Years ago, I was working towards my black belt in karate, learning to fly, gokarting and going to the gym so I was very busy and alot of but ineffective in achieving any of my goals.

For your big goal, block out at least 4-6 hours per week to work toward it by spending 2-3 hours working towards achieving your goal but if it's a burning passion, perhaps 2-3 hours a day and up to 5-6 times a week is more appropriate.

For your regular chores, set up automatic reminders in your calendar software but don't just stop there. If you have set balanced goals, then you may have decided to spend family time once a month for example so put a recurring reminder in your calendar for fun activities as well. That doesn't mean that you have to plan every single activity in advance. After all, some spontaneity is nice. It does mean, however, that your big goal doesn't take over your whole life.

Particularly for big business goals and to some extent community or sporting goals, the activity can totally take over your life in the long run leaving you with nothing else apart from your goal. This can make it hard to relate to people generally.

When I say this, some people think that I mean you should strictly divide your time up on a regular basis and this would never work. For example, the six months before I graded for my black belt in karate I was totally focused on that goal and I spent every spare minute focused on achieving that goal. Once I had achieved that goal, however, I was able to relax a bit and catch up on social and other aspects of my life

There has to be time set aside to do menial tasks, like opening mail, paperwork and filing taxes. They are almost never urgent yet important.

Another key factor is organizing your finances. The more that you can automate regular bill payments and setting aside funds for your big goal through internet banking, the less time and effort you will need to spend down the track attending to these things. To achieve that, however, you need to start off with a fairly well balanced budget. It is virtually impossible to prioritize unfunded goals as is the case when no time is set aside to work towards the goals either.

Finally, check with your coach if the amount of effort is sufficient to achieve your goal and that all items on your critical path of success have been planned for.