How to Plan Your Day

Author : Tristan Loo
Highly successful people realize the importance of being consistently productive each day and they devote each day towards extracting as much value from that day as possible, whether it is in their personal or professional growth. The tool that they use to motivate themselves is their daily plan. Maintaining the practice of having a daily plan can help you stay focused on the priorities of that particular day. You are more likely to get things accomplished if you write down your plans for the day. · Plan out each day the night before. Spend 15-20 minutes each night before you go to sleep to plan out your following day. Internationally acclaimed Personal Development Expert, Brian Tracy, states that one minute of planning will save you 10 minutes in executed action. If you wait until the next day to plan, you might run into too many distractions and interruptions that will prevent you from staying focused on a plan. By having a plan already prepared, you can cross-check any opportunities that come up during the day with your prior commitments and objectives. Also by planning the night before, you allow your subconscious mind to work with those tasks over night and in the morning, you will know exactly what your commitments are for that day, rather than wasting that morning trying to figure out what it was that needed to be done.· Create a master to-do list. Your master list is comprised of all the tasks that you can think of. Think of it as a brainstorming list. If you think of a task that you might need to do, just put it on your master list. There is no commitment towards acting on any of the tasks on your master list. It's purpose is simply to record those tasks so that they are not forgotten. Any additional tasks that come up during the course of your day should go into your master list first.· Create a Must-do List. Your must-do list is comprised of all the tasks that are of the highest priority for you and carry the heaviest consequences, whether it be positive or negative. Put some time into carefully creating this list because once a task goes into your must-do list—it must be done that day. Tasks on your must-do list should not be postponed or rescheduled unless absolutely necessary because this will reinforce a bad habit of not holding true to your priorities—a habit which will eventually lead to procrastination, idleness and not meeting your goals on time. Your must-do list should be relatively short in nature and should not be more than six items. It is very important for you to tackle these items first before moving on to other things.· Create a Should-do list. This is a list of the things that you should get done during the day, but are not crucial or necessary enough to warrant being on your must-do list. Should-do tasks should be completed at your discretion only after all the items on your must-do list have been completed.· Keep track of appointments. These are the set times during the day that are dedicated for a certain event. When you make an appointment, place it onto your main calendar and then transfer those appointments onto your daily planner each day.· Delegate tasks. Always look at your to-do lists with an eye for delegation. Highly successful people know that they cannot do everything themselves and they look at their to-do lists and ask themselves which of those activities can they hand over to other people to complete. This is a crucial aspect of leveraging your time.· Three reschedules and "you're out." If you find yourself moving uncompleted tasks over into the following day, and the next day, and the day after that, then you need to ask yourself the question of why that task is on your list in the first place and what value it has in your life. Make it a rule not to transfer a task more than three times.· Plan out your meals. Something that is missed from almost all daily plans out there is meal planning. Planning out your meals is important because it will (1) save you money on going out to eat, and (2) is important for your health. There are some very successful business people out there who have their time management down to a science, yet these very people are the ones who are regularly going through the drive-through of a fast food restaurant every day and are in poor health because of their terrible diet. Remember that time management is life management and the number one priority on your daily list is—YOU!By implementing these strategies for your day, you can successfully increase your personal and professional productivity and achieve your dreams and goals much more efficiently.For over 10 years, Tristan has inspired, motivated, and brought success to the lives of the people he's touched. Accomplished in his own life, Tristan has competed athletically against Olympians, rescued and saved numerous lives as a police officer, and became a highly sought-after Personal Development Coach. Tristan is the founder of the Synergy Institute, a San Diego based Personal Development Firm. His philosophy of passionate living and helping others fulfill their dreams has continually been the driving force that has placed him well above the industry standard. Visit his website at http://www.synergyinstituteonline.com or by email at info@synergyinstituteonline.com
Keyword : time management, daily planning, synergy institute, tristan loo, productivity, success, synergy