If we want to manage our time well, we need to be good at planning. Is it possible to over-plan? Yes and no.
The past week I was working with a client on more effective time management. We’ll call him Roger. The area he was working on was weekly/daily planning. He was frustrated that he was not executing his daily plans well. I asked him a few questions, and discovered that he had planned 100% of his time. He had everything figured out to the minute. The problem is that in the real world, things often don’t fit into a neat little package. Stuff breaks, people are delayed, and problems and obstacles are many. Roger was frustrated. What is the antidote? Plan only 70% of your available time. If you have planned well, you have determined your priorities and the order in which they need to be done. It is easy to determine a priority. Just ask one or both of these questions:
1. How much will I benefit if I do this?
2. How much will I suffer if I don’t do it?
If the answer to either of these questions is strong, you have an “A” priority. Once you determine your priorities, now comes the most important planning: What are the most important things I need to accomplish today? Ideally, this planning should be done the day before. Start with your A-1, stay focused and do not allow a distraction unless it is an even higher priority – like a customer who is having a crisis. If we do get such an interruption, we have allowed for it because we only scheduled 70% of our time. To be focused and remain flexible in managing our time, we need to:
1. Know our priorities
2. Plan only 70% of our time.
3. Enjoy a relaxed, fulfilled feeling at the end of the day.
