So, we’re taking a trip to IKEA today with my niece and her boyfriend. This will be their first time to IKEA (this will be an eye-opening experience), and our third trip (but the first to the store we’re going to).

For anyone who hasn’t been to IKEA, it is a completely different experience than virtually any other shopping experience. Once you’re in an IKEA, there’s really no way out unless you follow the predetermined route. There are a few shortcuts, but it’s usually better to stick to the main route, or you may find yourself four sections back instead of four sections forward. I will also say that the “maps” of the store that they give you are virtually useless, and for anyone who actually knows how to read a real map, they’re impossible to follow.

But IKEA immerses you. You lose track of time and space while inside. You have no perception of how close or far away you are from any other point in the store, or the outside for that matter.

IKEA can be scary for first-timers (always bring a friend who’s already been, especially if on your first trip you’re getting enough kitchen-cabinets for redoing your entire kitchen). It’s foreign to anyone who hasn’t been there before. But at the same time, it’s a model of efficiency and productivity. And if you embrace the system, you can actually get through the store quite quickly.

Here are some keys to a successful IKEA trip:

1. Make a list ahead of time. Organize by the area/room that different things belong in. This will make finding those things and not missing anything on your list much easier. GTD fans will do very well with this one.
2. Don’t try to fight the established system. Go with the flow. Follow the arrows on the floor. Trying to fight the system and do things your own way can waste a lot more time than you think it will save. Beware of “shortcuts” also, as they can end up setting you back if you’re not careful.
3. Ask for help. IKEA is a completely different experience. Ask for help and tell the employees it’s your first time there, and they’ll be even more helpful.

If you follow these steps at IKEA (and in a lot of other things you do), you should have an enjoyable and fun experience. Now, these rules don’t apply everywhere, and in some places you can take shortcuts and think outside the box. But sometimes you need to conform. The tricky part is figuring out which situation you’re in.

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Some days when I get in to the office, I take one look at my to-do list and shudder. Sometimes there may be 10-20 things that I need to get done in a day. While there are many out there who say that you should simply whittle your list down to the three most important things to do in any given day, sometimes that’s just not a possibility (especially when you have a boss that insists you get the ten things done already on your to-do list as well as an additional five that pop up during the day).

So what do you do if you can’t eliminate all but three items? Simple. You have to prioritize. Then you have to throw those priorities out the window.

Sounds a little backwards, doesn’t it? Well, the strategy that works best for me is to pick the three most important things I need to get done during the day. I mark them on my to-do list (I usually put a dot next to them). I then start on one of the tasks. After a few minutes I generally decide to move on to something else instead (structured procrastination). I keep doing this until I get everything on my list done. I’m also not afraid to move something up to the next day if I don’t complete it. I also sometimes delegate (but unfortunately that’s not usually an option for me since I’m really the only person in my “department”).

Some other techniques that I use:

I’m a “burst” worker, not a “busy” worker. I might sit and do virtually nothing for a half hour or more, and then get an hour’s worth of work done in the next half hour. This is how I stay sane at work. I have a lot of varied job duties, and this method allows me to change roles without feeling like I’m going to go crazy.

I keep a Moleskine notebook for my to-do list. I also use it as my “inbox”. I started my to-do lists in the front of the book, working my way back. My “inbox” and ideas I started on the last page and am working my way forward. This way I won’t end up wasting pages in the middle of the book if my “inbox” fills up quicker than my to-do’s or vice versa.

Use Firefox. One thing that I generally have to do for both work and my blogging and business activities is keep up with the blogosphere. I use a mix of iGoogle (with different tabs for different topics) and Firefox. In the morning when I get to work, I open a new tab with each blog post that I want to read. Then I go through all of them and as I read each one I close it out. I also at this time bookmark anything that I want to blog about later, or email things to coworkers and my bosses that might be of interest.

So, while narrowing down your to-do list to only 3 things can work wonderfully, sometimes it’s just not feasible. When that’s the case, you have to create other strategies for dealing with tasks.

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A lot is said nowadays about setting goals. You have to have goals in order to get ahead in life, and if you don’t have goals you’ll never amount to anything.

But, are goals really necessary? If you don’t set specific goals, will your life simply stagnate where it is now? Will you ever get ahead?

The short answer is ‘yes’. Not having specific goals does not mean that you’ll never do anything. In fact, having loosely structured goals, or no goals at all can actually make it easier to get more out of life. If you aren’t constantly making decisions with your long-term goals in mind, you have the freedom to do things you want to do. If you simply do the things that make you happy, at the very least your quality of life will improve, and in a best-case scenario, you’ll be incredibly successful on top of being happy.

If you do feel that you need to set goals (I generally do), try to set goals that are somewhat loose for the long-term. If you insist that you have to have specific goals, limit them to one or two weeks in the future, and anything beyond that should be more loosely defined.

Let’s say that you’re unhappy at your current job, and decide you want a new one. If you know that your long-term goal is loosely defined as being “get a new job”, then you can simply set a goal for the current week of “apply for three new jobs”. The biggest advantage to this is that if you don’t have an entire plan set out, you can easily change your strategy at any time without feeling like you’re abandoning your plan.

Being able to change your strategy quickly is important in any project that you’re working on. By not having a complete structured plan, but instead just a general direction of where you’re going, you can adapt as new challenges crop up (which, face it, they always do), and you can better react to new opportunities.

Learn to set goals that enable you to get more from your life. Don’t set goals just for the sake of having goals. When you do set goals, only make them as specific as they need to be. You don’t have to have a plan for your entire life, and you’ll probably have a lot more fun if you take things as they come!

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