The Productivity Pro® Blog by Laura Stack - Time Management, Getting Things Done, How to Be More Productive

It will infuse your energy and boost your mood. It will help you lose weight and decrease your risk of disease. It is a miracle! But 80% of Americans don’t take it, even at its lowest dosage. Why? Because it’s exercise.
Exercising will give you the energy you need, because it speeds up blood flow and your breathing rate, which brings more oxygen to your heart, lungs, brain, and muscles — and when it comes to high energy, oxygen is your friend. Here’s what you can do to bring on the O2:

1.      Do something for thirty minutes. Any type of aerobic exercise strengthens your heart and lungs and improves blood flow. It also releases endorphins (nature’s painkillers), improves your mood, and fortifies you against minor viral illnesses.

2.      Stop relying on your car so much. Walking is an excellent form of aerobic exercise, and it’s surprisingly effective at boosting your energy level. For best results, buy a pedometer and make sure you walk 6,000-10,000 steps a day.

3.      Include weights in your fitness routine. Lifting weights is the most effective way to build up strong muscles, which leads to stronger bones and a reduced risk of injury. It also speeds up oxygen flow, which will help perk you up.

4.      Sneak fitness into your routine. Instead of complaining that you don’t have time to exercise, try sneaking in a little while you’re doing something else. Park farther away from the store while shopping, for instance, or do squats while reading.

5.      Shake up your workout.  If your exercise routine has you bored out of your skull, try something different. Change your level of effort, shuffle your workout into a new order, or experiment with a new kind of workout altogether.

6.      Work out when you travel. Have you ever decided it’s too much trouble to bother with your normal fitness routine when traveling? Instead of rationalizing yourself out of exercising, create a travel workout plan and stick to it.

7.      Get a workout buddy. If you lack the discipline to exercise regularly on your own, work out with someone else: a family member, a friend, even a paid trainer. That way you’ll have someone to lean on, who’ll guilt you into exercising when you don’t want to.

8.      Bribe yourself.  Offer yourself a little reward for completing a workout. It could be anything that makes you happy: a new outfit, a round of golf with your buddies, or a favorite TV show you only to watch while exercising.

The less active you are, the less energy you’ll have: it’s that simple. A sedentary lifestyle contributes greatly to fatigue — so fight that fatigue with the oxygen burst that regular exercise will contribute.  Figure out how to move, and move daily. 

© 2008 Laura Stack.  Laura Stack is a personal productivity expert, author, and professional speaker who helps busy workers Leave the Office Earlier® with Maximum Results in Minimum Time™. She is the president of The Productivity Pro®, Inc., a time management training firm specializing in productivity improvement in high-stress organizations.  Since 1992, Laura has presented keynotes and seminars on improving output, lowering stress, and saving time in today’s workplaces.  She is the bestselling author of three works published by Broadway Books: The Exhaustion Cure (2008), Find More Time (2006) and Leave the Office Earlier (2004).  Laura is a spokesperson for Microsoft, 3M, and Day-Timers®, Inc and has been featured on the CBS Early Show, CNN, and the New York Times. Her clients include Cisco Systems, Sunoco, KPMG, Nationwide, and 3M.  To have Laura speak at your next event, call 303-471-7401.  Visit www.TheProductivityPro.com to sign up for her free monthly productivity newsletter.

Poor nutrition can be as draining as the wrong diet, and the consequences can sneak up on you. If you’re constantly dragging, and you suffer headaches or an inability to get enough sleep despite following proper sleep habits, you may be suffering from a nutritional deficiency.

Sometimes, all you have to do to power up your energy is to recognize the symptoms of nutritional imbalances, and then to take steps to address them. These tips can help you with that.

1. Get a good balance of essential nutrients. Things can go wrong with your body if you don’t make sure it gets all it needs to function right. Check your symptoms, and eat more of what you might be lacking. Vitamins may be in order, too.

2. Replace favorite foods with metabolism-boosting substitutes. Too much sugar can activate your appetite instead of control it. Try an egg-white omelet in the morning instead of cereal, or a protein shake in the afternoon.

3. Hydrate yourself. If you feel like you’re drained dry, maybe you are. While technically not a nutrient, we don’t get all the water we need from the food we eat, so supplementation is essential.

4. Steer clear of stimulants. There’s no doubt that stimulants perk you up, but they do it in a way that you have to pay for later. Even legal stimulants trigger a “fight-or-flight” reflex that releases stress hormones, followed by a big energy slump.

5. Limit your alcohol consumption. Will the occasional beer or glass of wine with dinner hurt you? Not really, but alcohol is a depressant; too much at any one time can negatively impact your energy level for a day or more.

6. Stop smoking! Not only does the kickback from nicotine cause a short-term energy loss, in the long term, smoking can damage your lungs, decreasing your ability to take in oxygen — a vital energy fuel.

7. Focus on convenience. If you’re working hard to increase your energy level through good nutritional habits, make it easier to succeed. Start by limiting the worst energy stealers in your environment, and make it convenient to eat right.

8. Clear your house of junk. Get rid of those temptations! Keep sugary and high-fat snacks out of your cupboard, both at work and at home, and clear out the liquor cabinet, too. Don’t forget to throw out the cigarettes while you’re at it.

Your body needs certain food and nutrients for repair, growth, and energy. If you’re not getting all you need, you’ll eventually run down. So learn to overcome your poor nutritional habits, or you’ll pay the metabolic price.

© 2008 Laura Stack. Laura Stack is a personal productivity expert, author, and professional speaker who helps busy workers Leave the Office Earlier® with Maximum Results in Minimum Time™. She is the president of The Productivity Pro®, Inc., a time management training firm specializing in productivity improvement in high-stress organizations. Since 1992, Laura has presented keynotes and seminars on improving output, lowering stress, and saving time in today’s workplaces. She is the bestselling author of three works published by Broadway Books: The Exhaustion Cure (2008), Find More Time (2006) and Leave the Office Earlier (2004). Laura is a spokesperson for Microsoft, 3M, and Day-Timers®, Inc and has been featured on the CBS Early Show, CNN, and the New York Times. Her clients include Cisco Systems, Sunoco, KPMG, Nationwide, and 3M. To have Laura speak at your next event, call 303-471-7401. Visit www.TheProductivityPro.com <http://www.theproductivitypro.com/> to sign up for her free monthly productivity newsletter.

 
If you keep telling yourself you don’t have the time to eat properly, you’re shooting yourself in the foot, energy-wise. Balanced meals and nutritious foods are absolutely necessary for maintaining high energy. Your diet needs to include whole grains, colorful fruits and vegetables, proteins, and heart-healthy fats in order to give your body the protein, fiber, vitamins, minerals, and phytochemicals it needs to keep going. That said, a big part of eating right is knowing what to eat, and knowing when to stop.

These tips can help you put together the kind of diet you need to keep going strong.

1. Cut the calories. Eat the proper amount of food and no more. Otherwise, you may find yourself flirting with the consequences of obesity, not least of which is a constantly low energy level.

2. Find your balance. Don’t toss out good nutrition in favor of losing weight. Fad diets are never the answer; you’ll pay for any weight-loss with lower energy. The best weight-loss plan is the one that’s the most nutritious on a consistent basis.

3. Track your eating patterns. Eating randomly throughout the day or evening can prevent you from getting a handle on just how much you’re actually consuming, so keep an eye on how and when you eat. 

4. Create a customized meal plan. The good news is, you don’t have to count calories to customize your meals; to stay on track, you just have to know the proper serving sizes.

5. Cut the portion sizes. Standard portion sizes may seem disappointingly small, but “supersizing it” is a sure way to pile on weight and lose energy.

6. Make better choices. Learn how to tell good foods from bad, and switch out the bad choices for the good ones whenever you can.

7. Plan in advance. If you’re unprepared for difficult food situations, you may be seduced into eating more than you should — or you may give in and eat the wrong things altogether.

8. Stop counter-productive thinking.  Brush up on your self-talk. Maybe you still feel guilty about all those starving kids your Mom told you about years ago, but that doesn’t mean you have to stuff yourself when you’re not hungry.

This is a fantastic time to be on a program for healthier eating, because the food industry is finally responding to the trans-fats issue and is actually using more whole grains in their products. Try these simple changes in your daily choices, and you’ll soon discover a big difference in your energy level.

© 2008 Laura Stack.  Laura Stack is a personal productivity expert, author, and professional speaker who helps busy workers Leave the Office Earlier® with Maximum Results in Minimum Time™. She is the president of The Productivity Pro®, Inc., a time management training firm specializing in productivity improvement in high-stress organizations.  Since 1992, Laura has presented keynotes and seminars on improving output, lowering stress, and saving time in today’s workplaces.  She is the bestselling author of three works published by Broadway Books: The Exhaustion Cure (2008), Find More Time (2006) and Leave the Office Earlier (2004).  Laura is a spokesperson for Microsoft, 3M, and Day-Timers®, Inc and has been featured on the CBS Early Show, CNN, and the New York Times. Her clients include Cisco Systems, Sunoco, KPMG, Nationwide, and 3M.  To have Laura speak at your next event, call 303-471-7401.  Visit www.TheProductivityPro.com to sign up for her free monthly productivity newsletter.

SLEEP: Learn to Love the Last Letter of the Alphabet

You might be surprised to learn that there’s a simple treatment that boosts energy levels, improves memory, increases your ability to concentrate, strengthens your immune system, and decreases your risk of death and injury in accidents. Amazingly, it costs absolutely nothing, and is available to anyone. It’s called “sleep.” Ever heard of it?

Quality, restful, undisturbed sleep is one of the keys to maximizing your daytime energy level, but it may take a little tinkering to find what’s right for you. Here are a few tips that can help.

1. Catch the right number of Z’s. Experiment with finding the amount of sleep that’s right for you, and stick with it religiously — even on the weekends and holidays!

2. Nap wisely. If you absolutely have to take a nap, limit it to one hour — and don’t nap at all if you suffer from insomnia.

3. Treat sleep disorders. If you can’t get any rest, have yourself tested for sleep disorders. There are over 100, and each can interfere with your physical and emotional well being.

4. Lose weight. Obesity and poor sleep patterns go hand-in-hand, and just make each other worse. Your only real choice is to nip obesity in the bud.

5. Reset your body clock. Faulty circadian rhythms can foul up the timing of your normal sleep/wake cycle. The fix? Work to reset your body clock naturally.

6. Create the right sleep environment. Your bedroom should be your sleeping sanctuary, not a place to read, knit, or watch TV. If your body associates bed with sleep, you’ll get to sleep more quickly and sleep better.

7. Eat, drink, and be sleepy. Never go to bed hungry, but don’t go to bed right after dinner either. In addition, you should watch your intake of alcohol, water, and stimulants late in the evening.

8. Sleep well when traveling.  Look for hotels, like the Crowne Plaza chain, that understand the need for great sleep and provide for it. If you plan to travel several time zones away, try resetting your body clock in advance.

Never underestimate the value of a good night’s sleep. If you don’t get enough sleep, you’ll suffer fatigue, lack of energy, difficulty concentrating, and irritability the next day. While the body can dig into its reserves for a few days, inadequate sleep will eventually reduce your effectiveness at anything you attempt to do.

© 2008 Laura Stack.  Laura Stack is a personal productivity expert, author, and professional speaker who helps busy workers Leave the Office Earlier® with Maximum Results in Minimum Time™. She is the president of The Productivity Pro®, Inc., a time management training firm specializing in productivity improvement in high-stress organizations.  Since 1992, Laura has presented keynotes and seminars on improving output, lowering stress, and saving time in today’s workplaces.  She is the bestselling author of three works published by Broadway Books: The Exhaustion Cure (2008), Find More Time (2006) and Leave the Office Earlier (2004).  Laura is a spokesperson for Microsoft, 3M, and Day-Timers®, Inc and has been featured on the CBS Early Show, CNN, and the New York Times. Her clients include Cisco Systems, Sunoco, KPMG, Nationwide, and 3M.  To have Laura speak at your next event, call 303-471-7401.  Visit www.TheProductivityPro.com to sign up for her free monthly productivity newsletter.

Are you working your life away? Yes, you, the one working six days a week, 12 hours a day. Oh, so you “rest” on the seventh day? Hey, even God rested on the seventh day. You, however, put in a few more hours. When did you confuse your job with your life? Leisure, wellness, fun, and stress reduction are all an essential part of any productive routine.  If you have a hard time kicking back, here are a few suggestions you should try.

1. Close the mental office “door” and turn off work each day. It’s okay to love what you do; it’s okay to have passion for your work. But you’re not defined by what you do professionally. Stop being a workaholic, and learn to slow down.

2. Leave work on time, so you can get home and enjoy your personal life. Your personal life is at least as important as your work life. Facing this reality and learning to work with it will make you feel more successful and less stressed.

3. Keep your stress levels low. Lighten up and laugh at life’s absurdities. Remember, the lower your stress level, the higher your appreciation of life and your ability to care for others.

4. Rest, relax, and play daily. Some 40 percent of people surveyed say they don’t spend enough time enjoying leisure activities. The biggest obstacle to play? Ourselves. Give yourself permission to have fun.

5. Go on a long vacation each year. Everyone needs a change of pace and scenery and fun on a regular basis. Vacations offer the restorative power many people desperately need. Without the ability to recharge your batteries for a long period of time, you’re on a slippery slope to burnout.

6. Create fond memories with the people you love. Don’t ignore your family in favor of earning a living. Create positive experiences that stir their emotions and will therefore impact them, so they’ll remember the good times.

7. Have a regular “family time” with loved ones. The traditions you share with your family are important ways to nurture and express your love for the important people in your life, and to create those fond memories that make you a family.

8. Make time for a favorite hobby. Having a hobby is a great way to re-energize. Whether you like to knit, create scrapbooks, or design clothes, do something regularly. Make time for it. Hobbies are a wonderful outlet for the creative expression missing in many people’s lives.

9. Force yourself to slow down and stop rushing around. Time management doesn’t mean packing your day like a moving van, ensuring every single minute is full. What’s really at issue is not the quantity of time, but its texture.

10. Take care of yourself on a regular basis. This doesn’t just mean going to the doctor and dentist regularly. Reconnect with your childhood, keep up an active social life, pamper yourself occasionally, and don’t feel guilty about downtime. 

Some people may perceive playing to be frivolous, but they’re missing the point. You need occasional periods of recreation in order to avoid burn-out and to keep caring about what you’re doing with your life. Slow down and smell the flowers occasionally! Play is more than something “extra” — it’s the ultimate pillar on which your life rests.

© 2008 Laura Stack.  Laura Stack is a personal productivity expert, professional speaker, and author who helps busy workers Leave the Office Earlier® with Maximum Results in Minimum Time™. She is the president of The Productivity Pro®, Inc., a time management training company in Denver, Colorado, that caters to high-stress industries. Laura’s newest productivity book, The Exhaustion Cure (Broadway Books), hits bookstores in May 2008.  Laura is a spokesperson for Microsoft, 3M, and Day-Timers®, Inc and has been featured on the CBS Early Show, CNN, and the New York Times. Her clients include Cisco, Sunoco, KPMG, Nationwide, and MolsonCoors.  Contact her at www.TheProductivityPro.com. 

In the military, your job or position is known as your Post. Even if you’re not in the military, a well-defined Post is an important pillar of personal productivity. When you do your job well, other things in your life fall into place more smoothly. When this pillar is weak, your personal responsibilities seem to get in the way of life. Try these tips for defining and handling your life responsibilities.

1. Hire out tasks requiring a level of expertise you don’t have. You don’t have to do everything yourself, especially when there are people available who can do it better for a price. You can outsource just about anything these days.

2. Hire out simple chores to helpers. Most people don’t have the time to work full-time and do all the housework too — so don’t hesitate to hire it out if you need to. In most cases, such services are worth far more to us than anything else we might have spent the money on.

3. Have goods delivered to avoid unnecessary time at the store. You can still get milk, groceries, and dry cleaning delivered in most areas, and online shopping for other things works great if you’ve got any mail service at all.

4. Complete shopping efficiently. Little things add up. Plan the most efficient route to get your shopping done, pick up your pace, create a shopping chart, buy in bulk, and don’t try clothes on in the store. It’s often more trouble than it’s worth.

5. Run errands efficiently. Instead of trying to do it all on your day off, divide up your chores and do one or two every evening. If you can’t, try to consolidate your errands so you can get them done with the minimum of fuss, or take care of a particular errand whenever you happen to drive by on the way to somewhere else.

6. Function effectively as the social, child, and family coordinator. Be sure to plan time with your friends and extended family, and coordinate your social activities, because your significant other (especially if he’s a guy) might not.

7. Do routine chores on a regular basis. Be sure to keep up with all the boring tasks that keep your household humming along smoothly. For example, keep your house clean, mow the lawn, pay your bills, or do whatever your Post requires.

8. Conduct preventive maintenance on your home. It may not be required every day, but preventative maintenance will help keep your life together. Keep an eye on your kitchen, bathroom, bedroom, and laundry room especially, and make sure certain items get fixed or replaced regularly.

9. Prepare meals quickly and systematically. Take advantage of meal plans, cooking services, and school lunch programs to cut down on the time you have to spend in the kitchen.

10. Expect family members to do their fair share of the housework. To protect your sanity, it’s imperative to develop an understanding with your partner and kids about how you’ll divide household chores. Emphasize fairness and responsibility.

You may not be in the military, but you have your own well-defined Post and set of responsibilities, both inside and outside the home. So should everyone else in your family, right down to the youngest kid. If you and yours can’t do it all, don’t hesitate to hire people to help. Letting day-to-day tasks, chores, errands, and responsibilities overwhelm you is the first step on the path to the loony bin.

© 2008 Laura Stack.  Laura Stack is a personal productivity expert, professional speaker, and author who helps busy workers Leave the Office Earlier® with Maximum Results in Minimum Time™. She is the president of The Productivity Pro®, Inc., a time management training company in Denver, Colorado, that caters to high-stress industries. Laura’s newest productivity book, The Exhaustion Cure (Broadway Books), hits bookstores in May 2008.  Laura is a spokesperson for Microsoft, 3M, and Day-Timers®, Inc and has been featured on the CBS Early Show, CNN, and the New York Times. Her clients include Cisco, Sunoco, KPMG, Nationwide, and MolsonCoors.  Contact her at www.TheProductivityPro.com. 

Have you ever wanted to scream, "Stop the world, I want to get off!"? If you feel that way, maybe you should — because if you’re racing to nowhere, you definitely need to step back and take a look at your priorities. Without the why in your life, the how becomes harder and harder. The solution is to determine where you want to spend your time in support of your plans.

What are you committed to changing in your life? These tips can help you decide.

1. Spend enough time with the people who are dear to you. Never take your loved ones for granted, because they may not be here tomorrow. Make time for them when none exists, and treasure every minute.

2. Volunteer in a way that feeds your spirit and makes a lasting contribution. Volunteering shouldn’t feel like work; it can be hard, but it should still be enjoyable. If what you’re doing isn’t, try something else.

3. Eliminate time-zapping addictions from your life. Stop watching so much TV, surfing the ‘Net, and playing video games all the time, and you’ll wonder where the heck all that extra time came from.

4. Limit your children’s activities to manageable levels. If you’re rushing from ballet class to soccer practice to piano lessons and can’t get a breath in edgewise, something’s wrong. Don’t overschedule your children; let them be kids.

5. Make your health a top priority. If you aren’t in good health, you won’t be able to do much — and your ability to help others will decline. Keep up with doctor and dentist appointments, stay hydrated, and stop smoking.

6. Exercise consistently. As few as 15 minutes of exercise a day can greatly improve your health and quality of life. It’s a cheap way to stay healthy, and it’s easier than you think if you do things you love.

7. Enjoy the way you spend most of your day. You can’t expect to be ecstatic about everything you have to do, but you should enjoy the majority of your time. Otherwise, life can seem empty and hollow — and what’s the point of that?

8. Practice healthy eating habits. Poor eating habits not only make you fat, they steal your precious energy. How can you use the time you have if you can’t get off the couch?

9. Get enough sleep. Sleeping well isn’t a luxury: it’s a necessity. Sacrificing sleep for any reason is counterproductive.

10. Make time to feed your intellect and continue your learning. All humans share the need to learn and grow.  If you want your brain to continue to serve you into your old age, you must keep it active. Be curious. Wonder. Stretch. Grow.

Moving fast without clear priorities can take a heavy toll on your career, your family, and your health. Learn to tune out all the background noise in your life and focus on what matters most, and you’ll find that the how becomes easier. Stop worrying about the quantity of work you’re producing, and focus instead on the quality of time you spend on it — and on the people who matter to you the most.

Contrary to popular belief, productivity is not about speed — and achievement is not about money.

© 2008 Laura Stack.  Laura Stack is a personal productivity expert, professional speaker, and author who helps busy workers Leave the Office Earlier® with Maximum Results in Minimum Time™. She is the president of The Productivity Pro®, Inc., a time management training company in Denver, Colorado, that caters to high-stress industries. Laura’s newest productivity book, The Exhaustion Cure (Broadway Books), hits bookstores in May 2008.  Laura is a spokesperson for Microsoft, 3M, and Day-Timers®, Inc and has been featured on the CBS Early Show, CNN, and the New York Times. Her clients include Cisco, Sunoco, KPMG, Nationwide, and MolsonCoors.  Contact her at www.TheProductivityPro.com. 

How healthy are you? How good do you feel? How much energy do you have throughout the day to accomplish the things you want to? Recent studies have shown that we have the potential to dramatically affect productivity by paying closer attention to our health. In other words, when you feel good, you can accomplish more.  You can get on the road to healthier productivity by adopting these tips. 

1. Get adequate sleep each night, so you’re not sleepy during the day. Sacrificing sleep is actually counterproductive, so experiment until you find the amount of sleep that works best for you, and stick with it. Don’t nap during the day, either.

2. Get sufficient exercise. Getting 15-30 minutes of exercise every day is crucial to maintaining your energy level. The less active you are, the less energy you have.

3. Use all your allotted vacation time each year. Don’t put off vacation to make your boss happy; studies show it won’t make you more productive. You need long vacations every year so you can recharge your creative batteries.

4. Pamper yourself on a regular basis. It’s not selfish to treat yourself well, as long as you don’t overdo it. You need to be able to enjoy life in order to be productive at work, so learn how to "do nothing" effectively.

5. Maintain a noise level in your office that’s conducive to productivity. Noisy environments lead to higher stress, which leads to lower productivity. Do everything you can to cut down on the noise, from relocating your office to listening to music on special noise-reduction headphones.

6. Ensure your workspace is comfortable and ergonomically correct. You can’t be productive if your workplace is hurting you. Use ergonomic equipment, and learn techniques to avoid vision problems caused by too much computer use.

7. Practice healthy eating habits. Always eat breakfast, focus on healthy food alternatives, and never go more than six hours without eating. Poor eating habits can make you fuzzyheaded and less productive — and fat.

8. Take a lunch break every day. Consistently working through your lunch hour is not only bad for the employee, it’s bad for the employer. Always eat something at lunch so you can keep your blood sugar at the right level and stay clearheaded.

9. Drink the right amount of water each day. To avoid the negative effects of dehydration, you need to drink at least eight 8-ounce glasses of water a day — possibly more. Coffee doesn’t count, and neither do tea or sodas; in fact, they have diuretic effects that will rapidly dehydrate you.

10. Control your environment and rid yourself of things that bring you down. Surround yourself with happiness. Get rid of things that have negative memories attached to them, especially reminders of failed relationships.

Instead of over-eating, working too hard, not exercising enough, and skimping on your sleep, make personal choices that lead to increased productivity. Learn to rest, to laugh, to recreate, and treat your body right, or you’ll live to regret it. The choices you make today will affect how you feel tomorrow.

© 2008 Laura Stack.  Laura Stack is a personal productivity expert, professional speaker, and author who helps busy workers Leave the Office Earlier® with Maximum Results in Minimum Time™. She is the president of The Productivity Pro®, Inc., a time management training company in Denver, Colorado, that caters to high-stress industries. Laura’s newest productivity book, The Exhaustion Cure (Broadway Books), hits bookstores in May 2008.  Laura is a spokesperson for Microsoft, 3M, and Day-Timers®, Inc and has been featured on the CBS Early Show, CNN, and the New York Times. Her clients include Cisco, Sunoco, KPMG, Nationwide, and MolsonCoors.  Contact her at www.TheProductivityPro.com. 

I’m not a big believer in New Year’s resolutions.  Frustrated by bad habits like smoking, overeating, being disorganized, or not exercising, many of us vow to change and make a New Year’s resolution.  "This year, I’ll walk on my treadmill three times a week," we pledge, and by May, it’s gathering dust down in the basement.  Defeated, many people give up further attempts to change. 

Most of us don’t have a clue how to make a reasonable resolution, which is why most of us fail to keep the ones we make. We set high goals for ourselves, and then wonder why we never attain them. So we either stop setting goals (never a good choice), or make resolutions that are ridiculously easy to keep.

Making a decision to change just because it’s New Year’s Day isn’t enough to keep you motivated for * long. *  Lasting change means being prepared to make sacrifices.  Are you truly willing to make the effort to kick a bad habit and start a healthy one?  If so, you’ll need to develop a plan of action and make that plan a priority.

Here are a few tips to get you started:

1.     Conduct an "annual review" before the end of this month to determine the things that you meant to do, change, or accomplish by the end of 2007 that didn’t get done.  After you’ve completed the review, take a moment to pause, step back, and appreciate all the things you *have* accomplished in 2007, and my hope is that this will motivate you to aspire higher in 2008.

2.     Select a *few* (two or three) things that you’d like to change or accomplish in 2008. 

3.     Word your goals carefully.  Let’s say your resolution is to relax more in the coming year. Try not to think of it as "This year I am going to relax." That’s a stress-inducer waiting to happen! It forces you into thinking of the resolution as something you must do, not something you want to do. Try to make it sound a little gentler: "This year I’m going to explore different ways of relaxing." It also suggests more of a plan—you’ll fulfill the resolution by experimenting with relaxation techniques. The first resolution sounds as if you’re going to force yourself to relax by sheer willpower.

4.     Write your list and put "due dates" next to each.  Then break them down by the month that you will begin working on them.  If you wish to start an exercise program, plan what kind of exercise you will do, when, and how often.   

5.     Transfer your due dates to your daily plan or calendar, making that "appointment" with yourself just as important as one with another person.  Aren’t your needs just as, if not more, important than others?

6.     Create reminder cards you can post around the house, on your bathroom mirror, on your dashboard in your car, etc., to continually remind yourself about your goals.

Take small steps toward your goals, every day or week.  If you can do just a little bit to get going, soon you’ll feel the positive effects of the change.  And that little bit of change can lead to long-term healthy habits that last far beyond New Year’s Day.

Make it a productive day! ™

Ever want to buy healthy food at the supermarket, but you didn’t have time to look in your recipe books and can’t think of what to buy?  Get tired of writing the same basic items—eggs, bread, milk—on your list again and again?  Keep your kitchen well stocked by hanging a pre-printed shopping list on your fridge.  Print a stack of copies at the Self magazine site.  Stick one to your fridge each week and check off things as you run low on various items.  Then use the list to trigger your thoughts on buying healthy foods for lunches and dinners for the week.