You must have heard the importance of managing your time to increase your efficiency in order to produce stellar results in the shortest time possible; everything seems tied around time, you can literally feel the clock tick away at you. Yes, time is uncontrollable; but self-discipline isn’t. You cannot dictate how fast time should go but you can determine the pace you do the things that count.

In this New Year, for all the things you’ve set your mind to do or achieve – get that job, buy that car, lose that weight, save more money, drop that bad habit, do something nice for the people you love; and on and on, it won’t happen by chance but only proper self-discipline can get you doing the right things at the right time. Whatever it is, make up your mind to achieve it by controlling yourself. These tips will help you.

Take 10 steps backward. Do the SWOT: in the never-ending activities of each day, you are perhaps saddled with too many responsibilties, or as against what you thought technology would do for you; you know… make your work and life easier, you are instead so distracted from the things you should be doing – it all suddenly starts to feel like a rat race.

Take out some quiet time – go on a meditation walk or find a serene environment, simply jump out of your busy life; evaluate yourself based on your SWOT (Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, Threats) analysis.What are the things you are really good at? Did you use them last year to propel yourself forward? If not, why? How will you do things differently in the new year? What are the weaknesses in your life that you must work on to make progress? If it’s procrastination, don’t be to lazy to tell yourself the truth; Which opportunities did you allow to slip last year? Were you offered a job but felt the pay did not match your status? What are the things threatening your progress in life? How does this connect to your Faith? Do you need to acquire an additional certificate to get that promotion? Do you need to reduce junk food and eat more fresh foods to lose that 50 extra pounds? Whatever they are, identify them. place yourself under the SWOT X-ray and prepare your mind to make adjustments.

Write out a Cues and Rewards Report. When you write down things , you give them a chance to shape your reality and as they come alive on paper, there’s an increased chance you won’t forget; the more you read them, the more you want to do them. So what if you’ve been performing this ritual of writing down your goals and nothing happens; here’s a new approach to this – write down your present challenge and place the benefits ahead side by side with the problem or present situation. For example, you want to lose weight- write out your plan stating how much you currently weigh and the size you’d like to trim down to, also include the reason/benefits of the anticipated outcome e.g “can comfortably fit into my wedding gown again.” this will serve as a motivation and it’ll keep your eyes on the target. Don’t forget to set dates and timelines, this will give you defined lines of commitment and specific tasks to carry out.

Work Your Plan. Have a not-to-do List. At this point, the ball is in your court but you also begin to run against time. Tick, Tock, Tick, Tock.The more you push yourself, the closer you’ll get to your goals. Work out your plans daily, those little details add up to make the big picture. Be wary of increasing the number of things you want accomplished every day, look out for the things you’ll leave off. Don’t make your to-do list a wish-list, be precise about the things you want done and leave out the rest for another day.

Set a Standard. Compete With Yourself. Step away from your comfort zone and push your boundaries. Do you need to change your circle of friends? Is your CV format the problem? Do you need to resume earlier at work and make every time count? Do you need to treat people better?, Maybe it’s time to give more smiles, encourage and say nice words to people. Whatever it may be, approach it with a positive attitude, don’t bore yourself to get things done, make it fun. Remember, If you keep doing things the same way, you will keep getting the same results. So change, make mistakes, fall, get up, keep moving. Reward and celebrate yourself whenever you achieve a milestone.

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