By: Dr. Donald E. Wetmore
The old adage reminds us that "People don't plan to fail
but a lot of people do fail to plan." During a war, we find a tank operator
and a general. Which function is more important? It is probably the
general, at least in this sense. One can be the best tank operator on
the line, get out there everyday and shoot off more rounds of ammunition
and shoot them more accurately than anyone else on the line, but if
he is not shooting at a target that makes any sense, then his whole
day is wasted. The general, through advanced planning, decides where
the tank operator ought to go and thereby increases his "productivity".
A lot of people run their days like a tank operator without
a general. Awake in the morning, get dressed, off to work, grab the
first fire hose someone throws their way, get caught up addressing the
demands coming from the loudest voices shouting in their direction,
come home at night, sometimes beat and exhausted, get rested, get up
the next morning and repeat the cycle. That is living life by accident.
I encourage people to live their lives on purpose.
I want each of us to be a general. And there's a war out
there in that either you are in control of your time or someone else
is. And the best way for us to be a general and in control of our own
time is doing effective Daily Planning every day.
Here's five nifty Planning Principles to help maximize
your Daily Planning
- Do your planning the night before. I try to set aside time each
night for Daily Planning. I've wound down from the workday and I
am less pressured. The major benefit, however, it that by having
a plan of action completed the night before, we go to bed with a
sense of certainty and control about our next day and with a sense
of anticipation we would not ordinarily have. After getting into
the habit of accomplishing our Daily Planning each night, the quality
of our sleep will be enhanced because we have established a plan
each night that gives us the roadmap or game plan for the next day
eliminating the need to wrestle with all the loose ends in our heads
during our sleeping hours, interfering with the quality of our sleep.
- Put the plan into writing. There is extraordinary power in the
pen. Putting our plan into writing helps us to increase our feelings
of control and, indeed, the reality of control. When we try to keep
track of everything in our heads, things tend to slip through the
cracks.
- "Have to's" and "Want to's". Good planning involves more than
just properly administering our "Have To's". Sure we ought to better
handle our "Have To's", but we also need to do a good job taking
care of our "Want To's". Plan out not only the things you "have
to" do, but, more importantly, the things you "want to" do.
- Over plan your day. "If you want to get something done, give it
to a busy person." The more you plan to do, the more you can get
done because you take advantage of Parkinson's Law which says, in
part, that a project tends to expand with the time allocated for
it. If you have one thing to do for the day, it will take all day.
If you have three things to do for the day, you'll get all three
done. If you have twelve things to get done for the day, you might
not get all twelve done, but probably will get nine completed. See,
having a lot to do creates a healthy sense of pressure on us and
we almost automatically become better time managers.
- Prioritize your list. Our list will almost always include "crucial"
as well as "not crucial" items. Some items are more important, others
less so. Without some direction, we tend to gravitate towards the
"not crucial" items because they are typically easier to do, take
less time, and may even be more fun than many of our "crucial" items.
A simple numerical listing will suffice. Put a "1" next the most
important item on your list, the one item you would want done if
you could only accomplish one item. Then place a "2" next to the
second most important item, continuing the process until all the
items on your list are prioritized in order of their importance.
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Professional Member-National Speakers Association Copyright
2000 You may re-print the above information in its entirety in your
publication, newsletter, or on your webpage. For permission, please
email your request for "reprint" to: ctsem@msn.com
Dr. Donald E. Wetmore-Professional Speaker Productivity
Institute-Time Management Seminars 60 Huntington ST. P.O. Box 2126 Shelton,
CT 06484 (203) 929-9902 (800) 969-3773 fax: (203) 929-8151 email: ctsem@msn.com
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