All of us would like a prosperous new year. But we don't necessarily want to end up working hard 24/7 to achieve it. Fortunately, if you know how you don't have to.

Let me reveal a few of my time management and personal success secrets which you can adopt for yourself and can help you achieve much more in 2010.

• The beginning of a new year is a great time to assess what you've achieved so far and decide where you want to be in twelve months time. So sit down, make a list of your own personal long and short term goals and put them in order of priority. Then set target dates throughout the year by which you are going to achieve them.

• Recognise the power of good time management. The famous Pareto Principle says 80% of your output is achieved in 20% of your time .... and it's true. Use that diary you got for Christmas to keep a log of what you do and what you achieve each day for the next month. Then study it to maximise productive activities and eliminate wasted ones.

• Use technology wisely, not just for the sake of it. Manage your emails -- don't let them manage you. Deal with e-mails only 2/3 times a day -- not the minute they arrive. If some new software or hardware you're thinking about investing in doesn't make the job faster and easier -- don't buy it.

• Go AWOL sometimes! Do some work at home, or at the library. Switch your mobile off for an hour or so each day. It's amazing how much more you can get done when other people can't interrupt you.

• Don't waste time waiting for other people. While some time waiting for appointments or for a train etc. is unavoidable turn this wasted time into productive time by always having a book or report to read or a notebook to start working through your next project.

• Recognise that business meetings are one of the biggest threats to managing your time properly ever invented. The longer a meeting lasts the less is likely to be achieved. Decide in advance how long a meeting should take. Announce at the outset that you will have to leave at that time to make another appointment. It's a great way of keeping you and everyone else focused and productive.

• Challenge your natural tendency to say 'yes' -- which most of us have -- without examining exactly what's involved. Ask yourself what's required of you and whether the returns justify the effort. If they don't, don't be afraid to say 'no' sometimes.

• Keep a notebook with you at all times. New ideas, plans and solutions to problems can occur to you at any time of the day (and night). Don't let them go to waste by not having somewhere to jot them down.

• Make time to read a different famous biography or inspiring self help book every month. (Not some trashy kiss-and-tell biography by a so-called celeb.) You can learn an awful lot from the most brilliant business, political, sporting, economic and military minds

• Plan time to deal with unplanned activities. Maybe you don't know exactly what those unplanned activities might be but -- sure as eggs are eggs -- you know they will happen every week. By doing this new, exciting projects won't get derailed due to daily 'firefighting'.

• Build a scrapbook. Collect newspaper articles, interviews, quotes from people you admire, photographs and advertisements that interest you. Use them for ideas and inspiration. Lift the best ideas for use in your own projects.

What I'm not saying is that you should aim to practice all of these tips in 2010. That would be a super-human feat indeed! But just a few of them really could make a difference. Just imagine, if a few of the time management tips alone help you free up one extra day each month then, over the course of a year, that's enough time saved for an extra holiday!

Discuss this article in the forum.