I have been journaling for years and my entries often reflect on personal and professional goals. But recently I went back and tweaked a journal entry after my husband shared a tip he read from the goal setting guy Brian Tracy. Instead of a “to-do list” he recommends actually scheduling each hour of the following day.
I tried the hourly schedule concept, where in addition to task and fun related items, you also set aside reflection time. Let me tell you what a difference this makes. I find that I have time for both work related tasks and blueberry picking with the kids.
The benefits are twofold…
1) You set yourself up for a purposeful day that includes “reflection time”. I find a lot of benefit in this because by “sleeping on” our plans creative ideas come to us in the morning with less effort, how cool is that?!
2) I also try and think of one thing I would like to change (could be anything) and write down one or two sentences about what I could do differently on the following day’s schedule. This way I feel like I am continuing to make baby steps toward improving my life each day. I think it is going to be interesting to look back at journal entries to track these little “micro goals” that I set.
My current clients just love this tip, so give it a try for a week and post a comment to let me know what improvements your notice in your professional life. I think you are going to love it; and I am such a believer that I am dedicating next week’s teleclass to perfecting the process.