* What do you want to do and who do you want to be during your lifetime? * What legacy do you want to leave behind? How will your life have made a difference on this Earth?

NEXT, get clear about what you choose to do with your time. What are YOUR key roles?

* What do you choose to say YES to? What are you most passionate about? What are you best at doing? * What do you choose to say NO to? What are you not passionate about that you are currently involved in? Review your calendar and your regular activities, and ask yourself if what you give your time to is most important to you? * How can you best honor your own health and well-being (physical, mental, spiritual, social needs) * Does your life feel balanced among all of your key roles? (Example: parent, spouse, friend, volunteer, professional, hobbyist, etc.) THEN, lighten load. Free up your time for what matters most. * Make lists of following:

** Commitments you will renegotiate that are not important or are less important to you.

** Activities that simply don't need to get done - things you choose to let go of.

** A "Perhaps List" of things you might do or that you plan to do but choose to defer for later. For more information on a Perhaps list visit: http://www.orgcoach.net/perhaps.html

** A Delegation list. If you don't enjoy doing it or are not good at doing it, delegate as much as possible. Visit http://www.orgcoach.net/delegation.html for tips on delegation.

* Schedule time for following:

** Activities that will honor your own health and well-being.

** Activities which are important to you. Build in balance as you consider your key roles. Be aware of your self-talk. This is not about "have to" or "should." It's about what you choose.

** Time to do weekly planning. Keeping a weekly planning appointment with yourself will help you stay more focused on deeper YES so you can JUST SAY NO to rest! Visit http://www.orgcoach.net/sixsteps.html for more help on weekly planning.

** Time for family meetings. One common theme I hear from my clients is that they want to spend more time with family. Work, responsibilities, and over committed schedules seem to be biggest obstacle. The Family Meeting (an article you can view at http://www.orgcoach.net/familymeetings.html ) provides an important opportunity for communication and planning as a family.

JUST SAY YES! "The key is not to prioritize what's on your schedule, but to schedule your priorities." --Stephen Covey If you're still procrastinating around doing most important things you want or choose to do, here are ten tips to help get you moving:

1. How do you eat an elephant? One bite at a time! Break larger projects into manageable "bites" and create a reasonable timeline for you to accomplish these smaller tasks.

2. Remember that each project expands to time allotted to it, so set a limit for yourself: I am going to return all my phone calls in an hour. I will file papers for 30 minutes. I will spend 15 minutes picking up around house. Set a timer. You will be amazed how much you can get done when you focus your time. My clients report that they are much more efficient and effective when they set a time limit for specific tasks.

3. Check your self-talk. Do you frequently say, "I gotta…," "I should…," or "I have to…"? Replace this self-talk with "I choose to…" and recognize that you are at choice about what you do. If you don't choose to do it, don't do it!

4. Eat a live toad first thing in morning, and nothing worse will happen to you rest of day. Tackle that "toad" - important task you have been putting off, one that is hanging over your head -- because it will lift an immense load and you will feel much more productive.

5. Train yourself to trim F.A.T. http://www.orgcoach.net rimthefat.html. When papers come into your office or home, give yourself these three choices: File, Act, Toss. (Note that "I'll just put it here for now" is not one of choices.)

6. Relieve yourself of stress caused by all of clutter in your home and office by setting up some systems to manage paper in your life. A good filing system and a tickler file system are essential elements. A good system will make a huge difference in your ability to effectively manage paper and prevent important activities from slipping through cracks.

7. Make a weekly appointment with yourself to plan your coming week. During your planning session, schedule important activities and tasks so you have a concrete plan for following through with your intentions.

8. When planning your time, include both urgent (time-sensitive) and non-urgent but important activities in your plan. An example of an urgent activity might be a meeting or a project with an upcoming deadline. A non-urgent activity might be exercise or relationship-building - something important but not time-sensitive or deadline-driven.

9. Make appointments with yourself to get administrative work done, such as paying bills or catching up with your reading. Treat this time as you would an appointment with someone else.

10. Take 15 minutes at end of each day to put things away and look at calendar for next day. Gather what you need ahead of time so you will be prepared for tomorrow.

March 3-9 is National Procrastination Week. If you're ready to get unstuck and March Forth, I'd be delighted to assist you in process. Email me at mailto:orgcoach@gte.net to request your complimentary coaching session.

Not making a choice can be a dangerous choice. When we decide not to choose, we decide to give our personal power away. We give our power away either to a person or situation. Making a choice, even if it is only how we will respond to a situation, allows us to maintain our personal power.

Making choices, and being mindful of our choices, is important because it not only helps us maintain our personal power, but also to take responsibility for outcome. By taking responsibility, we remove ourselves from role of victim. Being a victim is a weak position to be in and removes choices we may otherwise have. To claim our personal power, we must make choices and accept responsibility for those choices.

Make a choice; even a poor choice is better than no choice at all.