How To Schedule Your Actions

All right, now that we have our prioritized actions, the next step in our process is to schedule them in. This next step is crucial. Few people set goals. Even fewer write them down. Fewer still create written plans. Of the few that are left, only a few of these people actually schedule in the action items from their plans. If you don't schedule in your actions, they are not real. The plan won't work itself. That's what they mean when they say you need to work the plan. Scheduling your actions is the first step in the execution process. Remember, it's not real real until you schedule it in. It's just an idea. Scheduling in an action also provides the basis for an accountability strategy, especially if you schedule another person in with you. Why? People tend to keep meetings they schedule with others. But if you have a one person meeting, meaning a meeting with yourself, there's a good chance that that meeting won't happen. By the way, a crucial part of the process is to recognize that start lines are even more important than deadlines. Why? This is a procrastination buster. It's usually the hardest part of a project. If you just have a deadline, people tend to procrastinate and wait until the last minute. The work product suffers. However, I also don't like to start too early because I like the stress that elicits my most productive and creative state. It forces me to focus in like a laser on the task at hand, ruthlessly eliminating distractions out of necessity. I call it mindful procrastination. I believe that there is an ideal time to start every project or goal. My team, however, kind of hates this concept of mindful procrastination. They don't like the stress. I tend to thrive on it. Instilling key habits are crucial for success. The habit of scheduling in your weekly priorities and then reviewing and amending your schedule daily is a key part of the process of achieving your goals. Goals. In fact, it's absolutely necessary if you wish to make consistent progress. All right, so the weekly process looks like this. Number one. Review your plans prior to the start of the week and identify the top 10 prioritized actions necessary to achieve your goals from each of the plans. So, 10 actions in total from all of your goals. So you can do this on a Friday or over the weekend, but no later than Sunday night. You do not want to start your week on Monday without knowing what your priorities are for the week. Step 2 Schedule these prioritized actions in for each day of the week. Again, they should be scheduled in prior to Monday morning. Otherwise, the week starts and you get caught up in the distractions of lesser important actions. By the way, these distractions are usually somebody else's priorities. Remember to leave open blocks of time for things that come up as they inevitably will, so you don't have to cancel slots where your priorities are scheduled in. Also, don't forget to schedule in time for answering emails or other messages. The third step is identify less important items that have come up, but things that still should get done. Like maybe you need a haircut. We'll call these less important items tasks. Fourth step is schedule in these tasks only if they fit in around your scheduled priorities. Priorities come first. Then tasks are scheduled in around the priorities if you can fit them in. Now there's a daily process too. That's the weekly process. The daily process is execute on your schedule. First is the first part of the process. Remember to have an accountability strategy to be sure that you do what you've scheduled in Unless a higher priority action comes along for the time slot. For busy, productive people like yourselves, that's certainly possible. Make sure you hold accountable to this schedule though. Second step is at the end of the day review. Your schedule should only take you a few minutes. Did you not get to one of your priorities for some reason? Did another higher priority come along that needed to be handled this week? If so, step three is revise the next day schedule. If you didn't get to a scheduled in priority, don't let it just evaporate. Poof. Never gets done. Schedule it for the next day for another day that week, and if another high priority action came in, schedule that in as well. It's important that you have a process for prioritizing. You should only be scheduling in actions to make a significant impact on your goals and your mission. Obviously, because your goals are a subset of your mission. Look, the overarching point here is your time most valuable resource you have. Use it wisely and mindfully. Get a high return at it. Have a plan and a schedule. If you follow this process, I guarantee that at the end of the week you'll look back and see you have had an amazingly productive week. However, not just productive, productive doing the most important things that matter to you. Those things that made the greatest impact on achieving your goals and thus your mission. And remember, if you follow this entire process, your overall goal is your mission and you'll have made a major impact on that at the end of the day. The end result should be a deep, satisfying feeling of fulfillment. So here's what it looks like. Practically so again, the processes that you want to decide upon and distribute your priorities and tasks before Monday morning. So more specifically, first identify your priorities from your plans. That's step one. Then step two is to decide which of your priorities to be scheduled in and on what day of the week. Step three is to do the same things with your tasks, like checking your social media. Right. If you want. Do you think that's important? Stopping off at the local bookstore or getting a manicure or something like that. Right. These are not priorities that will contribute to your mission or but they're still good to get them done if you can, but only if they fit around your priorities, then schedule them in first your priorities, and only then, if there's room, your task, simple as that. You can schedule them into a template or preferably into whatever calendar it is that you use.