Use a Daily Tool

Now that you have broken your goals down into time periods. The gold is in the daily routine - Actioning this daily list.

Using a Daily tool helps your accountability and keeps you self-motivated and disciplined. The key to success here is choosing what works for you. But... Be open to changing or modifying this over a period of time as you grow, shift, change and evolve yourself.

For example, when the majority of my income was from one main income source having my daily 'to do' list written on my desk worked for me. However this year I decided to take on a part-time corporate development role and therefore recording my daily to do list 'in the cloud' works for me better in this new scenario.

What I have also developed is not only my business or work to do list but an electronic to do list of what I like to do for myself personally each morning. I usually achieve the majority of these points within the first hour or so of the day and for me, I feel a great sense of achievement immediately every day. It is important to note, that is what works for me because I am a morning person. If you're a night owl you will probably have a very different routine.

My morning personal daily routine is:

• Exercise
• Gratitude Journal
• Meditation
• Affirmations

Currently I'm using an online project management tool and one of my
projects is my personal To Do list and another is my Business To Do
list. Then of course, I have my actual projects listed but it is only in
the past month I have been using this type of tool to assist to stay
accountable for my daily routines and to dos and it has been a great
success. Therefore, why I was motivated to share this with others
through this training.

My business routine usually consists of:

• Checking for urgent emails or changes overnight
• Checking my to do list from the day before to make sure it is still relevant (no changes communicated by email or sales etc)
• Work on project/writing work in the morning when I'm fresh
• Connect or meet with people in the afternoons
• Review what was achieved for the day, update my daily to dos and project management lists a the end of the day.

This last point enables me to walk away from work and take a break. It prevents me from feeling: 'have I forgotten anything...' 'what do I need to remember to do the next day'.

Having the discipline of taking 15 - 30 minutes (depending on the day) at the end of each working day to review the day reduces my stress levels and increases my feelings of joy and relaxation away from work over the long term.

What daily routines work for you?