By now, many of you will have broken the New Year Resolutions you made on January 1st.

Did you promise yourself that this is the year you’ll get organised?

If you have broken your resolution maybe it was because you tried to take too much on. If you didn’t have getting better organised as a resolution or goal, maybe you should look again, perhaps it’s not as difficult as you may first think.

In this post we examine the 12 key habits to getting organised and achieving more by doing less – based on the book The Power of Less by Leo Babauta

I’m sure that you have far too much going on in your life. Family, home, work, projects. All competing with your time. Do you ever feel that sometimes you have so much on, you don’t actually get anything done?

Today, try this approach:

1. Set your 3 Most Important Tasks each morning

2. Select a single tast from 1 above – work on the task until it’s finished, then repeat until all tasks are completed. Only then can you add more tasks to the list of things to do.

3. Process your in-box to empty

4. Check e-mail just twice a day (once in the morning, but never until you’ve completed something)

5. Exercise 5 – 10 minutes per day

6. Work whilst disconnected, with no distractions

7. Follow a morning routine – one which you can keep up every day.

8. Eat more fruits and veggies every day

9. Keep your desk decluttered – empty a draw a day rather than all at once

10. Say no to commitments and requests that aren’t on your short list

11. Declutter your house for 15 minutes a day

12. Stick to a five sentence limit for e-mails.

For tips to manage your e-mail more effectively, see our 7 tips.

For more hints and tips on how to do more by limiting yourself to the essential, see Leo’s excellent book: