It’s January. A New Year. Open to lots of possibilities.

I know you are as excited as I am about those possibilities and all that you are going to create this year. If your list is like mine or my clients, it’s lengthy. And you are excited about tackling all of it — right now. You want the rewards and the feeling of accomplishment. To do that you probably have lists of all the action steps and milestones for each goal. And you are ready to dive in.

Stop. Ask yourself what is standing in your way to accomplishing those goals in the time you want. I know we all sabotage ourselves with our mindset. I’m talking about more concrete, every day ways that stop us. Here are some examples. Checking Instagram about 10 times a day rather than sticking to your time block for your next design. Snacking on sugary treats when you get bored. Checking email every 15 minutes, or even more often. Not making time for self-care, including exercise, so you have energy when you need it. Can you imagine what you would accomplish if you didn’t have your smart phone sitting right next to your desk?

Have you thought about what you need to stop doing to actually accomplished those goals? I’ve listed a few examples above. I know that you’ve got others that are particular to your life and dreams.

Go back and look at your goals. For each one, look at what is non-negotiable for you to accomplish each goal. You may come up with one or more specifics. For example, if getting enough sleep is on your goals list, then your non-negotiable might be not staying up past 10 pm. If designing a new pattern each month is on your goals list, then your non-negotiable may be not looking at Instagram until after 6 pm and then limiting the time.

Put those non-negotiables on a “Don’t-Do list.” Post the list with your goals and where you can see it. The purpose of the Don’t-Do list is to not derail yourself while achieving your goals. It’s about setting boundaries to help you accomplish your goals.

You may notice that much of what you write down is just a habit. It’s a good time to go back and look at your habits and see if they are serving you or not. If they aren’t, then add them to your Don’t-Do list until you can eliminate them or replace them with habits that serve you.

What are you  putting on your Don’t-Do list? You are welcome to leave your suggestions below in the comment section of this blog.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, January 4th, 2017 at 10:15 am and is filed under Planning, Productivity, time management. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.