Unfortunately, I am as inconsistent with this tool as I am with my spiritual work. When I plan every month/week/day consistently, what I can accomplish is truly frightening. Not a minute of my day goes to waste, and everything I do during the day is focused on achieving my long term goals. Well, those plus the nagging short-term essential tasks.
It's a simple process as well:
- Buy a day planner. Brand doesn't matter, but it's important that you have a calendar as well as daily pages as part of the base package.
- Commit to carrying the thing everywhere. If you don't have it, you can't use it.
- Sit down and write out some long-term goals, and make them real in your mind. Then, figure out what mid-range goals need to happen along the way, and document them. From here the short-term (daily) goals should be apparent. You can abstract this out and define roles for yourself, come up with mission and vision statements, and all that extra work if you like, but the goal is to make sure that you fit enough time in your day for the important work that you'd otherwise never do.
- Every morning, plot out your day as best fits your schedule, using the to-do section or the calendar section. Make sure you're putting some of that long-term stuff, and (this is important) number your tasks according to how important they are. You'll also clear out the previous day's work to make sure that everything you captured gets dealt with appropriately, and you'll reference your calendar to see if there are any events you need to deal with.
- Use the book during the day. If you make a commitment in a meeting, receive a phone call, remember you need to send an important e-mail, or whatever, write it down in the planner.
- Use the book during the day #2. Open the book, go to the highest rated task, and work on that until you're done. At that point, move on to the next step.
That's it. Simple, obvious, easy, and if you do it every day it'll change your life. Guaranteed.
