We are often busy and in a hurry to somewhere. Our life focus is on a short time span ... hours, days, or weeks. Only a few of us know their true direction and where they really would want to be in a few years. This is because most of us never have sat down in peace to think about about our goals in life.

Actually, only quite a few of us have ever written down a single life goal. Still, listing goals is actually quite easy, as you will see below.

Writing down your goals is also a natural starting point when working with time management skills. Only by defining your goals you really start to have a grasp about which actions will lead you closer to your goals and which don't. Do not make this rocket science - it is not.

I prefer dividing my goals into four categories: health, wealth, private, and social. Your social goals relate to your social surroundings, like friends and family. Your private goals are things you would want to do only for yourself, like learning fluent Spanish.

This is how to do it:

* Start by thinking about your long term goals. A good time span for these goals is 5-7 years. Listing short bullet points will be just fine.

* Secondly, you should review and write down your goals for the next year. These goals should at least partly reflect your long-term goals, in other words at least some of them should somehow be steps toward your long term goals.

* Thirdly, you should build a habit to review your goals regularly. You should review your annual goals at least every 3 months. Some find it useful to follow their progress even more regularly. In some cases I even recommend reviewing your progress weekly.

A blank piece of paper and 15 minutes of time is enough for your first draft. It may be all the time you need for steps 1 and 2. As this exercise is essentially about time management, don't waste it! Besides, a few days later you can have a second look and refine and complete your thoughts, if needed.

Having listed your long term goals should make you feel good. You now have a clearer picture of what you really want and what are your targets for the next year. Now you can start focusing on achieving you next year goals. Achieving them will make you feel even better. One year from now you will use your next 15 minutes to one hour on this exercise. You could not use your time wiser.