How to Plan and Manage Your Time Effectively

How to Plan and Manage Your Time Effectively

“By failing to prepare, you are preparing to fail.” ~Benjamin Franklin

I’m going to show you my four-step process for planning and managing your time effectively.

You will get you the results you want and feel accomplished when you lay down at night knowing everything was completed on your schedule.

Before we dive into the four-step plan, let’s talk about the benefits of planning and time management and the consequences of not doing it:

The Benefits of Planning and Time-Management

Here are the benefits of intentionally planning ahead and managing your time effectively:

You’ll be motivated when you see the results you’re getting.
It will help you achieve your goals.
You’ll be more productive and feel accomplished.
Scheduling your tasks and using time management allow you to live intentionally, on your terms.
You’ll develop a consistent daily routine to keep you grounded.
It’s rewarding.

The Consequences

This is what will happen if you don’t plan ahead and manage your time wisely:

You’ll be stuck in reaction mode, reacting to whatever circumstances life throws at you.
Good intentions to get things done will be just that: good intentions. Nothing will get done.
You’ll lack direction or purpose for your life.
Other people’s needs will take precedence over your own agenda.
You’ll be distracted by social media, television and other technology.
Time is wasted.

Getting Started with Planning

There are two primary formats to plan and schedule your tasks and time:

Digital (such as Google Calendar)
Physical (paper planner you fill out by hand)

If you don’t already have access to a digital calendar or own a paper planner, I suggest trying both for two weeks and deciding which is a better fit for you.

Amazon has a great selection of paper planners if you don’t already own one.

I personally love my paper planner, and this is the method that works best for me.

This article by Luxafor explains five science-backed reasons why paper planners are better than digital calendars, but you should try both formats and choose the one that works best for you.

The Four-Step Planning Process

Once you select your preferred format for scheduling your tasks and time, complete this four-step process:

Write All Tasks Down

The first step in the planning process is to write down every task and event for the upcoming week/month (depending on how far out you’re planning).

The best day to do this step is Sunday. Set aside 30 minutes Sunday morning or evening to complete this.

Create three separate lists to file the tasks under. The lists should be titled “Routine,” “Results,” and “Relax.”

File any task under “Routine” that is a recurring task you do consistently on a daily or weekly basis.

Some Examples:

Cleaning tasks you do on a specific day of the week-laundry, mopping the floor, cleaning the bathrooms, vacuuming, etc
Meal-prepping for the upcoming work week
Cooking dinner
Working out
Picking up the kids from school
A set work schedule (i.e. 8-5 Monday through Friday)
Etc.

File tasks outside of your normal routine on your “Results” list.

This includes action items toward achieving your goals or tasks you “keep meaning to get to” but never do.

A great way to think about what belongs on your “Results” list is to think about your goals.

When you know your goals, you can schedule your priorities around them.

Visualize what your goals achieved look like. Then work backwards and figure out what “results” you need to schedule now to achieve them.

A great example I can think of for this is someone who signs up for a marathon. They can’t just show up on race day and hope to succeed, they have to prepare. It takes months of training and building up one’s stamina to be ready.

Some Examples of “Results” list tasks:

Purchasing an online business program and completing the first module (goal: starting an online business)
Registering for and attending an investment webinar (goal: buying stock)
Cleaning out the closet and separating unwanted items into piles: “giveaway” and “sell” (goal: de-cluttering your house)
Creating file folders and organizing all your financial information (goal: formulating a plan to pay off your debt within five years)

The “Relax” list is pretty straightforward.

File items such as brunch with the girls, date night with your significant other, movie with the kids, etc on this list.

Schedule Your Tasks on the Calendar

The next step is to schedule the tasks you’ve written down in your calendar.

It’s up to you how far you want to schedule out, but at a minimum, schedule out the upcoming week.

Start with your “Routine” list. Block out the time of day you will do the task and the time allotted to complete it.

Then, schedule your “Results” list and “Relax” list.

Follow and stick to your schedule as much as possible!

Plan for discomfort.

Let’s talk about discomfort.

Discomfort sucks.

But it’s necessary for new results.

We are programmed to feel discomfort when our brain registers something is “hard” or “confusing.”

Its completely normal to feel this way.

Nothing has actually gone wrong when this happens.

High-performance athletes weren’t born with the ability to win Olympic gold medals or Super Bowl titles.

Years of practice and dedication to their craft gave them that ability.

You will always get what you give. If you allow the discomfort and do the task anyway, you’ll get the results.

When something is hard or uncomfortable for me, I like to tell myself, “This is hard, but that’s okay. I can do hard things.”

There will always be problems. The minute you solve one problem, there’s another problem on the other side.

Learning to allow discomfort is an important skill in completing the tasks on your schedule.

The more often you practice allowing discomfort, the easier it will become to do hard things.

If you give up because it’s too hard, nothing will get done, and nothing changes.

Evaluate what’s not Working

At the end of the week, evaluate what didn’t work before you complete this process for the next week.

If something isn’t working, it means you’re not working, not the four-step process.

Examples of your schedule not working:

Other people’s requests/needs interfering. (I’ll talk about this more in the next section.)
Not allowing enough time for specific tasks. (As you complete this process week after week, you’ll get better at estimating how much time it will take. Try to have urgency with the time you’ve allotted without sacrificing the quality of your work.)
No motivation or drive to complete tasks. (This is a mindset problem. If you don’t have the right mindset, no amount of planning will do you any good.)

Use the information gleaned from your evaluation to tweak your schedule going forward.

Distractions

People

You are responsible for what isn’t accomplished on your schedule.

Other people will call, text, or email you regarding what is urgent to them, and they’ll expect you to draw your attention away from what you’re doing to meet their needs.

Learning to say “no” to what doesn’t serve you is a valuable skill you need to practice. Otherwise, other people’s needs will take precedence over your own.

Don’t operate in reaction mode to other people’s needs. Often what is “urgent” for them isn’t legitimately urgent. They just have something they want done “right now.”

Examples:

A family member is having a “crisis” and needs your attention immediately, but the “crisis” isn’t life-threatening.
A client or colleague needs something “urgent” from you, but you’re in the middle of working on a project.
An organization you volunteer for needs someone immediately and they’re asking you for help.

Allow yourself 24 hours to respond to other people’s requests and always prioritize yourself first, unless the situation is legitimately critical (i.e. someone’s house is on fire).

As a rule of thumb, schedule meetings, volunteering and even lunch or dinner dates at least a week or two in advance and always protect your schedule.

If you don’t manage your time, time will manage you.

Technology

Avoid checking social media, email, texts, etc when completing a task.

Shut your phone off if you have to and close any browser tabs that aren’t relevant to what you’re working on.

Again, stay away from “reaction” mode-responding to that “urgent” text-and focus on being proactive in accomplishing the task at hand.

I recommend giving yourself a block of time-maybe 15 to 30 minutes-to check your social media in the morning, respond/comment, check the news, etc, and then move on with your day. Give yourself another 15-30 minutes in the evening.

Just get out of the habit of checking your phone all the time. Most of our lost time is lost in minutes, not hours. A few minutes here, a few minutes there adds up quick.

Smart phones keep track of your screen time. Get in the habit of checking how much screen time you’ve logged when you’re evaluating (step four) and make sure your time isn’t getting sucked up by technology.