey
• Balance is created when you address each role on a regular basis. Stephen Covey
• For each role, stop and ask: What is the most important thing I can do this week to make progress in this specific role? Stephen Covey
• At your weekly planning session, you should write down one or two goals for each of your roles. Stephen Covey
• How do your roles tie in with Putting First Things First? With your purpose and values? As you plan your week using your chosen planning tool, be sure you schedule activities in each key role. Stephen Covey
• Goal setting

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Plan your day the night before

• When you plan your day the night before, your subconscious then goes to work on your plans and goals while you are asleep. Very often you will wake up in the morning with ideas and insights that apply to the work of the day. Brian Tracy
• Planning the night before is a great way to really get focused on the next day. “Sleeping” on your tasks and goals for the following day can really help your mind expect what’s going to happen the next day. Glen Stansberry
• Planning your day turns into living your life. Danielle LaPorte

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Wake up early each day

• Decide to get up thirty minutes earlier. Do this for a year, and you will add seven and one-half days to your waking world. Jackson Brown Jr.
• It is well to be up before daybreak, for such habits contribute to health, wealth, and wisdom. Aristotle
• He that rises late must trot all day. Benjamin Franklin

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Set targets for each day

• Never begin the day until it is finished on paper. Jim Rohn
• Without a clear focus, it’s too easy to succumb to distractions. Set targets for each day in advance. Decide what you’ll do; then do it. Steve Pavlina
• If you don’t have daily objectives, you qualify as a dreamer. Zig Ziglar
• Create a to-do list, prioritize, and refer to it often. Linda Richter
• Every morning plan three things you’ll do on that day: one that gives you pleasure, one that will help put you in the state of flow, and one that will give your life meaning. Marelisa Fabrega
• Take the first 30 minutes of every day to plan your day. Don’t start your day until you complete your time plan. The most important time of your day is the time you schedule to schedule time. Joe Mathews
• Either you run the day or the day runs you. Jim Rohn
• One of the secrets of getting more done is to make a TO DO List every day, keep it visible, and use it as a guide to action as you go through the day. Alan Lakein

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Start your day strong …

• Early morning is the most critical time of each day. How you spend the beginning hours of your day sets the stage for the remaining hours. If you purposefully establish a routine for spending your early morning as you want to, you will have taken a giant step toward spending the rest of your life the way you want to. Jack D. Hodge
• Lose an hour in the morning, and you will spend all day looking for it. Richard Whately

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… doing your most important task first…

• The first hour of the morning is the rudder of the day. Henry Ward Beecher
• At the end of your workday, identify the first task you’ll work on the next day, and set out the materials in advance. The next day begin working on that task immediately. Leo Babauta
• First thing in the morning, work on your most important task. Don’t do anything else until this is done. Give yourself a short break, then start on your next most important task. If you can get two to three of these done in the morning, the rest of the day is gravy. Leo Babauta
• By performing the mundane act of sitting down and starting to work, you set in motion a mysterious but infallible sequence of events that will produce inspiration, as surely as if the goddess had synchronized her watch with yours. Steven Pressfield
• Someone once asked Somerset Maugham if he wrote on a schedule or only when struck by inspiration. “I write only when inspiration strikes,” he replied. “Fortunately it strikes every morning at nine o’clock sharp. Steven Pressfield
• The ability to concentrate single-mindedly on your most important task, to do it well and to finish it completely, is the key to great success, achievement, respect, status, and happiness in life. Brian Tracy
• Start every day with the most important thing you have to do. Save the less important tasks for later. Jackson Brown, Jr
• Put first things first

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… or doing your most unpleasant task first

• To defeat procrastination, learn to tackle your most unpleasant task first thing in the morning instead of delaying it until later in the day. This small victory will set the tone for a very productive day. Steve Pavlina
• Do the hard jobs first. The easy jobs will take care of themselves. Dale Carnegie
• The first rule of frog eating is this: If you have to eat two frogs, eat the ugliest one first. Brian Tracy
• The second rule of frog eating is this: If you have to eat a live frog at all, it doesn’t pay to sit and look at it for very long. Brian Tracy
• When you have a number of disagreeable duties to perform, always do the most disagreeable first. Josiah Quincy
• Procrastination

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Commit to doing at least one important thing each day

• Some people spend 90% of their time organizing their time. Some tackle to-do lists peppered with insignificance that stretch a mile long.  And still, there are others who refuse to do anything at all.  As for me, I am committed to doing one thing a day, and that has made all the difference.  What one thing will you do today?  Marc and Angel Chernoff
• Commitment

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Use your peak energy times …

• Identify your peak cycles of productivity and schedule your most important tasks for those times. Work on minor tasks during your non- peak times. Steve Pavlina
• Do creative work during your internal “prime time.” Your internal prime time is the time of day, according to your body clock, when you are the most alert and productive. Brian Tracy
• We all have times when we think more effectively, and times when we should not be thinking at all. Daniel Cohen
• Organize your days according to your natural rhythms and cycles. Stever Robbins
• Customize your schedule around your rhythms to keep your energy smooth and flowing all day long. Stever Robbins
• We are so dominated by the cultural organization of time that we get alienated from our own natural rhythms. Martin Boroson
• Energy management

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.. and work in concentrated bursts

• Most people work best in 60 to 90 minute blocks of time, followed by 5-10 minute breaks. Sean Phillips
• Do something that is relaxing and lets your brain rest, such as taking a quick 5 minute nap, going for a short walk, etc. Sean Phillips
• Every now and then, go away and have a little relaxation, for when you come back to your work your judgement will be surer. Leonardo da Vinci
• There is a rhythm in our bodies that operates in 90-minute intervals. That rhythm is the ultradian rhythm, which moves between high arousal and fatigue.  If you’re working over a period of 90 minutes, there are all kinds of indicators in your physiology of fatigue; so what your body is really saying to you is, ‘Give me a break!  Refuel me!’  Tony Schwartz
• Focus,  Immerse yourself in what you do

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Batch your smaller tasks

• Aside from your three most important tasks, there are always smaller tasks you need to complete each day. The trick is 1) not to let these smaller tasks take priority over your most important tasks, and 2) to do them in batches as much as possible to save time. Leo Babauta
• Batch similar tasks like phone calls or errands into a single chunk, and knock them off in a single session. Steve Pavlina

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Only process your e-mail twice a day

• Process your e-mail and other in-boxes at regular and predetermined intervals. Do not multitask. Twice a day only. Leo Babauta
• Check e-mail twice per day, once at 12:00 noon or just prior to lunch, and again at 4:00 P.M. 12:00 P.M. and 4:00 P.M. are times that ensure you will have the most responses from previously sent e- mail. Never check e- mail first thing in the morning. Instead, complete your most important task before 11:00 A.M. Timothy Ferriss
• A common productivity tip is not to check e-mail first thing in the morning, and it’s good advice. By checking e-mail in the morning, you’re allowing e-mail to dictate the rest of your day. Leo Babauta
• It requires much less energy to maintain an email at zero base than at a thousand base. David Allen
• Emails that need action are sometimes best as their own reminders. Create one folder for any longer- than- two- minute emails that you need to act on. David Allen
• Inbox: A catch basin for everything you don’t want to deal with, but are afraid to throw away.

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Delegate where you can

• 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
• We accomplish all that we do through delegation – either to time or to other people. Stephen Covey
• The great strength of delegation is that we can accomplish so much more. It allows us to multiply ourselves and increase leverage to grow our businesses beyond our own individual capacities. Stephen Covey
• Delegate when you can more usefully use your energy and time to focus on other important issues. Andy Britnell
• Delegation

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Do a weekly review

• The real value of any week is not only what is achieved but also what has been learned from it, and what you have become as a result of it. Stephen Covey
• Each week, you should stop and ask: What goals did I achieve? What challenges were encountered?  What decisions did I make? What successes and failures did I have?  How much time was actually spent on important activities? What keeps getting in the way of achieving my goals?  What have I learned from this week that will help me?  Stephen Covey
• Most people feel best about their work the week before their vacation, but it’s not because of the vacation itself. What do you do the last week before you leave on a big trip? You clean up, close up, clarify, and renegotiate all your agreements with yourself and others. I just suggest that you do this weekly instead of yearly. David Allen
• A weekly review clears your psychic decks so you can go into the weekend ready for refreshment and recreation. David Allen

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On a lighter note

• I find it helps to organize chores into categories: Things I won’t do now; Things I won’t do later; Things I’ll never do. Character Maxine
• I awake in the morning, torn between a desire to save the world, and a desire to savour the world. That makes it hard to plan the day. H. White
• Nothing makes a person more productive than the last minute.

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