New year resolutions, planners, to-do lists, rainlendars - I’ve tried ‘em all but nothing has ever worked for me. It’s either the number of tasks that needs to be done is just dauntingly overwhelming OR maybe I’m just waaay too distracted with Gmail, TV, vlogging and of course - Twitter. Now, the start of my 2008 has fallen again into this endless, ugly cycle of procrastination and downright laziness; I don’t know how to manage anything anymore.

Thanks to Karlo - I discovered this blog which offers just what I needed. I’ve already read tons of how-to-manage-your-life articles, mostly on Reader’s Digest, but it’s just hard for me to self-check every time I need to be reminded. But now, thanks to RSS feeds, whenever I look at my live bookmarks, I immediately remember I have a life to attend to.

Now, let me bore you some more with the first article I will be focusing on this month - the 7 Essential Tips to Make 2008 Your Best Year Ever. 2007 has been pretty kind to me - but I was just lucky. With the way I do things, I feel like I don’t deserve it. Now, with this guide, I predict that this 2008, luck will again be on my side - and I’ll feel good having it for once. Let us run through these tips, shall we?

1. One Goal. I have already this ultimate goal - at least for this year’s first quarter, which is TO GRADUATE this April. In order to achieve this smoothly, I have prepared the following subgoals for the coming months:

• Finish my Thesis Web Application by the last week of January
• Finish my Thesis Documentation by the last week of February
• Finish all my requirements for graduation by the 2nd week of March
• Enjoy my remaining stay in the university on the last 2 weeks of March

The blog suggests that I put my goal on my wall or my desktop wallpaper - make it my personal mantra. Therefore, I made this personalized wallpaper; you can download and use it if you are in the same predicament as I am:

2. Create a New Habit. Mine: Work on my thesis 5 hours a day, 5 days a week. That should put my social life in a coma indefinitely.

3. Take Action Now. I’ll be making this habit the most important thing I do every day. It shall be the first task I will finish each day.

4. Simplify. It simply states that I should identify the 4-5 most important things in my life RIGHT NOW. By doing this, I get to simplify my life - avoiding overwhelming number of goals to achieve. So here are my Top 5:

• God
• Family & Friends
• Graduation
• Making Films
• Health (Yes, I wanna live forever longer)

5. Focus on Happiness. ‘Nuff said.

6. Schedule Time for You, and Your Loved Ones. The tip says that at least one thing on my list should be something I love to do and another thing should be spending time with people I have fun with. That’s why “making films” is there, which I normally achieve through vlogging.

7. Learn to Focus. This means less Gmail parking, Twitter updating and Entrecard dropping for web addicts like me. I will be alloting 30 minutes for those each day AFTER I’ve done my 3 MITs (Most Important Things) for the day.

One last thing, the article suggests that I hold myself accountable to other people if ever I go back to my Eviiil ways (read: slacking around). I need to commit to my new habits. With this, I shall be making this post my official “Report Thread” where I will be posting (through comments) my 3 MITs everyday and whether or not I have successfully accomplished them. Yes my friends, I’m making myself accountable to YOU. So whenever you find yourself having nothing better to do with your free 5 minutes of time, you should may visit this post and call me out on sitting on my lazy ass too much or whatever craziness that comes to mind.

It is official. This is my first boring post of 2008. Hurray.

Wish me luck.