Did you ever wish you had planned ahead for a difficult day? - photo by D. Hennessey

There has been days when I have woke up in the morning and wondered ‘Okay, what do I need to get done today?’ When I have this thought I know I am in trouble when it comes to my personal time management.

After many years testing and retesting time management systems that I have come across to help me achieve more effectively my daily goals I realized that I needed an ‘action list’ often called a ‘to do’ list BUT I recently realized I was reviewing my ‘to do list’ at the wrong time of day.

I had been reviewing my list first thing in the morning when I needed to review it briefly as one of the last things I did at night.

When I review my list as one of my last things at night (note: my to do list includes personal, family and work items) I can confirm they are definitely actions ‘to do’ and not actions ‘not to do’.

Then as I go to sleep I set my subconscious mind to work on the successful completion of the tasks the next day. This helps me have clear thoughts of motivation when I wake up. So I get out of bed with my priorities already established for a fulfilling day.

Yes, I do look at my list in the morning as I start to take action but I know it is what I want to do because I planned it the night before.

Note: If my ‘to do list’ is not inspiring enough to get me out of bed I definitely need to review the list and put priorities on their or the list is more of a ‘Not to do’ list.

Remember you can learn how to be time effective so you can do more of what you want to do by reducing the stress in your life. Request a copy of my FREE eWorkbook via the form on the right of this page and see if you are missing any of the 19 steps I share to help make your life more fulfilling and less overwhelming.

Your friend on the journey,

David

Inspiring Resolution Ring by Chrystal Shaw

As you may know I am all for nourishing our minds with positive healthy messages.

One friend of mine Chrystal had a wonderful idea and it is to create rings that hold a secret motivational message inside. So she went ahead and started making the custom rings as part of her hand made jewellery business and people are buying them.

This is one of the rings in the image above.

I recommend you stop by Chrystal’s site located at www.boutonrougedesigns.com and see what else she is up too.

The link to the above ring with more images of how it looks is located here

http://www.etsy.com/view_listing.php?listing_id=39322315 .

You can connect with her and she will design a ring to match your needs.

I like this idea, what do you think?

Best Wishes,

David

Playing with Stones for Fun and Focus - Photo By D. Hennessey

At the beach it is always fun to play with stones to see what I can do. In the fun (like what I was doing in the picture) I teach myself more focus and patience. I like mixing games with learning it makes the process less intense.

When I was a teen I used to think playing board games was just for children. Then I found out that some games really make you work on your strategy and help you develop lateral as well as linear thinking – all excellent mental tools to enhance your personal and professional problem solving skills.

Indeed, you can develop mental skills with video games but my personal preference is to be off the computer so I can play games in person with one or more friends around a table, if possible, outside in the fresh air.  It also helps gives my eyes a rest from the computer screen.

Scientifically speaking, games can help keep our minds strong as we grow older by keeping our brains active and they can also help our children learn to use their minds in a new way. So not only is there a learning bonus but a health bonus too. Here is one link to an article in the journal of Neurology about the powerful positive effect of board games.

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Below you will find a list of some of the games I have enjoyed over the years.

The links under the names are to wikipedia details.

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Rush Hour – a game of focus and problem solving that can help you enhance your ability (in my opinion) of how you look at problems using visual memory. This game is played alone.

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Chinese Checkers – a game for building strategic thinking skills where you have to make plans and keep in mind the actions of the person you are playing with.

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Mastermind – one of the older games that is also about using your mind to figure out patterns like in a code breaking exercise – you use your deducting reason in this game.

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Many card games like Skip Bo can be nourishing for the mind young and old as it help you work on strategy and counting skills. Finally, although I have little experience with cross word puzzles they are definitely away to work the brain. Soduku is also a great way to work the mind.

If you are interested in feedback other than mine or pricing on one of these games you can visit Amazon without obligation by clicking on one of the links below

Mastermind

Rush Hour Award Winning Game

Chinese Checkers

SKIP BO Card Game

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What games do you enjoy?

Cheers,

David