This is 2015. Happy New Year! This is going to be my best year yet. I want you to have the same as your goal. I have not written here is a long time. As many of you know that I recently moved to Nigeria with my family to plant a new branch of Overcomers’. I have had to deal with culture shock (good and otherwise). For the past 3 months, I have been re-learning how to operate in Nigeria. I am getting a hang of it now and I thank God for each day. This is an article that I started work on before the year ran out. But I apologize that its just out now, right in time though for you this January. I have put most of the points highlighted here in place in my personal life and the rest I am working hard on daily.
Plan Your Year: Daily Activities.
A wise person said it’s foolishness to keep doing the same thing and expect a different result. To make this year a great one you you must plan to do some great things on a daily basis. Here are a few things I am resolving to do and I want to recommend to you as well.
- Plan each day the night before. There are some seemingly little issues that have great potentials of ruining a day for you. Things like what you will wear, what’s for lunch, what the children will wear, their back pack content. Many of this stuff are not going to take so much time to plan but they will save you a great deal of time if planned ahead. You will avoid wasting the freshness of your brain to do minor chores like that. Take extra 10mins to set out clothes, plan lunches and break fast right before bed, clean up a bit or a lot.
- Go to bed early. After you have planned the next day, you should do all you can to get to bed early enough. You need enough sleep in order to feel fresh in the morning. If you need to do laundry or dishes do fast and get to bed, Try not to waste time on social media like Facebook, Pinterest. Don’t spend time doing anything that is important. Sleep early and plan to do the important stuffs in the morning when your brain is freshest.
- Set Your Alarm. Depending on what your schedule is like in the morning before you leave home, you should set your alarm for a time that you will be able to find time to pray, read and get breakfast ready, take your bath and get out. Imagine having to think about what to wear in the morning. You will notice that you have so much time in the morning if you don’t have all the little things in the way. If you have slept well, you will hardly need your snooze button.
- First thing first, spend time with God. Its better that you don’t plan to do anything before spending time with the Father. He is waiting for you to renew your strength early in the morning. Take advantage of this. Jesus woke up early to meet with the father so do the same. O God, thou art my God; early will I seek thee: my soul thirsteth for thee, my flesh longeth for thee in a dry and thirsty land, where no water is; Psalm 63:1. Remember to make provision for your family, if you have parents, spouses, children that will need you, plan some time for them. If possible wake up before they will need you. That way you will increase the chances of securing your time with God.
- Read in the Morning. I try to give you lots of free books that have been a blessing to me here. If you don’t have books, please take time to create a kindle account and get all the books I have posted here and more. Your brain is freshest when you wake up, plan to read at least 10 minutes daily. As you learn from books, practice what you learn and you will see that people will begin to see you as an effective person. Read wide, at least now you know you don’t need to have a huge budget for books in order to be able to read. There are lots of free materials out there. Take advantage of them. You have access to God’s power from on high. He will help you build a good and productive life.
- Speak your mind clearly. What you have in your head is very clear and loud but only to you. No one else can read your mind, so you need to tell people around you what you want or need. Don’t assume that people can read you. Even the closest person to you does not have that power to guess what you are thinking.
- Clear your mind. As you get ready in the morning while you pray till you get a shower you must deal with every negative thought as they come. Very similar to the previous point, but here I want to recommend that you clear your mind of any hurts or excitements from yesterday. Each day is potentially a great one only if you don’t have extra baggages to carry. If someone hurts you or is making you feel bad, don’d dwell on it. I am sure you have heard the saying you are the architect of your life. If you allow people’s reactions to you or perception of you drive your day, it will not only determine your day it will determine your life as well. You are worth more than reducing yourself to focusing on the issue you have with people. Make up your mind to not be annoyed even if someone makes you angry. You will be wasting precious time. Forgive people seventy times seven times. Trust me if you spend good time with God you will find this easier than if you don’t. That’s another reason to start right.
- Put Items on Your To Do List for the day. If you plan a night before you should have an idea of a few other things you would love to achieve in your day. By going through the process of writing your to dos you get to mentally prepare for such things. Things you need to do at work and personal things. This way if you have a free moment you will know if to check Facebook or take on a task. This will help you to have effecient days.
- Use an electronic / Paper Calender. Most cell phones today have inbuilt agendas / calenders. If you dont have a cell phone you can use a paper one of course however you will have to carry it in your bag all the times. I love the phones better because your phone is with you mostly so you can enter all your meetings as they are being scheduled. The good thing about this is that they have in built reminders to alert you. I started using my phone agendas when I had a Nokia basic handset and now that I use an iPhone, I see my phone as my assistant. And yes if it stops working it will affect my day almost the same if my assistant refuses to show u at work. The paper agenda/calender is good as well. The only downside is that it will not alert you when to start a task.
- Identify Your Distractions. Many things will fall into this category for most people. Facebook, Text messages or phone calls, emails…There is a lot of advantages to being able to receive instant messages but they will distract you and could hinder you from achieving your daily goals. Watch out for time waster and prioritize each task on your list. If you get a text message during the day, rate it in the area of importance and deal with it accordingly. Most text messages and calls can actually wait. You can always get to it later.
- Work When you Need to Work. Put private and personal things till you have a break. Social media could be your biggest time waster. Some people use social media for work. As long as its not eating into time that you set for something else then you are fine. Follow my Papa’ s rule here (my late Grandpa Robert Arogun) : A Time For Everything and Everything in Its Time (modified by me).
- Reward Yourself. Do you know that just a few people that you meet in the day actually care about what you need? Most people are too worried about themselves to be worried about other people. So take time to reward yourself for sticking to your plans. Many people plan to spend time with God and don’t, so be nice to yourself. Don’t think bad of yourself, if you are working hard to do what God wants for you daily then you should rejoice. Agree more with God that with other people about what and who you are. Even if you were able to achieve just one thing on your to do list, celebrate it. do something you like. Watch a movie, connect with friends on phone or Facebook, check out some nice designs on Pinterest. However don’t let this take over your evening. Remember tomorrow is another major part of your future, start planning for it today.
- Enjoy the People In Your life. Your family members, your friends, your neighbours are there to add to your life. They might also be stressing you. Don’t worry, try to help them as much as you can. Many people are mean to others because they are not enjoying the love of God that you enjoy every morning. As you receive joy from him spread some to them.
- Help Somebody Everyday. Make up your Mind to help someone every single day. Do something as big as buying someone lunch/coffee to something as small as smiling at the driver that cut you off on the highway. Just make up your mind to make someone feel good about themselves.
There are many other things that are peculiar to you but if you do this daily, be consistent at it and not fail, you will surely have a greater 2015. Come back here as often as you want to look through the list or signup to receive my updates directly in your mail box. I pray that you will look back in December and say ‘Thank you Lord for a Great year’!