In a previous blog we discussed the importance of planning your week as a team (read it here). We know, it sounds obvious but not many companies we have spoken to actually do it. Well the same is true of planning your day.
For Paul, our ‘enlightened founder’, it is now a habit and something that is completed every single evening (even for his personal life), however, it wasn’t always easy.
We’ve learnt that lots of people simply try to commit to achieving way too much in the average day and then ‘beat themselves up’ over the fact that their todo list is as big, if not bigger, at the end of the day that at the start.
With the best intentions in the world, planning has to be realistic.
The cycle of planning and not achieving 100% is completely demoralising! Paul has been in this trap more often that not. However, he was fortunate enough to meet and become good friends with Mike Gardner, The Time Doctor, and found a process that actually works! We highly recommend downloading Mike’s Top Tips ebook.
So here’s Paul’s simple 5 step process:
1) Commit to planning your next day (that means planning tomorrow, today)
2) Set aside 15 minutes every day, no more (a bit of pressure helps with your prioritisation)
3) Identify the 3 tasks that will make the biggest difference to your business — no more! (limiting yourself in this manner means you really have to question, prioritise and make some tough decisions. Don’t forget to delegate!)
4) Here’s the biggie — schedule it in your diary!(if you have to write a piece of marketing, schedule time in your diary to do it, otherwise it won’t happen)
5) Celebrate! You did it! (you achieved 3 things that have propelled your business forward and were important! Have a beer / cup of tea and a good night’s sleep. No ‘busy’ days!)
Personally, Paul plans his next day every night on his phone using a great little ToDo list app — Remember the Milk.
Paul has 5 lists based loosely on Stephen Covey’s matrix:
Today — top 3 things, important and urgent tasks:
A: important and not urgent tasks — largely strategic tasks
B: urgent and not important
C: non urgent and non important, routinely deleted
Inbox: a dumping ground for non urgent tasks throughout the day, prioritised in the next planning session
That’s it!
All Paul does is focus on Today! He claims his mind is clear of all the other stuff that used to cause stress, frustration and confusion throughout the day. It’s now recorded and logged so no more need to worry anymore!
So why not give planning your next day a try, it’s guaranteed to give you a good night’s sleep and you get to celebrate every day!
