“The secret to breaking a bad habit is to replace it with a good habit that lines up with your goals.”

You may be familiar with the following quote: “If you keep on doing what you've always done, you'll keep getting what you've always gotten.” I disagree with this statement. I believe that if you continue to do the same things, you will end up with less than what you originally had.

For example, if your customers look for businesses using the Internet and you continue to run ads in the yellow pages, you will have fewer customers as a result of doing what you have always done. Or, if instead of making those cold calls, you continued the habit of randomly surfing the Internet, you would end up with less money in the bank.

This is why successful people have systems in place to track what they are doing and how they spend their time. I define a bad habit as anything that you do repeatedly that does not support your goals. Time that is spent on such activities is wasted time. You are where you are today based on your daily habits. Where you end up five years from now will be determined by your habits.

As you read on, you will discover how to use a simple tool to keep you trending towards your goals.

The Twiggs Time Tracker will allow you to track how you are spending your time each day. Here is how it works. First, use a document like the one above to account for each hour of your day. At the end of each hour, take a few minutes to reflect on how you spent your time. If you spent the hour wisely, there is no need to write anything.

If you feel that you wasted time, write the specific time wasting activity next to the hour. For example, if at 11:00 am you wasted time surfing the Internet, you would write "Surfing the Internet" next to 11:00 am. By doing this, you will start to notice patterns.

At the end of the week review each of the activities that you wrote down. Your awareness of how you spend your time will increase and so will your productivity. You can create this tracking document with pen and paper or you can e-mail me and I can send you an electronic copy.

Sincerely,
Eric M. Twiggs
Your Procrastination Prevention Partner

PS. For additional information on making the most of your time, download my latest ebook, One Moment in Time.