Keep an Eye onYour Physical Health

• Monitorhow much sleep you currently get, and then increase your sleep time inhalf-hour increments. Studies show that getting the same amount of sleepevery night is healthier for your body than trying to run on five hours anight during the week and then sleeping 10 hours on the weekends to catchup.
• Choosebedtime reading materials carefully. Try reading only fiction or poetrybefore sleep; nonfiction, self-help, business books, and the newspapertend to rile you up rather then settle your brain.
• Discovera form of exercise you love. Try Pilates, yoga, aerobics classes, biking,rowing, softball–anything that you enjoy and that takes your mind off thetorture of exercise! Start small and don’t be overly ambitious. Exercisingthree times a week is just fine.
• Listento business tapes while on the treadmill or out for a walk. Combining thetwo can make you feel that your exercise time is for your work, not a break from it.
• Buy apedometer–and walk everywhere instead of taking the elevator or the car.Keeping track of how many miles you trek a week, month or year canmotivate you to keep on truckin’.
• Take amultivitamin. You’ll be surprised what a difference it makes. Replace yourafternoon energy booster with something more organic than sugar orcaffeine–an energy bar, juice, jumping jacks, a walk in the fresh air.
• Establisha personal relationship with each of the doctors on your core team. Knoweach of their receptionists–those personal connections are key to swiftappointments. Aim for morning visits–doctors fall behind later in the day–soyou can get in and out fast. Try to bunch all of your annual checkups atthe same time of year–autumn and springtime usually present the fewestscheduling problems.

Articulate YourPersonal Vision

Combat Procrastination

• Break down overwhelming projects into smaller tasks. Breakdown large, intimidating tasks into a series of half-hour to one-hoursteps. Each day you have some time to work on your project, tackle onestep at a time for a sense of true accomplishment.
• Start in the middle. If it’s hard to get started on a project,try jumping to the second or third step to ease into the water. Forexample, when writing an e-mail letter to customers, the opening paragraphmay be the most difficult to craft. If you’re stuck, try jumping to thebody of the proposal, outlining the bullets you want to cover first. Getthat out of the way, and the introduction may come easier.
• Focus on the payoff. By taking your eye off the particulartask and focusing on the happiness and success you’ll gain fromcompletion, you can often keep yourself moving forward. For example, whenwriting a proposal, think about the benefits to your business that mightarise from your well-crafted proposition.
• Set time limits on difficult tasks. Setting aside either toomuch time–or not enough time–can make you procrastinate. If you aresetting aside an hour to do expense reports, minimize the torture byshrinking it down to 30 minutes and get as far as you can. Trying to plana meeting in 30 minutes and can’t get started? Try giving yourself an hourand see if that does the trick.

Make Use of YourTravel Time

Focus on the Joysof Completion