7 Reasons why you should (really) Plan your Days
There is an exchange I have committed to on a daily basis — exchanging a few minutes of my time to getting the day planned. I do it, consistently, because it pays off in terms of productivity, concentration and accomplishments. Hence, I can easily detail dozens of reasons to plan your days.
7 Reasons why you should really Plan your Days
1) Get more Freedom in your Day
Most people don’t even bother planning their day because they truly believe they will have less freedom doing so. They believe structuring their time decreases flexibility and their ability to adapt to changes quickly. They think it will suck the joy out of the day and destroy their ‘young, wild and free’ attitude. But I think they are wrong. What happens when you are surprised by a deadline or a forgotten commitment?
When you begin your day with a concrete plan, you are outlining future success. You have the freedom to schedule time for work, leisure activities, learning experiences and side projects. Rather than waiting for freedom, you carve out the freedom you want.
If you feel like putting in extra working hours on some days, you can schedule those periods ahead. But if you feel like getting away from work, either to enjoy the city or to read all day, you can. In the words of Jocko Willink, “Discipline Equals Freedom”.
It was only when I engaged in daily planning that I had the time to study, write, read, blog, create courses, travel, play, learn and enjoy life more. It was no longer a question of having the time but creating the time.
After all, you are giving yourself the gift of taking charge of your time. You no longer wait for your schedule to be filled. You fill it yourself. Should you wait to be promoted? Or should you set a plan to improve your skillset and increase your chances?
2) Get more Productive and less Busy
When you don't plan your day and design its structure, you risk wasting valuable and precious time with time-filler activities. Time-feeder activities feed your time with progress and results, while time-fillers fill up your time for its own unproductive sake. You should always strive to increase the percentage dedicated to time-feeders vs time-fillers. That is, increasing productive hours, rather than just working hours.
When you plan the day ahead, you consciously decide how to spend your time — productively or busy. First, it is a matter of finding out what contributes the most to the projects you’re working on, then sketching a plan, putting it into practice, and getting your productive time under control.
3) Experience a Sense of Progress
There are many things I love to experience — a romantic weekend, a walk-in nature or a delicious veggie burger. But nothing beats the good old sense of progress. A written half-chapter, the mastery of a drumming pattern or the completion of a daily priority.
Putting it more simply, if your goal is to make daily, consistent progress and experience the great feeling that comes with it, you must plan your days. I didn’t conduct rigorous scientific experiments, but it will happen. Just wait for it. Even better, plan for it.
4) Feel more Excited
The days I wake up feeling the most motivated and excited are exactly the ones I’ve got a plan for. It does not matter what is in the plan. As long as there is one, there is excitement. We’re familiar with the excitement that comes with planning the next vacation — the excitement that comes with planning usually matches the excitement of actually going on vacation.
The act of visualizing and writing down a plan, even if truly repetitive, gives you something to hold on to — the encouraging sensation for getting a blog post written, playing the drums or starting a research project. I cannot promise that work will feel like a vacation, but it is a start.
5) Increase your Focus
You have experienced those lousy mornings in which everything is unclear. You have no idea of what you are supposed to do. And because there is no plan, you jump from task to task with no focus. I call these trashy days, and that’s how they feel.
However, when the day is mapped out in advance, you are less likely to give in to distractions or waste time pondering what the next thing should be. It is easy to move fluidly through the day. There are no uncertainties and uneasiness. There is only focus on the long-term goal, the tasks that make it, and the next focused working hour.
Jordan B. Peterson, a clinical psychologist and the author of the 12 Rules for Life, suggests developing a roadmap for life, or simply, for the day, to help when we feel out of control.
6) Get more Responsibility
Perhaps you won’t appreciate all that comes with planning, especially responsibility. What previously could be blamed on others is now under your belt. It doesn’t make sense to complain about time being wasted when you fully developed the plan.
But it is this feeling of responsibility that forces you to manage the day better and increase your daily productivity. When you commit to a written plan, the necessity to make it work is bigger — you don’t want to encounter your lack of discipline and responsibility. You simply want to make it work.
7) Less Stress
The levels of stress coming from a lack of structure are detrimental to your ability to create great work. You might have an achievable list of tasks, projects and dreams. But without a roadmap helping you get there, you are likely to struggle… and give up.
If there is one major benefit to planning, it is stress reduction. There is no need to worry about the outcome when you have detailed the steps to achieve it. The only thing left is following the plan.
Does that mean the plan will always lead you to the outcome? No. But at least you have a solid base to work with. From a written plan, you can go a long way, way less stressed.
The Productivity Cycle Infographics
THE SYSTEM BEHIND EXTRAORDINARY RESULTS
But, seriously, get stuff done too
Truth be told, the main reason why planning has so much relevance is to help you get stuff done. But planning is not equal to execution. It’s never too early to say:
“Planning does not take you where you want to go. You do. Getting stuff done does. So, never replace one for the other.”