If you have ever missed an appointment, forgotten to pick kids up from soccer practice, or lost a sticky note with an important phone number on it, this is your year to get organized. There is no better time than now to recommit ourselves to bringing some order to chaos that is our modern lives.

Admitting that your memory is not as good as you think it is is first step down road that will eventually lead to a more organized, more productive you. Below is a discussion of a few of Do and Do Nots of personal organization - they are tried and tested, so do yourself a favor and trust me on Do Nots. Try all of Dos until you find best system that works for you, then stick with it.

Do NOT write things on your hands. This system may have worked well in high school when you had a relatively blank calendar of events to remember. However, in adult world you will lose a lot of respect if you have phone numbers tattooed all over back of your hand.

Do write it down. The best way to remember something is to write it down precisely so that you will not have to remember it. You can write that meeting time and place down on a blank calendar, record a phone number straight into your phone or rolodex, or keep a notebook where you record all of your assignments and tasks. The most important thing to remember when trying to get your life organized is to write it down!

Do NOT rely too heavily on sticky notes. Despite modern technological innovations that gave us mobile phones, hand-held computers, and high-speed internet, science has still failed to provide us with sticky notes that actually stick. Besides, they are too easily lost and tend to clutter up workspace. They are great for taking temporary notes from phone calls or quick conversations, but any important information should be transferred to your blank calendar or planner.

Do find a system that works for you. There are plenty of options out there for people looking for an organizational system to help them get control of their lives. Because I spend majority of my time in my office, I find that simply printing a blank calendar that I can keep close by works well. Others use traditional day planners or PDAs to keep track of appointments and to-do lists. Software is available that enables you to keep track of everything on your computer - something that is especially handy for students or professionals who have a lot to keep track of and who have to spend their time constantly on go. If you try one system and it does not seem to work for you, try another option until you find one that does.

If you are looking for proof of importance of goals, you need not look any farther than two pivotal studies on success and goal-setting, one completed by Yale University and other by Dr. Lewis Terman of Stanford University.

In first study, Yale University kept track of their graduates during a 20 year period and found that 3% who set goals were worth more financially than entire 97% of students who did not!

In second study, Dr. Terman of Stanford conducted a study of 1,528 students all with IQ's above genius level. His study found that intelligence had nothing to do with success and financial acumen but that goal-setting did!

So now we know that goal-setting is vitally important to our success, but how do we do it? I first recommend that you take a day or two (longer if needed) to spend some time meditating about your passions in life. Start to make a list. Some wise men recommend that you try to write down 100 goals for your life. Lou Holtz, tremendously successful football coach at Notre Dame and more recently at University of South Carolina, said that while still in his teens he wrote down over 100 goals for his life (one of which was to coach a college football team to a National Championship - which he did). A few years ago at about age of 60, Coach Holtz had achieved every single goal he had written down. So he had to write another 100 goals and I'm sure he'll get those before long too!

I recommend that you try to write 100, write them out and break them out into long-term, mid-term, and short-term goals. You can write your own definition of time periods involved, but I would recommend that short-term is up to 5 years from now, mid-term is 5 to 15 years from now, and long-term is 15+ years.