There is no denying that modern life is stressful. It is blindingly obvious to anybody holding down a career, a family, and a social life that stress is everywhere. There are many tips for dealing with stress, but that only reflects how much stress there is to be dealt with.
Next Level Daily, a company that produces a handy daily planner pdf, say that there will always be a market for this type of product. Why? Because time management and daily planning are essential skills. They need to be these days.
However, even for those who are quite adept at planning out each day and setting long term goals, the unexpected can still throw a wrench in the works. And you can also enter a time in life when tasks just begin to mount.
You might feel that your hitherto planning methods just don’t cut it any more. When this point comes along, it’s time to upgrade your planning.It’s often amazing how a few changes can actually be pretty effective at massively expanding the number of things you can cope with. Improving your planning is a matter of having the right tools and adopting some good habits.
Making Time for Priorities
Another clear sign that you need to improve your daily planning is that you don’t have time to focus on the things you care about. For some this could be the advancement of a rewarding career; for others it could be about finding the time to concentrate on the non-career activities which bring meaning to life.
For others still, it could simply be finding the time to take time off, or to spend time with family and friends. Remember, none of these are unimportant just because they don’t have a monetary return or because they do not have important deadlines attached to them.
So effective daily planning is all about managing your time and commitments while also making the time for the things you want to make time for. It is about your commitments to yourself and to others.
Tips for Improving Your Daily Plan
If you want to improve the quality of your daily planning, either because you are failing to do so or because circumstances now require more planning, here are some tips:
Write Out Your Plan Every Day
You don’t just make a plan and have done with the matter, expecting yourself to automatically stick to it every day. If there is one thing about the hectic modern world, it’s that plans and commitments can change day by day, and new ones can come along at a day’s notice. Therefore, set some time aside every morning – make it part of the plan – and plan out your day.
Consider Priorities
Prioritization is particularly important. You need to have a hierarchy of importance for your tasks. Doing the washing before you meet that deadline, for example, is probably the wrong way round. But, at the same time, never getting the washing done because you have a lot of deadlines also shows that your planning needs some revision.
Brainstorm A To Do List
Nevertheless, before you can organize your tasks according to importance, you also need to set them all out and have them all in front of you before you start organizing them. The best way to so this is to quickly brain storm. Forget about how important each task isand just write them all out on a piece of paper.
Following these tips is a sure way to get proper planning into your life – or to improve your daily plan when things get more hectic.