Separating each of the roles you play in life will help you be more self-disciplined, productive, and happy. Separation is necessary because one aspect of your life can hinder your ability to be productive in the other aspects of your life. For example, if you experience some stressful events in your personal life, your work may suffer unless you can separate those events from your professional life. Conversely, your professional life can also hinder your ability to enjoy your free time.

To keep your roles separate, you should concentrate on one activity at a time. Whenever your mind starts to wander to events that are occurring in other aspects of your life, remind yourself that your focus needs to remain on the task or activity in which you are currently engaged.

What process can help me exercise more self-discipline?

The following steps can help improve your self-discipline:

Determine your goals

Before you can exercise self-discipline, you must determine what goals you want to accomplish. To determine your goals, you will need to brainstorm about them and decide exactly what you wish to accomplish. Your goals may be long-term, such as achieving a certain position in your company, or they may be short-term, such as receiving a raise. Once you have determined your goals, you should write them down for clarification.

Create an action plan

When you have established your goals, you must create an action plan to achieve them. Your action plan should include a series of specific sub-goals that will lead you to the achievement of your overall goal.

By creating a series of sub-goals, you create a chain of events that will lead you in the right direction and provide you with additional motivation for attaining your overall goal. The additional motivation comes from the following process:

• you challenge yourself to achieve a sub-goal,
• you reach that sub-goal,
• you experience satisfaction,
• and then you feel motivated to reach your next goal.

This pattern continues until you reach your overall goal, at this point you can set new goals and begin again.

Make the most of your tasks

One of the requirements of being self-disciplined is to make the most of the tasks you have to accomplish. Doing so is easier when your goals and action plans have been established. Once you have established your goals and action plans, all of your tasks become small steps that will help you obtain your sub-goals and ultimately your overall goal. Since each task is really a step toward one of your goals, you can focus on the benefit of moving closer to your goals as you complete your tasks.