Failing to Plan is Planning to Fail
Splitting your year up into quarters may seem slightly overkill for the everyday person, but it’s an essential skill to master to make your life more productive. Successful people, leaders, organizations, and businesses around the globe have planned quarterly for decades to maximize success and effectively keep heading in their chosen direction.
We have all met individuals, be it friends or family members, who seem to do so much more than others and still find time to do everything you do too. Your life should be no different.
There are various benefits of planning ahead. For instance, planning ahead will allow you to maximize your time and be in total control. It reduces the risk of doing business, improves efficiency, and gives you peace of mind knowing that you have planned ahead.
Prepare For Success
Ask any world champion, CEO, or leader how they manage to succeed, and you will hear the same answer; it’s through setting achievable goals and milestones, planning in advance, and holding themselves accountable to their plan. Often, the repetitive, almost tedious processes create success, and planning is critical to being successful.
A Way to Impact the Future
Planning brings the future into the present, allowing you to set out your activities for the coming days and weeks, enabling you to see how to allocate your time to different areas of your life.
A great way to start is by filling out an annual calendar with all your important dates that occur, birthdays, etc. Then begin to fill in any unmissable events, and eventually, you will see gaps that will allow you to plan for holidays, time off work, concerts, exams, weddings and special events, meeting up with friends, etc. the list is endless.
Seeing the big picture and then focusing on a 3-month period will transform the way you look at your future and plan your days.
Becoming Proactive
Understanding the timeline in front of you allows a proactive approach to your everyday interactions with others. Whether you are confronted with a challenge or need to help a family member, knowing you have time to spare in your schedule gives you flexibility.
Being proactive doesn’t come naturally; it requires work and small steps at first. For example, you may be participating in a community-run in a few weeks and need to build your fitness level beforehand.
Deciding to exercise every day until the event is not a well-thought-out approach. It may seem like you are being proactive, blocking your calendar out for daily exercise; however, the chances of you sticking to the schedule is slim as too much too quickly can blow the wind out of your proactive sails when you miss the scheduled exercise.
Instead, try planning two to three exercise sessions per week and see if you stick to the schedule. One of the most challenging skills to master is holding yourself accountable for your actions and plans. The more time you spend working on the proactive skill, the easier it will become in all areas of your life. Being in control of your schedule is crucial to leading a proactive lifestyle.
Risk Reduction
Every new initiative entails risk since we cannot predict the future. In many cases, the risk level influences whether a project or concept may proceed. If your aim involves others, such as a company or a team, the level of risk will affect whether they are ready to give you a chance.
To tackle that, describe your plan. You can demonstrate that you’ve considered the risks and are prepared to adapt as needed. You indicate that you’ve done everything possible to minimize danger.
Increased Credibility
One of the most effective methods to gain credibility is to be a competent planner. If you’re a leader or aspire to be one, your ability to supervise the planning process may determine your success and respect. Good planners understand how to establish clear, attainable goals and what has to happen to reach them.
Peace of Mind
Any undertaking or concept that necessitates a plan will cause anxiety. Planning reduces the amount of uncertainty in the future and increases your confidence. You’ve considered everything. You’ve assessed the advantages and disadvantages. Although the stress won’t go away completely, you’ll get more peace of mind with a plan in place.
Improved Efficiency
You’ve probably heard about projects that didn’t go as planned. There is a lot of emphasis on the humiliation of defeat, but it’s also crucial to recognize how so much waste occurred. This involves money and time wasted. Even if a project isn’t wholly unsuccessful, a lack of planning implies it used more resources than necessary to complete it. Planning ahead of time improves efficiency and reduces waste.
Tips for Daily Planning, Why It’s Important
We all have the same amount of time in one day, and for most of us, our days are repetitive experiences filled with behavioral habits such as waking up and going to sleep around the same time or eating set meals at set times throughout the day. Our bodies are incredibly efficient at becoming in sync with our routines.
The easiest way anyone can experience their body’s behavioral habit is to wake up 20 minutes earlier than you usually would randomly. This will make you feel exhausted and lethargic throughout the day, all caused by a 20-minute change to your regular routine. Our 24 hours may differ slightly during weekends and holidays, but we are all creatures of habit, and this is good news for our daily planning!
We can use behavioral habits to our advantage when planning our daily routines. A well-drilled set of events on a morning can make a massive difference to your entire day, whether it’s waking up earlier twice a week for exercise or deciding to eat your morning meal during your commute to miss the rush hour traffic and start the day less stressed. A few small changes worked overtime can be classed as a form of planning on the micro-level and will eventually become second nature to your body.
Take Away
So, what do you want to accomplish in the next 3 months? Whether it is short or long term, planning will undoubtedly improve many areas of your life. You will feel in control, ready to respond to challenges, increase performance, be less stressed and be more productive. Start with the big picture and then introduce small daily changes remembering to hold yourself accountable to your plans. Take control of the direction you’re heading in, start planning today.
