Are You Ready to Plan?

So let's talk about planning. In this hectic 20, 24, times are tough, people are pressed, everyone is stressed out, budgets are tighter. But I think if anything, it makes planning even more important because when you look at the resources you have available, you have to now make them stretch and make them work harder for you. The first thing I always tell people is learn to write things down. We all overestimate what our minds can hold these days, and we're so distracted, our attention is really cut down. So write things down. Write down what's the most important thing I need to do this week or. Or what are the three important tasks I have to achieve today. Just write it down on a piece of paper, on a. Post it in your phone notes. Sometimes it's easier to set it as an alarm in your phone to remind you at 2pm make sure you paid this. Find a way so that you're reminded every day and that it's easy and it's accessible. If it's something you need to prep for the night before, if it's something you know you're going to need to do this weekend, I have to read about it. Set alarms, put it in your calendar, put it on a piece of paper so that it's on top of your mind. You don't have to get home at the end of the day, you're going to bed and you're like, oh, I forgot the most important thing I needed to do today. I think that's the first step and it helps you to have clarity so that you're able to achieve what you need to achieve. And then I think it's important also to think longer term. We plan in short term, one day, three days, one week. Because it's hard to plan long term because you don't know what's going to come in or what's going to change. And plans are flexible, but you still need to have some sort of a structure. Otherwise you're caught off guard or you're surprised when you can't pay for something or you need you needed somewhere and you're in the wrong place. I always think we overestimate the amount of tasks we can do. But if you plan them and you're sensible about it, say, okay, I need to do these 10 things in the next month. Fine. Which are the most important? 5. Warren Buffet says he asks someone, what are the top 20 things you want to achieve in your life? And he gets the guy to write them all down. Then he says, now look at those top five. Eliminate all the rest Just let go of them. You're not going to be able to do everything you want in life. Look at the top five, prioritize them, focus and execute them. Then you'll have a happy life, you'll feel satisfied you've done something. But if you're trying to do too many things, you're not going to achieve anything. So focus is one of the things. Once you start to write things down, you start to have clarity. Sometimes I look at my old notebooks and I can see all the lists and plans and goals and tasks and things that I used to have and I can see how have I changed? Have I achieved those things? Did I focus? Did I prioritize? Is it still on my to do list four years later? So writing down helps you have that clarity so that you can now focus. If you know these are the top three things I need to do this week, every day they are there on your post, its sitting on your computer or your mirror on your phone and you're just seeing them all the time. It reminds you sometimes I'll have the same thing there for a month even. But I need to sit every day to remind myself, I need to work towards this, I need to work towards this, I need to work towards this. So at least I make some progress this month. I do one of the tasks, I go to the gym once this week. So it helps you to focus on those different things. And then once you're able to focus, then you can do what's called deep work, where you're going in depth about it, you're handling it well because the other challenge of being scattered and all over the place, you're doing a bit, a bit, a bit everywhere, but you're not sitting quietly, no distractions to actually get it done once properly. When you do things half, half all the time, you end up spending more time on them because you're going to have to fix your errors, add the people you added, forgot last time, change this. I need to do this research. So once you practice your skills of planning, you'll start to see those things better. Oh, I have this meeting on Friday, but I need to make sure that we sent in the orders before Friday. I don't want to reach the meeting and be like, eh, let me do it now. So those are the kinds of things, once you learn how to organize and focus, you can do the deep work on it. Say, I'm going to set two hours aside for this report. So I do the research first. I send all the emails, I call the people, I needed to call so that by the end of the two hours the report is done. You need to have strong boundaries. Maybe put a timer on your phone, switch off your notifications. I saw during COVID people used to stick a pot paper on their door to tell their kids, don't enter. I'm in a meeting, so do what you need to do. Tell your colleagues I'm not available for this one hour. Find the time where you can focus and get into it very well without distractions because then you won't have to do it again. Rather than doing 30 minutes, 30 minutes, 30 minutes. Five times in the month you sat for two hours, you handled it. You're happy with the quality at the end. Submit that feeling at the end once it's submitted and it's done and you get to take something off your to do list. Enjoy that feeling because you also need to be incentivized and rewards is a good part of planning. Make sure that you have rewards for when you achieve the things you want so that you're more motivated. It works physically in your brain and it also motivates you emotionally so you feel happy about it. You're proud of yourself. You've rewarded yourself. Whether it's something small you get to buy or to eat or to relax or to watch a show. Or you tell someone and they're like, well done. Tell yourself, good job, I got it done. Enjoy that feeling at the end when something is accomplished and those little habits and practices will help you to be more organized and to achieve more in these difficult times.