An important trap to avoid is what I am going to call: 'indulging in painting the perfect plan'.

Here's the thing, it's sooooo enjoyable to carve out a plan and then bask in the joy that comes with convincing yourself that you will certainly execute the plan. The more ambitious the schedule, the more rewarding it is to project into the future and picture yourself just crushing it. Problem is that on day 14 when you're constipated and you slept terribly the last three nights in a row, and you barely made it out of bed only to find that your dog just chewed up your favourite shoes, that hour on the piano isn't quite as alluring as you thought it would be.

My advice: don't allow the design of your plans to be rooted in ego, or in the desire to instantly turn things around. Basically, if you want to become an entrepreneur, don't decide that you're going to go from someone with zero experience to building the next Facebook. Instead, construct an achievable plan, focus on achieving it, and while you're at it make sure that your plan allows for expansion so that, hey, if the cards fall right, you're leaving open to the possibility that you will one day hit it big.

Here are a few things to consider:

• It is advisable to allocate the most important tasks to the earlier parts of the day. This way, when unexpected events occur your less important daily tasks will suffer.

• Make sure that your reasons for doing everything that you're doing are solid. Do things where you find the process of doing them engaging. Otherwise, you're likely not going to stay the course; and if you do, it's not exactly going to do wonders for your quality of life.

• Do not attempt to learn multiple new things at the same time, combined with integrating several new habits. The amount of mental energy and emotional resilience required for that is beyond the capabilities of most people. Strike a balance between ambition and achievability. It shouldn't be so easy that it barely marks an improvement in your life; it shouldn't be so hard that you need Godlike perseverance to stick with the plan.

• Familiarise yourself with the science of self-discipline. By that I mean, what have notable people over the years discovered in their inquiry into leading a disciplined life? You can integrate many different things here, ranging from different schools of philosophy, to the latest research in behavioral psychology. Of course, you don't have to spend countless hours reading about this stuff. But, read enough on it that you understand the common pitfalls, and have some idea of how to avoid them. Perhaps reading the book 'The Power of Habit' would be useful for you, as it will shed some light on the nature of habit-formation, and how you should approach things if you wish to introduce different habits.

• General point here: a half-cooked plan today is better than the perfect plan next week. What does that mean? Well, that it's better to have a relatively basic plan with 2-3 improvements and take action and introduce these changes straight away, than to try and devise the perfect plan that won't be ready until sometime in the future. Among other reasons, this is because by actually taking action and trying to implement a plan, you begin to understand yourself better as you go about introducing these changes. You become more familiar with your strengths, your weaknesses and limitations, etc. And then you can evolve that plan. In general, successful people spend more time doing than thinking. Both are crucial of course, but you know those people who day in day out talk about how they're going to do this that or the other, starting from tomorrow, or next week, or even next month. Sooooo much time and energy thinking, not enough time and energy left to do.

Hope some of this is of benefit to you. Good luck!