Daily Aproach to Planning

As promised, here is my tip on daily planning.

The first thing you must do is have a commitment to planning your day, and then schedule a time for the planning. I suggest one of two times to accomplish this. Before you go to bed at night, or one of the first things in the morning.

Advantage of the night before: You are aware of your activities of the day and the status of what you are doing and wanting to accomplish. Things are on your mind and you can quickly organize and lay out what you’d like to accomplish.

Advantage of first thing in the morning: Hopefully you’ve had a good night’s sleep. Your mind is fresh and if you’re are a morning person you are alert and ready to go. You’ve the whole day ahead of you.

Hyrum Smith, CEO of the Franklin Covey Planners calls this time Planning and Solitude. Take five, to ten minutes to set your priorities. Make your “to do list”. Once that is accomplished go back and set A,B, or C next to each item. A if for Important, must be done. Then go to B items, need to be done, and finally C items. Then put 1, 2, 3, by each A then 1,2,3 for the B’s and so forth. Now you have a prioritized list.

Now comes the discipline part. Start with A1 check it off when done, then go to A2. Sometimes you may have three or four things going on at once. If something happens put a sideways arrow pointing to the item, that will need to be rescheduled. If you decide it isn’t going to happen and you will not do it put an X by it. Stick to your plan. Don’t jump down to the C items because they are easier, stay on task. It will take some work, but you’ll be able to get the things done you want.

At a future date I’ll discus important, vs urgent. There is a difference. Remember this: Ask yourself What Matters Most and focus on those items.

Next week I’ll discus a week’s planning.