Planning, a critical piece of success!
Posted on February 12, 2008
Planning is one of the top three things that I believe is the difference between being good and being great! Planning is critical to your own and any organization’s success. Without planning things get forgot, deadlines get missed, and inefficiency reigns. In this article I will explore the positive impact that good planning can have on your time, professional and personal life, and your SUCCESS!
Three Key Pieces of Success
- Take Action, without this piece nothing happens!
- Planning, what this whole article is about.
- Self Confidence, if you do not believe in your self, who will?
Organization
By planning ahead, you will be more organized. I can not put it much simpler than that! Planning will align your thoughts and energy so you will be more productive and get things done in a timely manner. The farther in the future you can plan the better. Start by planning your day out, even if you only start to plan your afternoon every morning, you will find your self being more productive. Gradually move your planning horizon out into days, weeks, months, and then years. The longer your horizon, the more organized you will become. It will amaze you how much you can get done if you know what you have to do. It is a pretty simple concept that many of forget to pursue and use. Keep your plans flexible and do not get discouraged if you have to shift them around a bit. Things happen and situations come up, but stay focused and flexible, then stick to your plan.
Let the sub-conscience take on a load!
Another benefit of planning is to allow the natural abilities of your mind to help you. By planning ahead your sub-conscience mind will work on your problems and organization. Our minds are capable of processing so much information and will work on things we have mentally planned. Even when you do not think about a future planned task, your brain will be. It definitely works for me! Almost every task that I mentally plan for, I find the task gets done much faster and I always find a way to make it easy. Ideas will come to you if you take the time to plan.
Easy ways to make planning easy
1. Take notes, lots of notes. By taking notes you imprint your thoughts deeper into your mind and enable your mind to work out solutions and generate ideas.
2. Make list. This is so cliche, but by writing a list you can see exactly what you are aiming for. Make daily, weekly, and monthly list. It is even better if you can make a life list.
3. Prioritize, prioritize, prioritize! Take your list and prioritize them. If it is not a priority don’t do it. Make sure you work on the hardest and highest priority items first.
4. Keep a calendar. Using a calendar of some sort is very useful in planning. You can keep track of important dates, appointments, and events. Looking over your calendar will also align your thoughts with your other forms of planning.
5. Read the following books and articles:
- Eat That Frog by Brain Tracey
- Getting Things Done by David Allen
- 17 Tips and Tricks for Being Organized, Staying Sane, and Getting Things Done by Peter at We The Change
- 8 Unique Ways to Increase Productivity by Todd at We the Change
- Time Bandits: Stealing Your Life – Minute by Minute by Chris at Soupornuts
- Triple Your Productivity Tomorrow by Scott Young at Pick The Brain
- 11 Causes and Cures for Procrastination by John at John’s Place Online
- If You Don’t Do It Now, You’ll Regret It Later by David at Slow Down Fast
- Not Enough Hours in the Day by Bluskygirl at Life Goddess
- Are You in Control? by Alex at AlexShalman.com
or 
Stumble It!
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- Never ending list of being thankful.
» Filed Under Success, Time Management
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