Remember Hansel and Gretel? Part of planning to succeed is marking a path, leaving yourself reminders. Set yourself up to do what you have determined is best. Or, set yourself up for success.

Put reminders in your path. If you need to bring a present to the shower, put it by the front door. Tripping over something can be such an effective reminder.

Keep a basket on the stairway of items to go upstairs — and make a habit to check it each time your hands are empty on the way up.

Put the discussion questions for the book club meeting in your planner in the week of the meeting. You won’t need them until then, but you’ll have them when you do need them.

Set alarms. Many have found this a top benefit of the smartphone. You can remind yourself to stop doing something because your time is up. You can remind yourself to start doing something so you can be ready in time. Set an alarm to remind you to change the laundry or start making dinner.

Race the stopwatch or egg timer with routine cleaning tasks. Give yourself 20 minutes to power nap. Play with it and do what works best for you — but make the most of the tool.

Schedule time on a regular basis to accomplish the steps in your plan. If you know you will need a lot of time, over a good chunk of time, go ahead and schedule it. You will run into the calendar entry, hopefully, and remember to chip away at the project.

If you block time on your schedule on a monthly and weekly basis, you make sure you stumble over what you need to do. Some of us need that extra help! Often distractions consume our days, but if your calendar simply reminds you that you need to spend an hour paying bills today in spite of those distractions, you have a helping hand.