The things you actually do in the run of the day will give you an idea of where you’ll be 5 years down the line, how successful you’re going to be – or are for that matter. If your schedule is filled with things that don’t bring you closer to your goals, then you’re not going to reach those goals, or you at least won’t reach them as fast as you’d like to.
If you’re in sales and your day isn’t filled with cold calling or sales meetings, then you’re not going to sell a whole lot. If your goal is to build your dream body, but your daily schedule isn’t filled with the things that will get you closer to that goal, then you’re not going to get there.
Your schedule is your life through a microscope.
If you want to have a successful family life, but have no time scheduled to spend with your family, then odds are your family life isn’t going to be all that successful. You’ll look back at your life 10 or 20 years from now and wonder why things fell apart? Well, you didn’t put any time into the things that mattered most.
When you think about it, this pertains to every aspect of life.
We spend far too much time on things that we think are bringing us closer to our goals, but they really don’t require a whole lot of energy and shouldn’t be dominating our days.
My schedule used to be dominated by social media, answering emails early in the day, and surfing the net looking for cool ideas. Each of those things are important to me and my success, but they don’t require a ton of energy. They don’t need to be done early on in the day when I have more pep in my step. I can do each of those tasks just as well at the end of the day as I would at the beginning.
Answering the emails that I get on a daily basis is very important thing to me, actually it’s one of the most important things I do, but it doesn’t require my greatest amount of energy. However, writing quality blog articles, working on a product, putting together quality workouts for my online clients, filming quality workouts, and conducting research for articles, for the ebook, or for future endeavours requires a lot more energy and concentration. I need to be at my very best for those tasks – which now dominate the early part of my day.
I answer emails when I take a break from writing and research – or schedule them in for a bit later in the day.
3 steps to a more focused and effective schedule:
1. Identify the top 3 things that bring you the most success in the most important areas of your life.
2. Put them into your schedule first – then fill the rest of your schedule with the secondary tasks that also bring you success and give value to others. After that is done, fill in the rest: the medial tasks that need to get done but don’t take up a whole lot of brain power or energy.
Don’t forget to set aside time for your family and friends. They need to be in your schedule if they’re important to you. Don’t just leave them in the empty space, take time and put as much energy into them as you do your career. Life’s useless without quality relationships, family, and friends.
3. Plan your week not your day. Don’t waste 30 minutes of everyday when you can do it all in 30-60 minutes of one day. Put what needs to get done into your schedule, then leave space for life, free time etc…
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Do you have any other tips about planning? I’d love to hear them.
