Latest in achieving goals

Why I Wake Up Early (And 9 Reasons You Should Do So Too)

This is part of the Early Riser Series. Be sure to check out the other articles:

Waking up early

My life as a late riser

In the past, I was consistently a late riser. In 17 Tips to Be On Time, I mentioned one of the reasons that led me to be late last time was oversleeping. The only times I ever woke up early were when I absolutely have to: for school, appointments, work. Even then, I’d wake at the very last minute, scamper around the whole house to get ready, rush out in disarray, have to resort to taking a cab to cut down commuting time and barely make it in time. Mostly I would be 5~10 minutes late, to over 30 minutes or even an hour. On a work day, my sleeping hours would be about 2~9am (my previous workplace had flexible working hours). During the weekend, the waking hours would hover between 12pm to 2pm.

I never once thought of cultivating waking up early as a habit. Why should I wake up early for? I never understood why people would even want to…


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Published Aug 14 2009
Filed: About Celes, Cultivate Habits, Productivity & GTD
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Goal Achievement: Review

This is the last part of a 7-part series on what it takes to successfully achieve goals.


© Photos8.com

Review is the final step of ESPER.

Importance of Review

Review serves two important objectives: (1) Accountability (2) Feedback.

Firstly, Review strengthens accountability to yourself. When you review, you make yourself answerable to your goals. You take ownership of and responsibility for your actions. If you don’t review, how will you know how you are reaching your goal? This is especially important if your goal is not immediately perceptible, such as how much weight you are losing or savings generated in a month. You can always operate under the assumption that you are at your goal, but you will never know for sure until you review.

Secondly, Review is where you get feedback on everything you have strategized, planned and executed. Reviewing lets you understand what’s working, what’s not working and how you can improve. Without Review, you will have no clue on whether your actions are leading you towards or away from your goals. You will be stabbing in the dark, blindly repeating the same steps, wondering why…


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Published Jan 25 2009
Filed: Goals & Success
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Goal Achievement: Execution

This is part 6 of a 7-part series on what it takes to successfully achieve goals.


© jurvetson

“Execution is all that the world sees.”

Execution is the 4th step of ESPER framework. This is the step where your goal really gets brought to life in physical reality. When you were establishing your goal, you created the virtual image it in your mind. In Strategy, you developed the key pillars and principles you need to build your plan on. In Planning, you develop the specifics of your plan, right up to activities you need to do and integrated it into your schedule.

Execution is an extremely critical step because execution is all that anybody ever sees. You can spend all your life establishing goals, strategizing and planning, but if you never get down to the execution, nothing is going to happen.

It is the step when things manifest, get brought to life, takes physical shape. It is when your goal becomes reality.

Assuming you have done a thorough and rigorous job in the previous three steps and you have prioritized the right tasks in your plan, how…


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Published Jan 24 2009
Filed: Goals & Success
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Goal Achievement: Planning

This is part 5 of a 7-part series on what it takes to successfully achieve goals.


© perhapstoopink

“Organizing is what you do before you do something, so that when you do it, it is not all mixed up.” – A. A. Milne

Planning is the 3rd step of ESPER framework. Where in Strategy you identify the overall principles to nail your goal, in Planning you use those principles to develop a fully structured plan, complete with all the specific details. In this step and the next (Execution), you will find that your left brain and organization skills play a very important role.

The objective of developing a plan is to (1) organize your tasks and (2) allocate your resources accordingly so that you can achieve your specified goals within your desired time frame. It is a reflection of where your time and energy will be channeled into. If it is well developed, it will keep you organized in your goal pursuit. If it is messy and haphazard, you will find your tasks get thrown into disarray when you are pursuing your goal. (more…)


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Published Jan 22 2009
Filed: Goals & Success
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