JAN MALLOCH

When setting a goal, it is very important to estimate how long it will take to achieve your target. Once you have an idea of a time frame, you will then be in a position to stipulate a specific date. By identifying a completion date, this will ensure a much greater chance of being successful. Put the date on your calendar, and imprint this date into your mind!

This seems simple enough. Unfortunately however, many people set totally unrealistic time frames, which will set them up to fail.

Some goals will take a number of hours each week to achieve. For instance, if you are studying for a particular qualification, you will need to be able to dedicate a certain number of hours each and every week. If an exam date has been set, then this is the time frame that you will need to work to. If the course requires 20 hours of study per week, you are unlikely to succeed if you dedicate only 5 hours.

Ensuring that you make best use of your weekly allowance of time is crucial. We all have the same amount of time in a week - 168 hours to be precise.

How do you spend your time, and how much time can you dedicate to achieving your goals?

I suggest the following to help to ensure that you make the best use of your available time.

1) Decide how much time you will need to devote each week to achieve your goal.

2) Keep a diary over a period of a week and record all of your activities. Be as accurate as you can to discover how long you spend on each. Remember that eating, sleeping, washing and so on do take time, so always include these every day activities!

3) Be honest with yourself. If you spend 3 hours a day watching TV, write that down.

4) Now review what you do during the week, and how much time you spend on each. Just like budgeting money, where can you make time savings?

5) Identify times in the week that could be used in the pursuit of your goals. If you spend a high percentage of your week watching television, I bet that much of this could be used to achieve your dreams instead!

6) Once you have identified time periods to devote to goals, get hold of a weekly planner and color in the periods that you will schedule as your "goal achievement time".

7) Follow your schedule and you will find that it will soon become a part of your routine.

Not only will you start achieving some really worthwhile goals, but you will also gain a wonderful sense of achievement, which will spur you on to achieve more and more!

Procrastination is an extremely common problem, and every one of us will have experienced it! You know that you have to get something done, but you will do anything to avoid actually having to do it. I'm not one for doing housework, but when I had to study for exams, I was more than happy to clean the oven or defrost the fridge.

Here are 7 tips that I personally use to avoid the pitfalls of procrastination.

1) Early in the day, write down a maximum of 5 things that you absolutely must do today. By writing them down, you will see exactly what you need to do. Having various tasks swirling around in your head won't help you get anything done!

2) Restrict your list to 5 tasks. Anymore than that and you just won't know where to start.

3) Look at the list and decide on 3 tasks that you will be able to complete quickly and without too much effort. Normally, you would be advised to do the hardest tasks first. But think about it. If you procrastinate with the hardest tasks, then you won't complete anything on your list!

4) When you complete a task, take great pleasure in striking it off your list. Take a couple of minutes "out" to congratulate yourself on completing it. Feel really positive about your accomplishment, no matter how small or trivial the task was.

5) For the "harder" tasks on your list, you must look at these in a positive way. If it is something you really don't like doing, imagine that the task has been completed, and reflect on how great you will feel once it has been done. See yourself striking the task off your list, and congratulating yourself for completing it.

6) Having a sense of accomplishment will make all the difference when tackling your next task. The problem with procrastination is that if you don't complete anything on your list, then you miss out on this wonderful feeling. Get your first task done and your feelings of accomplishment will snowball as you continue to tackle more items on the list.

7) Sometimes tasks just have to be done, whether you like to do them or not. This is where you really just have to get on and do it. Besides the wonderful feeling of accomplishment (which will be greater the more you hate the task!), you will be rewarded by the benefits that completing that task will bring. Before starting the task, decide on an additional reward that you will give yourself when it is completed.

Procrastination prevents us from achieving the things in life that will help us grow and to reach our full potential. Enjoy the challenge of completing your daily tasks and congratulate yourself on achieving so much that day.

As you continue to achieve more and more, procrastination will soon become a thing of the past!