By JOHNNY CARCIOPPOLO / Community Columnist

There are absolutely no excuses for not being organized and achieving goals. Gadgets and technology can help you stay on track and help you meet your goals. Take advantage of technology.

Declutter. If you feel as though your life is chaos, look at your environment. You are only as productive as your environment you are in. Take a weekend and throw everything out or donate it. If you haven’t used it in six months and it’s not in season, then it’s time to let it go.

Organize. When it comes to organizational skills, you are in luck because you can create a new habit at any given time. If your environment is a hot mess, then chances are more than likely so is your life. Use these tips to get yourself in gear:

• Put yourself on the calendar.
• Don’t sweat the small stuff.
• Let go of what you can’t control.
• Expand on the positive and minimize the negative so you can enjoy life more.
• Start new habits. It takes only a couple of weeks to create new habits and once they are in place, they will stick.
• If you backslide, it’s okay. Let yourself off the hook and start again. Pick up where you left off.
• Don’t look at major projects like a mountain. Climb one step at a time.
• Make time to meet your needs.
• Make time management a priority.
• Divide your day into manageable blocks of time.
• Fine-tune your scheduling to meet your responsibilities to others, as well as yourself.
• Work on your dependability and accountability.
• Encourage and reward yourself. For little goals incorporate small rewards. When you meet larger goals, treat yourself to something very special.

There are many challenges we all have to face, when it comes to achieving our goals, fulfilling our dreams and living a life we love. However, once we step out of blaming our childhood, life, other people, we can clearly see we have the power to create a life we truly love.

Once we look into our own lives instead of looking outwardly and externally we can recognize where we fall short and create self-discipline in our lives. What thoughts come to mind when you think of taking responsibility and being self-disciplined? If they are negative thoughts, you might want to spend some time rethinking this thought. You are a product of your thoughts. Associate success with taking responsibility and self-discipline and you will soon see, your life will be in priority order and you will have so much more time to enjoy it.

Once you establish new priorities and habits, you’ll wonder how you ever survived without them.