I’ve been a dad for one month! Noah is growing and it is fascinating to watch him learn new things.  It’s also been fascinating to watch me learn new things about life, success, and achievement.

1. Work in Bursts

Life has gotten very busy.  Ok, that might be an understatement.  With a schedule that is significantly fuller, that is no longer under my control, and that is fairly unpredictable, the importance of being able to productively work in bursts has increased.

Often breaks between helping with Noah are only 30 or 45 minutes, or even less.  Thankfully this is enough time to work in bursts.  You can get a lot done in a short period of time if you focus in for that time.

Perhaps you are not being interrupted by a baby you need to help with but you likely have many short periods of time throughout the day that you can turn into a burst period. When do you have a burst that you can focus in on?

2. Know Your Priorities

Having a baby has made it more clear how important it is to know your priorities.  You can’t do everything in life, so you have to make decisions about what you do and what you don’t do.  When something gets added to your life, you need to give up some thing else. Too often people keep adding and adding things to their lives until they are juggling more than they can handle.

Clearly caring for Noah has become my new top priority.  That means projects like my affiliate home business, this blog, and other activities need to be selectively neglected for periods of time.  My focus has to be on being a good father and a good husband, because those are my priorities. What are your priorities?

3. Don’t Feel Guilty

One of the biggest challenges for me has been the guilty feeling that comes with this kind of selective neglect of some of these activities.  When life gets busy, it is easy to focus on what you aren’t doing, even if they are lower level priorities.  I’ve had to learn to release these guilty feelings and just do what I can do.  You don’t need to feel guilty about neglecting things that are not priorities. Is there something you feel guilty about not doing, that really isn’t that important anyway?

4. Be Flexible

I’m not known as a flexible individual.   I have a plan and like to stick to it.  One of the biggest changes is that I have learned to be flexible.  Having a plan, but being flexible has many advantages.  It allows you to be consistently making decisions based on your priorities. This way you are doing the things that are most important in the moment, instead of something predetermined in advance.  You will need to learn to make decisions that truly reflect your long-term priorities, but if you are able to do so you will have a much more mission driven life.  Are you flexible and able to make moment by moment decisions based on your priorities?

5. Enjoy the small things

Life is filled with small things. The beautiful day that you get to spend with friends, the family vacation, the rainy day with nothing to do but sit inside and read a book.  Whatever the little things are in your life you need to enjoy them. With a newborn the list of little things grows immensely.  It’s watching my son wake up from a sleep and stretch his little body making himself as long as possible; it’s the many “firsts” that we get to witness; and it’s the ability to lie on the coach and write this article with him sleeping on my chest.  What are the small things in your life?

Hopefully some of these will help you also.  What other lessons have you learned from life changes such as having a child?

Written by:
Danny Gamache
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How do you start your day? Do you slowly get up, spend 30 minutes having a cup of coffee and reading or watching the news? Do you have days where you feel like you didn’t get much accomplished and where you wonder where the day went?

You can increase your effectiveness and create momentum for your day by starting with a Power Hour. A Power Hour is when you set aside the first hour in the morning to work – uninterrupted on important projects. Ideally the Power Hour takes place immediately when you wake up, but it could also take place immediately when you arrive at the office, or perhaps both!

There are many benefits of having a Power Hour:

• You start the day by accomplishing or making progress on an important project
• You feel good about your day right off the start
• You create momentum for the day that continues over into other activities
• You get done things you otherwise would not do.

As you try this you will quickly see how you can a lot done in an hour of uninterrupted time. This sort of progress towards your goals will accelerate your accomplishment, helping you achieve your goals in less time.

But what do you do with your time? There are many options, and what you do will depend greatly on your personal life goals.

Here are some tasks that I do in my Power Hour:

• Go through my business follow up list and plan which prospects to call
• Write a guest post for a blog
• Follow through on commitments you have made
• Send postcards or letters to business partners to celebrate their success
• Clear up my “to file” pile
• Do monthly planning
• Start a project you’ve been procrastinating on
• Make improvements to my websites
• Do something for my wife as a surprise.

It is naturally best to come into your Power Hour prepared and knowing what project you intend to work on. I plan my Power Hour as part of my weekly planning (during step #4). This way, as I enter my week I am sure of getting several important projects done that will help me achieve my goals.

In reality the list of possible tasks you can do during your power hour is nearly endless. Whatever you choose to do in your Power Hour there are some rules you should follow:

• Only do tasks that are important – not just urgent
• Only work on projects that move you towards your goals
• Allow no interruptions – this may mean training your family members or coworkers to leave you alone for the hour
• Do not check email, answer the phone or read blogs.
• Be consistent – do this every day.

Start this right away. You may be able to move around your morning schedule, or you may have to wake up a little earlier. Even if you need to get up an hour earlier – DO IT! The amount you will accomplish in your day will be impressive.

- The Success Professor

PS. To increase your income visit: http://dannyg.makemoreathome.com

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Effective planning and goal setting is important. Often we hear lessons about having long-term goals, and annual goals, but to keep on track and keep your business, and life, moving forward the goals and plans to achieve those goals must be broken down into weekly and daily bites. As the famous saying goes, the only way to eat an elephant is one bite at a time. By following these simple steps, you will get more completed, you will accomplish more of the right things, and you will reach more of your goals.

Step #1 – Define your life roles
In his book, First Things First Stephen Covey recommends dividing your life into the various roles you fill. For example, my roles including: my job as a college professor, my role as a blogger, and my work as an entrepreneur. I also have an important role as a husband, and another with my involvement in my faith community.

Beyond these sorts of roles, everyone should also include personal development goals. Covey recommends capping your number of roles at seven. These roles will change from time to time as your life changes, but they should cover the important aspects of your life.

Step #2 – Set goals for each of your life roles
Now that you’ve divided your life into a number of manageable roles it’s important to set goals for each goal. By setting important goals each week in each of your roles, you will be able to keep a better balance in your life. I recommend setting about 2-4 goals in each of your important roles. Now at certain times you will need to be in a period of focused imbalance for a few weeks, putting more efforts into one of the roles than the others, but over the long-term you should remember to always be setting goals in each of the life roles. The goals on this list should be based directly off of your long-term goals. In other words, you should be doing things each week that help you move towards your long-term goals. It is these activities that are your weekly goals.

Step #3 – Schedule all meetings and booked times
Each week you will likely have a number of appointments, meetings and scheduled events that you have to be at. These are things that you can’t avoid as you have to be at a certain place at a certain time. Schedule these into a day planner. I strongly recommend using a planner with a week at a time view. Each week I book in the classes I need to teach, any athletic events I’m participating in, and other meetings and obligations. You should still have plenty of blank space remaining for the rest of your tasks and other meetings that may pop up.

Step #4 – Schedule time for your most important projects
Using your goals list that you developed in step two, schedule the most important ones into the space left in your day planner. Be sure to allow time for goals in each role including those that are not directly professional goals. Allow for time with your spouse and children. Allow time to serve others and time to grow.

Step #5 – On a daily basis plan your next day
Each night before you go to bed, take 10 or 15 minutes with your weekly goals sheet and plan a daily to do list for the next day. Use your weekly goals to plan tasks to do the next day. Write this list in order of importance starting with the most important tasks to complete the next day. Add to this list any phone calls you need to make, emails you need to send or any other small things that may have come up throughout the day. By writing them down you won’t forget any important details. With a daily plan like this when you start each day you will have a list of priorities that correspond to your weekly goals.

Step #6 – Remember people are most important
One risk with any type of weekly or daily plan is that you can become so focused on the goals and schedule that you don’t have time for anyone who comes in your way. You may find yourself angry when you are interrupted by your child or spouse. While some uninterrupted time is important, it is also vital to remember that people are more important than things. Chances are that you are working so hard in order to provide for your family. Don’t neglect the opportunity to act with love towards them now. Use your schedule as a guide but don’t let it control you.

As you follow these steps, be sure to adjust them in anyway you need so that you can be most effective and most efficient at what you do. Set weekly goals, organize your daily tasks and work hard to achieve them. You will reach YOUR goals!

Danny Gamache
The Success Professor
Visit: http://dannyg.makemoreathome.com

Most people who have a home business do not have a business plan. Even the people who have a business plan often don’t have an active business plan. These people may have created a business plan when they started their business but likely haven’t looked at it for a long time.

An active business plan is a plan of attack that you can work from on a daily basis. To do this you need to have an overarching business plan. You should develop the overarching business plan and then review it AT LEAST once each year, perhaps two or three times a year.

From your overarching business plan you should be able to plan your week and from your weekly plan you should be able to plan daily.

This also clarifies your planning time. You should spend about one day twice per year focusing on updating your active business plan. This should be in a private location where you can think, reflect and not be interrupted. Then you can spend about one hour each week planning the upcoming week, and lastly spend about 10 minutes each day planning the following day. Keep focused on the activities you have planned in your overarching business plan.

This should keep you on track!

Danny