[Note: August 22, 2025— I have removed capitalization from some of the sentences in this article. I find capitalizing such sentences useful to me when I’m doing it just for me to read, but I just realized that it seems like I’m “yelling” at the people who are are reading this.]
As I’ve mentioned in a previous article, I have a checklist of tips that I read over and modify on a daily basis during my morning routine.
Many of the tips have originated from self-help programs that I’ve been listening to and reading over the past years, in particular Tony Robbins’ “Personal Power” and “The Time of Your Life,” (link and link) and Stephen Covey’s “The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People,” all of which I highly recommend.
Following is the current state of much of my list that I review daily:
Your PLANS and FOCUS are the steering wheel.
Your WORK and HABITS are the motor.
Your WILL is the accelerator.
[Note: People might notice that I have updated the above to be a better analogy than it previously was the last time I made a post about it.]
[The following few sections are actually the answers that I filled out in a worksheet in the Tony Robbin’s “Time of Your Life” program. I have found it very useful to get clear about what my ultimate goals are and to review it on a daily basis.]
My Ultimate Vision:
I’m striving to improve myself and all of aspects of my environment and the world that I can influence, working to improve or transcend my current limitations while helping others to do the same.
I want to help others through implementing creative projects in order to inform others about unhealthy aspects of the world, and to offer ideas about how to fix or alleviate those problems.
I want to always be improving my spiritual connection for being a servant of God. I want to be comfortable and happy and to help others to do the same, applying my mind and actions toward becoming the best person that I can be.
My “Code of Conduct”:
(Once you have a clear VISION and PURPOSE for your life and are implementing a system for creating the results that you want, then what will most determine if you actually achieve those results will be the states that you live in on a consistent basis. Your “code of conduct” is an important list that describes your most ideal ways of existing on a daily basis.)
Be faithful
Be disciplined
Be organized
Be productive
Be proactive
Be balanced
Be focused
Be efficient
Be flexible
Be resilient
Be confident
Be postive
Be motivated
Be courageous
Be thoughtful
Be forgiving
Be grateful
Be healthy
Be happy
___
[Note: I think some people may initially have an issue with my mentioning the term “righteous effectiveness” in later parts of this article, but I don’t think a person trying to be “righteous” is a bad thing.
I think it is interesting that the definition of the term “self-righteous” essentially only has negative connotations, where it is automatically associated with being sanctimonious.
I define the term “righteousness” as follows:
“Righteousness is a naturally indisputable force of healthy effectiveness. At the roots of righteousness are respect of God, respect of others, and respect of oneself. A ‘righteous person’ is someone whose thoughts and actions are habitually rooted in the most effectively healthy motivations.”
Ultimately the meaning of the term “righteousness” is interpreted uniquely by everyone, even if they would be using the same definition as above. For example a leftist might try to argue that the government mandating that sex change surgery for children must be allowed is a “righteous” thing.
It is easily to see that “righteousness” and “sanctimoniousness” are not synonymous, simply by picturing what someone means if they would say “that person is a righteous person”— nobody would ever make that statement about someone as being anything other than the highest praise.
Of course nobody has an issue with someone “striving” to be a righteous person, but rather people’s issues are usually with someone arrogantly proclaiming themself to “be” righteous— which is the impression that someone might incorrectly get when I use the phrase in the later parts of this article. So remember when you see that term it is what I am STRIVING FOR, of course I’m not saying that I am automatically that way.
Also note that I’ve never heard Tony Robins or Stephen Covey mention the controversial topic of “righteousness,” but they do acknowledge the importance of spirituality.]
KEY ESSENTIAL GUIDELINES
My health, happiness, and success depends on the following ESSENTIAL QUESTIONS:
[Many of the Essential Questions are basically what is advocated for in the programs that I have mentioned, although I’ve added some of my own and organized them into the following format, which I often recite in my mind such at the beginning of every major task.
Of course at any point in time I may be falling short in any of the following questions, which is what I am trying to rectify.]
1. Am I being aware of and acknowledging God’s role in everything?
2. Am I existing in a state of OPTIMAL PSYCHOLOGICAL HEALTH, being aware of THE KEY FUNDAMENTAL TRUTHS? [Note these are explained in detail later in this article.]
3. Is my ENVIRONMENT and BODY as clean and optimized as possible?
4. Are my FOCUSES and HABITS as healthy and optimal as possible?
5. Am I implementing my system of PLANNING and WORKING as well as possible?
The KEYS TO SUCCESS when WORKING:
1. Clean and organize at the beginning and end of your tasks.
2. Always be working on the most optimum task.
3. Immediately start your planned tasks.
4. Work efficiently and aggressively.
The optimal stages of working on a task: “Plan, clean, do, clean.”
___
[Note that many of the points in the following sections have also originated from the programs that have I mentioned, but also many are my own. All of this information is very streamlined from years of reviewing and modifying it on a daily basis.]
KEY FUNDAMENTAL TRUTHS
Righteousness is a naturally indisputable force of healthy effectiveness. At the roots of righteousness are respect of God, respect of others, and respect of oneself. A “righteous person” is someone whose thoughts and actions are habitually rooted in the most healthy motivations.
Don’t underestimate how important it is that your working and living environment are clean and organized. It is a crucial gateway to effectiveness. [Recently I’ve been having a renewed preoccupation with the benefits of my working environment being clean and organized. I’ve always valued that but I’ve been finding many benefits in making it an ultimate priority.]
You are always “on track” with however you are— you continually determine the direction of your rails. You should always try to consciously be in control of their direction.
Be “greedy” to end your limiting habits and having the healthiest FOCUSES. Make it as if it is a “vice” to indulge in Behavior that creates maximum health and happiness. Take big gulps of air and with it your enthusiasm to paddle the kayak of your ideals forward.
Don’t underestimate how LITTLE or how MUCH can be accomplished in a single day.
Every moment of your time is sacred.
Feed righteous effectiveness and starve unhealthy mentalities. Are you existing in the essence of righteousness? Are you making strides of effective healthy productivity?— If not, why isn’t that the case? Envision yourself as no longer being any other way.
You can consciously control the direction of your INTELLECT, WILL, and ACTIONS to control your FOCUS, which ultimately controls all of the other aspects of your life.
Be in a routine of asking yourself EACH HOUR if you are appropriately addressing all of the ESSENTIAL QUESTIONS. When you are not doing so, correct your course immediately. Any moment that you are out of the groove can easily spiral out of control if you don’t correct it as soon as possible. Even if you are busy at the moment, you should still quickly run through it in your mind.
Every moment when you are not in a most optimum state should be a sign that your focus is likely wrong.
Always be staying on top of things in life. Either you are working in that zone or you are not. Having a satisfying existence depends on that.
If dealing with something is overly difficult, perhaps you are somehow doing it wrong.
One of your highest duties to God, yourself, and others is to have a sophisticated knowledge of the subconscious workings of your human nature in order to consciously entrench the healthiest possible habits in yourself for bringing about your highest ideals and values.
Simply identifying issues with yourself that you need to fix is no guarantee that you will fix them.
Confidence that is caused by successes resulting from righteous effectiveness naturally purges dishevelment from your psyche. Every moment that your psyche isn’t in a state of righteousness is potentially unhealthy to you and others.
The condition your body is indicative of your emotional and physical health. People can be put off by you if you don’t optimize the aspects of it that you can control.
At every moment you are whatever your self-image is.
Definition of PROACTIVE: “A person, policy, or action creating or controlling a situation by causing something to happen rather than only responding to something after it has happened.”
Insignificant psychological blockages are detrimental to your existence when you aren’t proactive enough to transcend them.
Subconsciously earned self confidence and natural respect of yourself and others are among the highest ideals that you can achieve.
Your SPIRITUAL CONNECTION, your SUBCONSCIOUS MENTALITIES, and your EMOTIONAL STATES are at the core of your essence.
Don’t dwell on focusing on what is negative too much even when trying to identify it to improve it. Go straight for the best positive alternative as soon as possible once you have envisioned it. If you overly focus on the negative even for the purpose of trying to improve it or get rid of it, it makes the negative too much of an unnecessary presence in your mind.
Ponder and identify all of the sources of loving essence in your reality. Ponder the mentalities of people that you have interacted with in your life who you have most respected. Always be visualizing and emulating models of the best examples of people, knowing the great reality of such people being everywhere.
Simply formulating plans using your planning system is no guarantee that you will follow them.
Simply reading this Ultimate Vision is no guarantee that you will follow it.
How you interpret and respond to every situation defines who you are and it determines your reality.
New positive experiences bring a boost of fresh motivation to all of the other aspects of your life.
There exists an infinite core of how situations actually are in reality, with you having a potentially inaccurate or distorted “magnifying glass” view of your present focus that occupies your mind at any moment. Much of whatever negativity that you might be focusing on is likely insignificant or it might not even exist at all. There exists infinite things that you could think about.
Unless you are effectively in a routine of being optimally productive with your planning system, at any point whatever you are doing is almost certainly not as important as something else that you could be doing instead.
At any moment you are either in the groove of your planning system or you are not.
You are a hero if you respond properly.
Your self-image is at the root of your mentalities and behavior, it influences everything that you think and do. How you subconsciously feel about yourself at every moment is a primary factor in what you manifest for yourself.
Four steps toward lasting self improvement: 1. Brainstorm and expand your knowledge about all of the ways that you could potentially be; 2. Decide which of those ways of being are the most ideal; 3. Learn the most effective methods of realizing those ideals in your life; 4. Achieve those ways of being to the point of it being subconsciously entrenched.
Think about all of the reasons why people might or might not respect you.
Think about teachers that you’ve had over your life who you’ve most respected, think about their integrity, their naturally self-assured way of being, their quality responsible mentalities that are second nature to the point of being taken for granted by others. Those are qualities that all people should ideally maximize in themselves— Perhaps to be a “teacher,” but more importantly to exist with a subconsciously earned self-image of a respected professional person.
When having problems in one area of your life, such as when having a technical problem with a task that you are working on, it can subconsciously open doors to thinking about potential negativity that is not even related to that problem. Likewise, when you are having successes with what you are working on, your focus and emotions tend to be the most positive.
A great irony is that when you are in states of intense positivity you likely have the most accurate perception of your situations— or at least you have the most accurate perception of the positive potential of your situations which is attainable.
An important way to achieve emotional health is to approach it in the same optimized result-oriented manner as any other process.
Don’t underestimate the creative power of your thoughts.
Every moment is the start of the rest of your life.
If you fall off the fence onto the wrong side of something, it is because you were recklessly on the fence in the first place. Whenever that is the case, you should immediately focus on what you need to do to effectively get yourself over to the right side.
Whatever unhealthy aspects that are accumulated in your mentalities can be eliminated if you focus your efforts appropriately— It is a matter of accurately identifying the symptoms and their underlying causes, and then working on transforming or eliminating the causes. But simply trying to alleviate the symptoms without fixing the causes would be fruitless.
What would your mindset be if you were having successes with whatever you are working on at the moment?
It is much more difficult to be optimally productive if your working environment is not clean and organized. It is almost impossible for real health and productivity to exist when that is not the case.
Questions About OPTIMAL PSYCHOLOGICAL HEALTH
[I’m still falling short of eliminating all of my bad habits, although I’ve been making improvements. It’s easy to “write down” and “read” what I should do about it, but of course the actual implementation is more difficult.
It’s actually rather embarrassing that I have detailed in this section how to eliminate my bad habits, yet I have still not accomplished that to the extent which I would like.
I’m actually planning to set up video cameras to record what I do in my working environment, where I think analyzing that will be helpful.]
Have you been putting God first by being a righteous person and praying often and habitually?
Have you been implementing ELIMINATING YOUR BAD HABITS as effectively as possible?
Have you been INTERRUPTING THE PATTERN at all moments of recognizing deviation from following the ESSENTIAL QUESTIONS, not just when engaging in bad habits?
If a habit that you’ve identified to eliminate isn’t changing, it is because you don’t actually want to eliminate it enough, or somehow you’re not doing it properly. Have you been effective in eliminating your bad habits?
Habitually interrupting and transcending your limiting states is one of the most important skills that you can have. Have you been giving optimal precedence to developing such habits?
Have you been disciplining yourself before, during, and after eating?
Have you been eating only the PORTIONS you have planned to eat?
Have you been eating only WHEN you plan to?
Have you been eating only WHAT you have planned to eat?
Have you been REVIEWING “YESTERDAY’S ISSUES” during the day?
Have you been actually INSIDE the realms of your most ideal mentalities and habits, instead of only “knowing” what they should be and looking at them from the outside?
Have you been at least effectively implementing LEVEL 3 of the FOUR LEVELS OF SELF-IMPROVEMENT? 1. Learning; 2. Knowing; 3. CONSCIOUS APPLICATION; 4. Subconscious entrenched habit. CONSCIOUSLY APPLYING aspects of self improvement on a consistent basis will result in entrenching the healthiest possible habits.
Have you been effectively RIGHTING YOUR FOCUS?
Don’t weight more than ___. If you weight more than that, have you at least lost weight since the previous day? Today’s weight: ___
Is your confidence at a healthy enough level where you are self-assured to the point of potential causes of being frazzled simply rolling off your back?
Have you been communicating with others enough?
Have you been righting yourself with THE KEY FUNDAMENTAL TRUTHS?
Are you being an example of the good that is possible in anyone’s life?
Has your POSTURE been good and have you been BREATHING most effectively?
Is your environment and body clean and organized?
Have you been immediately getting back up onto the horse?
Always strive to become more grounded in the most optimum mentalities and states. Have you been reviewing your “success info,” pondering its ramifications, and doing whatever you need to do to naturally bring yourself to a higher place whenever necessary?
Have you been focusing on the DIRECTION of where you most ideally would like to be headed, the IDEAL of who you want to be?
Questions About PLANNING and WORKING
[NOTE: I have created most of the questions in this section through identifying issues that I have when working and updating the list on a daily basis, so it is very comprehensive.
Note that on any particular day I certainly don’t fulfill all of the following questions, even when I’m being exceptionally productive. For example recently I haven’t been stretching and exercising as a part of my morning routine in order to save time, but I will be focusing on getting back into that soon.
Overall I’m currently in good shape with fulfilling many of the following questions, as I’ve been in a particularly productive phase for a while. But of course there is always room for improvement. Here again is something where there would be a lot of benefits from recording myself with video while I’m working in order to analyze my activities.]
[ONE MORE NOTE about this section: Actually a while ago I was trying to implement my planning system to a rather extreme extent where I tried to track every little task that I did, with the idea being that I could get used to doing that and work the kinks out of it to further develop the system.
However I found doing that to ultimately be counterproductive where I felt constantly distracted and ultimately it led to me neglecting much of the planning system altogether to take a looser approach, which actually resulted in an large boost of productivity. That is not to say that the planning system is bad, but it is important to implement it in a way that does not distract you too much.
I actually find that whenever I shift my overall approach it almost always ends up being beneficial, whether I happen to be doing it to become more controlling over planning my activities or less so. I see doing that as sort of like “flipping the pancake” to cook the other side, where ultimately I’m still moving in right direction even though my approach has shifted to either be looser or more controlled in such a manner. (And also whenever such a shift occurs I always carry over positive aspects of my previous approach.)
At the moment I’m in a very stable productive phase where I’m back to implementing my planning system and my work is cut out for me, and I don’t think I will shift to a much looser phase any time soon (if at all), since my system is no longer being a hindrance to me.
ANYWAY, following is my daily list of questions about planning and working: ]
Have you been valuing the potential of what can be accomplished in a single day?
You can lose enormous amounts of time by deviating from your system due to getting distracted from your big picture plans, getting needlessly frazzled over senseless concerns, and not being proactive enough. Have you been CONSTANTLY ENSURING to keep deviation from rushing in? Have you been constantly scooping out the water of deviation that leaks into your boat?
Did you do your end of day tasks last night? (Log what you did during the day, clean and organize your todo list, put together your plans for the next day, and straighten your apartment before your pre-sleep routines.)
Have you been LOGGING everything that you are doing, even if you haven’t planned those specific tasks?
Have you been OVERESTIMATING the time that you think your actions will take, and then doing TASKS FROM A SPECIAL LIST in whatever time that is left over?
Is your list for being able to jump in and start working on the most optimum miscellaneous tasks at idle moments as optimized as it can be?
Have you been disciplining yourself to create designated time allowances and stick with them? If not, you won’t be enough in a habit of ensuring to meet deadlines.
Have you been stretching and exercising in the morning?
Have you been showering in the morning and then getting on with your planned routine and sticking with it?
Have you been MULTITASKING with your activities as effectively as possible?
Be alert of the danger of THE “POST-TASK COMPLETION HAZE” that can destroy a day’s worth of time or more if you are not proactive enough to transcend it. How well have you been avoiding that?
Being AGGRESSIVELY PRODUCTIVE is crucial once you are sure that you are working on the most optimum task. Mental stamina to IMMEDIATELY START and MAINTAIN YOUR FOCUS with maximum efficiency is essential. Not IMMEDIATELY STARTING tasks in a consistent enough manner causes huge accumulated delays. How well are you doing all of that?
Have you been staying on top of things in life? At any moment you are either in that realm or not. Having a satisfying existence depends on that.
Did you formulate and write down your days plans in advance yesterday, even if you decided to change your plans as the day progresses?
Don’t rationalize that you will “let momentum take its course” and “start correcting later or the next day” when you are out of the grove of the system. Try to disrupt and correct it immediately, starting by making sure THE GATEWAY TO EFFECTIVE PRODUCTIVITY is open. How effectively are you doing this?
Have you been smashing through the walls of STARTING tasks that you subconsciously don’t want to do once you have decided that those are your best course of action?
Have you not been letting log jams of potential activities accumulate due to wasting time unnecessarily waiting for something to happen during the day?
IMMEDIATELY STARTING NEW PLANNED TASKS is among the most difficult habits and it is crucial to your success. How effectively are you doing this?
Has your upcoming WEEK been thought out beforehand?
Your situation at any moment can range from “smooth sailing” to either “rough seas,” “unnecessarily being in the doldrums,” or “swimming outside the boat of your planning system.” Whenever you find yourself not “smooth sailing” you must immediately control your FOCUS and ACTIONS to get back to that situation as soon as possible, starting with making sure the gateway to effective productivity is open. How effectively are you doing this?
Have you not been avoiding discomfort when it is the most effective course of action?
WORK WITH THE MENTALITY OF A MARATHON RUNNER in all realms. SMASH THROUGH DISTRACTIONS AND SETBACKS. Make it your biggest priority to OVERCOME FRICTION that is caused by aspects of your environment being dishevelled and unorganized and work to correct those situations as soon as possible. Have you been doing all of those things?
How well have you been implementing your planning system to simultaneously accomplish the following two results every day? 1) “Ringing all the bells” of adequately addressing all of the necessary needs of your life on a daily basis. 2) Achieving maximum productive momentum by primarily focusing on only one or a few specific areas every day.
Whenever you feel anxious to do a task that isn’t in your planning routine, have you been disciplining yourself to put it into the routine or to establish how to develop a new aspect of the routine to more effectively accommodate scheduling such a task? Have you been disciplining yourself not to DO things unless you have scheduled them, and not to SCHEDULE them unless they have gone through the proper chain of planning?
Have you been sticking with implementing your planning system all the way to the end of the day?
Is your environment and body clean and organized at the moment? If it is not, then “uh-oh!”
It is easy to be a “fair weather worker,” but everything depends on you being consistently proactive and pushing through whenever your working situation is in “rough seas” for whatever reason. Do not underestimate the amount of psychological resistance you can have to correcting in such situations. Be physically aggressive and smash through, and also be as proactive as possible to strategically make your working situation be less “rough seas” in the first place. Focus first on ENSURING THAT YOUR WORKING ENVIRONMENT IS CLEAN AND ORGANIZED. How effectively are you doing this?
You must be “phobic” of being in a state of “psychological resistance to getting on with it.” STAND UP, STRETCH, BREATHE IN AND OUT TEN TIMES, and then GET TO WORK. How effectively are you doing this?
Are you being as EFFICIENT with your tasks as possible? You will accomplish proportionally more in your life if you habitually do so.
Have you been properly admitting to yourself that tasks and goals usually take much longer to accomplish than how you want to believe that they will?
Have you been remaining focused on following your planning system, even if aspects of your environment have been dishevelled due to being under construction or for other reasons?
Did you get started as planned today?
Don’t let miscellaneous inconveniences derail your DAY or potentially even your WEEK or longer by not being aggressively proactive to immediately make corrective measures. How effectively are you doing this?
DON’T LET SETBACKS SEND YOU SPIRALLING INTO FALLING OUT OF THE GROOVE. Always be your own boss and follow your orders. Such times of departure from your system are when your decisions matter the most. Don’t let such departures happen— focus on immediately correcting your course to get back into the groove immediately. How well have you been doing this?
Have you been focusing on always making sure to be working on the best task at any moment?
Have you been in control of your sleeping?
How well are you estimating how LITTLE or how MUCH can be accomplished in a single day?
“Trick yourself into STARTING” when you are feeling maximum resistance to do so by telling yourself that you will “At least genuinely START the planned task and then you can quit soon after to do whatever you currently want to do more if you still feel like it.” You usually only need to “smash through the wall of STARTING a task” and then the rest will take care of itself. If the rest doesn’t actually take care of itself then think about if the task you are trying to do is actually the most important to be doing anyway. (And also think about what is CAUSING you not to start and if it is possible to rectify that.) ALWAYS START BY CLEANING AND ORGANIZING. Have you been doing this when necessary?
At any moment you are either in the grove of your planning system or you are not. When you are not in it, have you been quickly fixing that?
Be habitually PRODUCTIVE and EFFICIENT when performing your chosen tasks within the big picture of your plans. How effectively are you doing this?
Don’t focus your attention too much on the FACETS of your big picture rather than taking the most effective SHORTCUTS in a balanced manner. How well have you been cutting to the chase for the BIGGEST PICTURE?
Have you been reviewing your TODO LIST every morning as a part of your startup routine?
In the mornings are you: 1) First connecting with God; 2) Cleaning and straightening yourself and the apartment; 3) Reviewing your Ultimate Vision; and 4) Focusing on the goals for the day?
Keys to success when working: 1) Clean and organize at the BEGINNING and END of your tasks. 2) Always be working on the most optimum task; 3) Always start new tasks immediately after previous ones have been completed; and 4) Always be working efficiently and aggressively. How well have you been doing all of this?
You wouldn’t wake up late or go back to sleep in the morning if you had an employer, therefore you must also not do those things when you are your own boss. How well are you doing that?
Have you started reviewing this Ultimate Vision properly today?
When you abruptly decide to change your plans, it shouldn’t exempt you from remaining inside your planning system. How well are you doing that?
Whenever you are not working within your planning system you are simply swimming or treading water rather than travelling in your boat. How well have you been sticking to using your planning system?
Questions About Aspects of Maximum EFFICIENCY
(The definition of EFFICIENCY is “The ratio of the OUTPUT to the INPUT of any system.”)
Is your working environment clean and organized?
Have you been STARTING your tasks quickly?
Have you not been wasting time between the edges of tasks?
Have you been choosing your tasks wisely enough?
Have you been continually improving your structures and schedules for working?
Have you been doing “PLAN, CLEAN, DO, CLEAN” and doing each step as effectively as possible?
Have you been doing proper post-task cleanup for quickly continuing efficiently later?
Have you been grouping your activities together as effectively as possible?
Have you been ignoring distractions?
Have you been making decisions quickly?
Have you been recovering quickly from interruptions / distractions / setbacks?
Have you been working aggressively?
Have you been optimally organizing for what you will be doing at the beginning of each task?