Goal Setting Success Guide - How To Use A "To Do" List

Look over your to do list.

Do you believe that you can do it?

If you have doubts, take some time to think things through first.

• Are your expectations realistic?
• Have you succeeded or failed at tasks that were similar to this before?
• What can you do to improve your chances of success this time around?
• Are you a professional procrastinator?
• If so, what can you do to make sure that you will keep going until you reach your goal?
• Are you afraid of failing?

If so, work at improving the skills you will need. Or test the waters by taking an evening or distance education course before you sign up for a whole program.
If you are having trouble identifying your fears or figuring out how to deal with them, talk to people you trust. Ask for their suggestions, but always make your own decisions.
Put your plan into action from your to do list.
By this stage, you probably have more than one to do list. Now you need to put them all together into one comprehensive plan.
You must list tasks in the order in which you must complete them and set deadlines for the completion of any major plans.
Successful career planners keep themselves on track using a variety of methods, such as:

• marking tasks on a monthly calendar (noting important dates such as application deadlines or action plans)
• making a weekly or daily to do list and crossing off tasks as they are completed
• using a computer program to create timeline charts which give you your time limits for task completion
• using a commercial appointment book or a notebook

Use whatever methods work best for you. If it is absolutely necessary, ask a friend to check on your progress occasionally or question you on your successes.
You are more likely to get things done if you know you'll be asked about it.

Goal Setting Success Guide - Career Plan: Start Backwards!

A career plan often starts by planning backwards!
You look at where you want to end up with your career plan and then progressively backtrack, identifying each step which precedes the one under consideration.

Start by asking yourself if you can accomplish your goal today. If you can’t why do you think that is? What do you have to do first? Is there something you have to do before that?

Keep thinking backwards like this until you arrive at tasks you could do today. This will help you to attain the goal’s starting point and create the first step in your career plan.

For example, if your goal is to take a two-year business administration program, could you start today?

No, you have to be accepted to the program first. Could you be accepted today?

No, you have to apply first. Could you apply today?

No, you have to decide which post-secondary institutions to apply to. Could you decide today?

No, you have to do some research first and so on.

Four strategies can help you to develop an effective career plan.

• State your goal in very specific terms that you can accept
• Plan backwards from your goal for the best results
• Confront your fears and expectations immediately and progressively
• Put your plan on paper and into action as soon as possible

Planning a career move is much like mapping your route for a road trip.

If you don't know where you are going, you can't decide how to get there, but if you do know where you are going, you’ll get there faster.

Goals like “Go back to school” are too general and not specific enough.

You have to translate these goals into specific statements such as "Enter a college accounting program by next fall" or "For the next two months, search for work in the computer securities field.”

You have to know exactly what you want to do and when to go about it. So start backwards and formulate your career plan!

Goal Setting Success Guide - Career Goals: How To Set Them

Before creating career goals, draft a simple outline of the factors you may want to consider and identify when setting and analyzing your career goals in a step by step format.

Journalists have to answer all of these questions in order to get the full story. That is the same thing that you have to when setting career goals.

The Questions:

• Who
• What
• Where
• When
• How

Who will I ask for help? What do I want the outcome to be? Where should I start? When should I begin? How should I begin?

Who will benefit from my career goal? What will I do to get started? Where will my career goal put me in 10 years? When Do I want these goals to be reached? How will these goals affect my future?

Who will I work with to accomplish my goal? What will really make me happy? Where will I apply my resources? When will I apply my knowledge to begin attaining my goals? How do I really feel about the goals that I have chosen?

All of these questions have to be directed before you can begin to work on your career goals.

They will take some real thought and honesty to set them properly. When you have answered these questions you next have to begin to prioritize them.

Lets take a look at an example.

John Smith wants to be the President of his company one day. Right now he is a mere data entry clerk. His company is a large corporation that works with computer repairs and security. John knows everything there is to know about computer repairs and can fix almost any computer he will ever look at.

He is efficient at using and finding hackers and securing computers are not hacked into. His boss is currently ignoring his advice so John is not so sure how to go about getting his dream of being president of the company someday which he is more than capable of doing already. What should he do?

This is a time when John should begin to prioritize and decide how he can get to his goal.

When you see that your company needs help on something work in secret and bring in a finished product at the right time or schedule private meetings with your boss.

This shows that you are motivated and determined. You must take the steps in succession and not try to become a president in 1 year. That is unrealistic.

Although John will want to begin working for his long term goal he should also begin by setting short term goals that will lead him there.

The first goal can start with moving up one position at work and continue on in this method. That way he can celebrate each promotion and advancement separately and get satisfaction from the step by step progress he is making.

Just remember that you have to develop an action plan if you are going to succeed in achieving career goals.

Setting Realistic Career Goals

When it comes to planning your future, "realistic" can mean many things. Essentially, setting realistic goals means selecting ones that you can actually achieve. We only have so much time, energy, interest and aptitude for developing our career paths, and if you haven't set realistic targets for yourself, you may feel discouraged. In order to keep your career vision realistic, consider the following questions:

• Do you have the time to commit to the goals you've set for yourself?
• Do you have the needed education or skill sets? If not, will you be able to learn these skills?
• Do you have the resources available to meet your objectives?
• Do the items on your list suit you as a person -- your personality and interests?
• Do they fit the lifestyle you have or hope to have?
• Do your goals complement one another? In other words, does achieving one goal conflict with your attempts to achieve another?
• Is the market for your chosen career limited?
• Are your ambitions achievable in the time frame you've set?

Another way to make sure your plans stay realistic is to share your ideas with trusted friends and family members. Ask for an honest assessment of your aspirations from the people who know you well. While it's true that you know yourself better than anyone, it's also helpful to have an outside perspective on such an important decision.

Don't ignore your strengths and weaknesses -- realistic self-assessment is important. Mapping a career path is both an exercise in self praise ("I am fantastic at math!"), and an exercise in humility ("I'm not a very good singer"). You can always learn and develop the skills needed for almost any job, but you shouldn't ignore your natural talents since those are, after all, what you do best.

You can start this planning process at any time. Whether you're a high school student trying to figure out whether or not to go to college, a recent college graduate looking to land your first job, a professional seeking to advance in an existing career or a person who wants to change careers, it's never too soon (or too late) to start planning. To find out more about goal-setting and career planning, the links on the next page will point you in the right direction.

Short-term Career Goals

Now that you've thought about where you want to be a few years down the line, it's time to shorten the scope and think about the things you should be doing now in order to achieve those long-term plans. These intermediate steps are your short-term goals, or things that can be achieved in a short period of time.

Just as you did with your long-term ambitions, you'll want to consider both conceptual and operational short-term aims. When deciding on conceptual short-term objectives, think about things you need and want that can be achieved in five years or fewer.

Ask yourself questions like these:

• What skills do I need to have in order to achieve my long-term aspirations?
• What knowledge do I need?
• What industry should I focus my attention on?

Some examples of short-term conceptual goals include gaining more responsibility in a current position, furthering your education to make you more qualified for a position you want or even finding a source ofmoney to pay for school. Remember, your short-term targets should support your long-term objectives, so you should constantly compare them to make sure they line up.

The last piece of this planning process is developing your short-term operational targets, which are the specific things that you can do in a short period of time that help you achieve not only your short term conceptual ambitions, but all of your long-term objectives as well. These types of goals might include applying to five different publishing companies for an entry-level position, taking a computer class to learn how to design a Web site or asking for an opportunity to lead a project at work. Your short-term operational plan includes the small steps you'll focus on day to day. It'll act as a benchmark for measuring your progress, help you to stay motivated as you accomplish it and go a long way toward helping you achieve your long-term career vision.

We've talked about the planning process -- what to think about first and what to focus on now -- but when it comes to actually naming your goals, how do you make sure they're realistic and that they work for you? On the next page we'll look at a few of the ways you can make sure your career objectives are realistic and, most importantly, achievable.

Long-term Career Goals

As we just mentioned, creating objectives for your career involves working in reverse -- deciding where you want to go and then working backward to figure out the steps that will get you there. Why? To put it simply, it's hard to map a route without first knowing the destination.

To do this, start with your long-term goals, or things you hope to accomplish in the distant future -- say, in five years or more. Then, break these down into two parts: conceptual and operational. Remember, conceptual goals are broad and focus on your wants and needs, and operational ones are the steps you take to meet those wants and needs.

First, think about your long-term conceptual ambitions.

Ask yourself the following questions:

• What do I enjoy doing?
• What am I good at?
• What characteristics of a job are important to me?

Use the answers to these questions to help develop your conceptual targets, which may look something like this:

• I want to work from home to be closer to my kids.
• I want a job in a creative profession.
• I want to own my own business.

Once you have an idea of what type of things you like, want and are good at, use those as a starting point for thinking about long-term operational plans. Consider specifics about what types of jobs or roles would help you to achieve your conceptual targets. For example, if one of your conceptual goals is to work in a creative profession, an operational aim might be to become a graphic designer for an advertising company.

If you're already in a profession and are looking to advance your career, think about what specific position you would like to have. If you're a recent graduate looking for your first job, you might want to research jobs that support your long-term conceptual aspirations.

Let's say you're a recent college graduate and your long-term operational objective is to become the CEO of a Fortune 500 company. A career accomplishment like that takes many years and many intermediate steps along the way. That's why, in addition to having a long-term vision, it's important to think about the short term, as well. In the next section, we'll look at how short-term steps act as a ladder to reach your long-term aims.

How to Set Career Goals

For a few very fortunate people, finding the right career is a matter of luck. But for the rest of us who don't wake up one day to our dream jobs, getting into the right career takes a little bit of planning. A major part of that planning involves establishing -- and working to achieve -- your career goals.

Did you know that average employed Americans spend more than half of their waking hours each day working [source:Bureau of Labor Statistics]? This means that your career is likely to be a huge part of your life, let alone your time. Also, studies show that having obtainable objectives can lead to increased job satisfaction, better self-esteem and improved overall well-being [source:Helms]. With these facts in mind, devoting some time to planning your career path makes sense.

So what are career goals and why are they important? Career goals are simply the things you want to achieve in your career -- where you want to end up and how you want to get there. Objectives can be broad, such as, "I want to have a job I look forward to every day," or they can be specific, such as, "I want to teach eleventh-grade world history." But whether ambitions are specific or broad, certain or uncertain, identifying them is an important step in career planning.

In many ways, setting career goals is like consulting a map before a trip. Without a map, there's a good chance you'll get lost or spend a lot of time wandering about aimlessly. If your career is a destination, your goals are the map.

Remember how we just talked about broad and specific goals? The broad goals -- the ones that deal with your ambitions, interests, preferences, values and aptitudes -- are called conceptual goals. On the other hand, operational goals are the specific jobs and tasks you set for yourself -- the steps you'll take to achieve your conceptual goals [source: Greenhaus]. Think of conceptual goals as the destination and operational aims as the journey, and it's important to have both.

So where do you start? In most cases, setting career goals is an exercise in backward planning. Begin with where you want to go, and then work backward to where you are. In this article, we'll walk through the backward planning process of identifying your career aspirations and look at some ways to make sure you're constructing realistic targets for yourself.

How to Set Career Goals

Instructions

1. • 1
     Take inventory of your strengths and weaknesses. Personal strengths often flow from the attainment of earlier goals in life and indicate areas where a professional may easily succeed. Weaknesses provide insight as to which goals you've struggled to attain along with an indication of which goals may help overcome previous limitations.
   • 2
     Determine an overall goal. This typically takes the form of the question: "Where would I like to be in X number of years?" where "X" represents the desired length of the major goal. Consider financial improvement, family and personal development as well as other interests when setting this first goal.
   • 3
     Evaluate the actions needed to reach the overall goal in the specified period of time. Consider which of these pertain to your strengths and which may provide difficulty due to personal weaknesses. Decide which difficult goals require assistance to overcome, and where or how to find that assistance.
   • 4
     Create career goals to measure the progress of the overall goal. Each of these provides a milestone on the path to the overall goal as well as a sense of accomplishment upon attainment.
   • 5
     Write down the overall goal and the milestones. Provide specific details on each including the definition of the goal, how it pertains to career advancement and difficulties to overcome. Career goals gain much greater weight when written.

Achieving Goals

When you've achieved a goal, take the time to enjoy the satisfaction of having done so.  Absorb the implications of the goal achievement, and observe the progress that you've made towards other goals.

If the goal was a significant one, reward yourself appropriately.  All of this helps you build the self-confidence you deserve.

With the experience of having achieved this goal, review the rest of your goal plans:

• If you achieved the goal too easily, make your next goal harder.
• If the goals took a dispiriting length of time to achieve, make the next goal a little easier.
• If you learned something that would lead you to change other goals, do so.
• If you noticed a deficit in your skills despite achieving the goal, decide whether to set goals to fix this.

Feed lessons learned back into your goals setting.  Remember too that your goals will change as time goes on.  Adjust them regularly to reflect growth in your knowledge and experience, and if goals do not hold any attention any longer, consider letting them go.

Further Goal Setting Tips

The following broad guidelines will help you set effective, achievable goals:

• State each goal as a positive statement - Express your goals positively - "Execute this technique well" is a much better goal than "Don't make this stupid mistake."
• Be precise:  Set precise goals, putting in dates, times and amounts so that you can measure achievement.  If you do this, you'll know exactly when you have achieved the goal, and can take complete satisfaction from having achieved it.
• Set priorities - When you have several goals, give each a priority.  This helps you to avoid feeling overwhelmed by having too many goals, and helps to direct your attention to the most important ones.
• Write goals down - This crystallizes them and gives them force.
• Keep operational goals small - Keep the low-level goals that you're working towards small and achievable.  If a goal is too large, then it can seem that you are not making progress towards it.  Keeping goals small and incremental gives more opportunities for reward.
• Set performance goals, not outcome goals - You should take care to set goals over which you have as much control as possible.  It can be quite dispiriting to fail to achieve a personal goals for reasons beyond your control.

         In business, these reasons could be bad business environments or unexpected effects of government       policy.  In sport, they could include poor judging, bad weather, injury, or just plain bad luck.

         If you base your goals on personal performance, then you can keep control over the achievement of your goals, and draw satisfaction from them.

• Set realistic goals - It's important to set goals that you can achieve.  All sorts of people (for example, employers, parents, media, or society) can set unrealistic goals for you.  They will often do this in ignorance of your own desires and ambitions.

         It's also possible to set goals that are too difficult because you might not appreciate either the obstacles in the way, or understand quite how much skill you need to develop to achieve a particular level of performance.

SMART Goals

A useful way of making goals more powerful is to use the SMART mnemonic.  While there are plenty of variants (some of which we've included in parenthesis), SMART usually stands for:

• S - Specific (or Significant)
• M - Measurable (or Meaningful)
• A - Attainable (or Action-Oriented)
• R - Relevant (or Rewarding)
• T - Time-Bound (or Trackable)

For example, instead of having "To sail around the world" as a goal, it's more powerful to say "To have completed my trip around the world by December 31, 2015."  Obviously, this will only be attainable if a lot of preparation has been completed beforehand!

Staying on Course

Once you've decided on your first set of goals, keep the process going by reviewing and updating your To-Do List on a daily basis.

Periodically review the longer term plans, and modify them to reflect your changing priorities and experience.  (A good way of doing this is to schedule regular, repeating reviews using a computer-based diary.)

Step 2: Setting Smaller Goals

Once you have set your lifetime goals, set a five-year plan of smaller goals that you need to complete if you are to reach your lifetime plan.

Then create a one-year plan, six-month plan, and a one-month plan of progressively smaller goals that you should reach to achieve your lifetime goals.  Each of these should be based on the previous plan.

Then create a daily To-Do List of things that you should do today to work towards your lifetime goals.

At an early stage, your smaller goals might be to read books and gather information on the achievement of your higher level goals.  This will help you to improve the quality and realism of your goal setting.

Finally, review your plans, and make sure that they fit the way in which you want to live your life.

Step 1: Setting Lifetime Goals

The first step in setting personal goals is to consider what you want to achieve in your lifetime (or at least, by a significant and distant age in the future).  Setting lifetime goals gives you the overall perspective that shapes all other aspects of your decision making.

To give a broad, balanced coverage of all important areas in your life, try to set goals in some of the following categories (or in other categories of your own, where these are important to you):

• Career - What level do you want to reach in your career, or what do you want to achieve.
• Financial - How much do you want to earn, by what stage?  How is this related to your career goals?
• Education - Is there any knowledge you want to acquire in particular?  What information and skills will you need to have in order to achieve other goals?
• Family - Do you want to be a parent?  If so, how are you going to be a good parent?  How do you want to be seen by a partner or by members of your extended family?
• Artistic - Do you want to achieve any artistic goals?
• Attitude - Is any part of your mindset holding you back?  Is there any part of the way that you behave that upsets you?  (If so, set a goal to improve your behavior or find a solution to the problem.)
• Physical - Are there any athletic goals that you want to achieve, or do you want good health deep into old age?  What steps are you going to take to achieve this?
• Pleasure - How do you want to enjoy yourself?  (Yes, you should ensure that some of your life is for you!)
• Public service - Do you want to make the world a better place?  If so, how?

Spend some time brainstorming these things, and then select one or more goals in each category that best reflect what you want to do.  Then consider trimming again so that you have a small number of really significant goals that you can focus on.

As you do this, make sure that the goals that you have set are ones that you genuinely want to achieve, not ones that your family, or employers might want.  (If you have a partner, you probably want to consider what he or she wants however, make sure that you also remain true to yourself!)

Starting to Set Personal Goals

You set your goals on a number of levels:

• First you create your "big picture" of what you want to do with your life (or over, say, the next 10 years), and identify the large-scale goals that you want to achieve.
• Then, you break these down into the smaller and smaller targets that you must hit to reach your lifetime goals.
• Finally, once you have your plan, you start working on it to achieve those goals.

This is why we start the process of goal setting by looking at your lifetime goals.  Then, we work down to the things that you cant do in, say, the next five years, then next year, next month, next week, and today, to start moving towards them.

Why Set Goals

Goal setting is used by top-level athletes, successful business-people and achievers in all fields.  Setting goals gives you long-term vision and short-term motivation.  It focuses your acquisition of knowledge, and helps you to organize your time and your resources so that you can make the very most of your life.

By setting sharp, clearly defined goals, you can measure and take pride in the achievement of those goals, and you'll see forward progress in what previously have seemed a long pointless grind.  You'll also raise you self-confidence, as you recognize your own ability and competence in achieving the goals that you've set.

Planning to Live Your Life Your Way

Many people feel as if they're adrift in the world.  They work hard, but they don't seem to get anywhere worthwhile.

A key reason that they feel this way is that they haven't spent enough time thinking about what they want from life, and haven't set themselves formal goals.  After all, would you set out on a major journey with no real idea of your destination?  Probably not.

Goal setting is a powerful process for thinking about your ideal future, and for motivating yourself to turn your vision of this future into reality.

The process of setting goals helps you choose where you want to go in life.  By knowing precisely what you want to achieve, you know where you have to concentrate your efforts.  You'll also quickly spot the distractions that can, so easily, lead you astray.

Emotional Ways To Improve My Life

Emotionally I could use a lot of work...but who couldn't...I hope to take great strides in the emotional department.  Here's the list:

1. Awareness:  The first step to manage your emotions is to know your mood.
2. Control:  Knowing your mood means you are able to decide the best moment to get things done to avoid outburst of anger and resentment.
3. Positive emotions:  Think of happy thoughts and be cheerful and replace negative emotions quickly.
4. React to negative events:  React positively to events beyond your control.  Think of solutions instead of dwelling on the problems.
5. Live with the inevitable:  Don't fight with things that cannot be changed.  Accept and move on in life.

Intellectual Ways To Improve My Life

I love this category.  I am a knowledge junkie!  I love learning about everything possible.  Why I can't apply that to college, I have no idea.  But I am determined to change that in my proactive way.  Here I go!!

1. Reading:  Read to enrich your life and stimulate your mind.
2. Writing:  Express your thoughts, share your insight with others.
3. Connect:  Networking with like-minded people and learn different ideas from them.
4. Continuous learning:  Update yourself with new knowledge.  Accustom yourself to the latest developments.  Learn new ways of doing things.
5. Create:  Think, imagine, conceive and create new ideas.  Be unique and original in getting things done.

Spiritual Ways To Improve My Life

Spiritual is an area that I could use fast improvement on.  Here are some ways I can do that:

1. Meditation:  Do yoga to improve your mood and sense of well-being.  Practice Tai Chi to gain peace of mind and concentration.
2. Moral values:  Live with a clear conscience by doing what is right and ethical.
3. Giving:  Be generous and ready to serve.  Share what you know and what you have.
4. Contentment:  Be happy with what you have and avoid greed.  Don't allow your calm mind to be disturbed by wanting more in life.
5. The law of "karma":  According to Deepak Chopra in his book, the Seven Spiritual Laws of Success; he mentions that every action generates a force of energy that returns to us in like kind...what we sow what we reap.  And when we choose actions that bring happiness and success to others, the fruit of our karma is happiness and success.

Mental Ways to Improve My Life

Here is the list of Mental ways to improve my life.  With having mental illnesses this is a big one for me and it does even begin to cover that...but I will I'm sure in another category or when I break them down into smaller baby steps.  Here they are:

1. PMA:  You look at problems in life in a positive light when you possess a positive mental attitude.  You think you can overcome it and your see success.
2. Uncluttered:  Be in a cool, calm and collected mind daily to get things done.
3. Exercise the brain:  Read wisely, do puzzles, learn a new language and do daily physical exercise are all good ways to promote your concentration and memory.
4. Mindful:  Promote the ability to focus on the task at hand and not easily distracted by outside disturbances.
5. Great patience and courage:  Be resilient in the fact of defeat.  Bounce back from each setback.

Physical Ways to Improve my Life

Here are some physical ways I can improve my life.

1. Move:  Life is about movement.  The more and vigorously you move your body the better it will be. Don't be a couch-potato, exercise your body every day for a lively existence.
2. Rest:  Taking breaks so that you can go further in life.  You just cannot work continuously without exhaustion.  The sensible thing to do is to rest especially between tasks.
3. Relax:  This is to unwind the tensed body after a hard day's work.  Your body cannot be under tension at all time, it will break.  Learn to relax.  You can listen to music, play your favorite musical instrument or do yoga or Tai Chi.
4. Sleep:  A good night's sleep is to restore and regain your energy and repair damages done to your body during the day.
5. Eat:  The most important thing is to eat your breakfast.  After fasting for about eight hours your need nutrition to provide you with energy to start a new day.  Eat at regular intervals to train your body to expect food and burn calories.  Eat less at each meal but more often.  Avoid junk food especially the three whites (white bread, white sugar, and white rice).  Drink a lot of water and consume more fruits and vegetables.

5 Areas to Improve Your Life

This page I got from http://www.allaboutlivingwithlife.com/2010/05/5-areas-25-points-to-improve-your-life.html seems like a good place to start.  My ultimate goal is to take these and a few other key areas and break them down into baby steps which are easy to accomplish.  These are the 5 areas to improve my life

1. Physical
2. Mental
3. Spiritual
4. Intellectual
5. Emotional

Flying isn't just about cleaning your house!

There is so much more to FLYing than just cleaning.  It's an acronym for Finally Loving Yourself.  With the divorce and all it's given me a lot of time to think, when the kids and Erek aren't around.  I've come to the conclusion that I do NOT like where my life is right now.  So I started researching areas I can improve on.  Throughout this blog, not only will you see cleaning/FLYing updates but also a lifelong journey on how to improve myself and my life.  Not only for me, but for my children as well...I do not like where my life is right now.  And with reading my book 'The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People' I choose to be proactive in this journey.  I am not going to just sit back and wait for things to happen to me.  I am going to make those changes for myself!  Look at me go, and I'm only to habit 1 in the book.  My next post will be about areas of my life I can work on improving to start this journey!

Entryway To Do List

1. Declutter closet shelf
2. Organize closet shelf
3. Organize jackets
4. Declutter closet floor
5. Sweep closet floor
6. Mop closet floor
7. Organize closet floor
8. Clean cobwebs
9. Clean walls
10. Clean trim
11. Clean door
12. Shake out rug
13. Sweep
14. Clean baseboards
15. Mop
16. Clean light fixture

Day 1 of the new blog

So I've had a busy few days, okay week, mentally, and it was totally draining me.  I've come to a decision regarding the issue that had me down for a week.  So I've been reading 'The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People' and it's really opened my eyes.  Basically it states to be proactive instead of reactive.  I have decided that there are 3 things today that I can be proactive about and those things are taking care of myself, my home, and the laundry.  I've done good today as far as myself is concerned.  I have taken my meds, eaten, showered, and dressed and done all of those daily hygiene needs.  There is still two things I could do that would improve myself today.  Those are to do some exercise and drink more water.  The next two things I need to do are the house and the laundry.  I'm so far behind in the house work and the laundry.  I know FLYlady's motto is you are never behind but I feel like I am.  So I chose from this moment forward to be proactive about the house and the laundry.  I live in the FLYlady chatroom and we work at TOTH (:00) and BOTH (:30) to bless our homes for 15 minutes.  In 2 mins I will go fold a load of laundry, put it away and start some more.  I will have a list for the next area I'd like to tackle next.  Here I go!