You can use these 7 steps within Life Balance too...
Jeff Liberti coaches his clients to adopt new behaviors. He recently wrote an article, 7 steps to New Behaviors, for motivating clients to make positive changes in their lives. In the article, he recommends techniques for breaking projects down into tasks, reevaluating and rewarding progress, journalling, and for establishing a realistic timeframe. However, there is no reason why you can't make use of these tips within the context of Life Balance too.
You'll notice that he advises you to "chunk it down." In other words, break a big project up into bite size tasks. This could mean specific little tasks that you need to do, budgeting your time, or watching your current behavior. In Life Balance this is the process you go through in your Outline. You break your top level goals into mid size projects or milestones, and then break those up into tasks that you can accomplish in one sitting.
Try using the notes section of Life Balance for some quick journalling, with a task to remind yourself to do it. Or look to the accomplishments list to see all the things that you have got done. I have a recurring task for journalling two things that I was grateful for or particular enjoyed doing during the day. It is helpful to look back at that when I run into an obstacle, or need a lift. Every so often I copy that list out to a bigger file, but capturing those quick journal entries right there in the notes for the recurring task works surprisingly well, since I don't even need to leave the app to do it.
Every so often, look through your Outline and the Desired pie chart to see if you need to make adjustments to your expectations. You may find that some projects have shifted in importance, or your time needs to be apportioned differently due to changing circumstances. In Life Balance this is easy to do, and the effects on your to do list view can help you stay on track.
Also, keep in mind that a new habit takes some time to establish, there is evidence to say that a new habit takes 21 to 28 days. However, remember that you will not learn to master playing the piano in 28 days, even if you do begin to establish a strong pattern of practice and learning in that amount of time. Understand that some goals are lifelong pursuits that could take many years to accomplish. Some goals are never really "checked off," so be sure to enjoy the process as well as the results.
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Copyright @ 2011, Catherine E. White, permission is granted for this article to be redistributed and shared with others in its entirety as long as links and attribution are maintained. Catherine E. White is president of Llamagraphics, Inc., developer of Life Balance™ software for Mac OS X, Windows, Palm OS and iPhone. Life Balance provides a structure for your goals, projects and tasks that is priority driven, so you can to make better decisions about how to use your discretionary time. To learn more, please visit http://www.llamagraphics.com/
