The Power in Planning

Happy New Year! I hope that you are off and running to make this year all it can be. How will you run? What course will you take? What resources do you need for your race?

If you are like me, it can be overwhelming to sort through all of the want-to's and have-to's to determine the best course of action. To keep up and progress in today's fast-paced world, it is essential to have a good plan. Multitasking is highly overrated and underachieving. If we are scattered in our thoughts or activities, we won't get very far and we won't get anywhere very fast. The focus planning provides is the key to progress.

Join me this month as we learn more about daily organizing and planning. Pick a new habit to develop and see how far it takes you. Most importantly, enjoy the journey.

Warmly,

Janna

Janna Rust
Founder

The Power of Planning

Time management experts claim that for every 1 minute of planning we save 10 minutes in execution. That means if we only spent 12 minutes each day planning our days, we would save two hours in wasted time per day. How much planning do you do? Do you plan your days, weeks, months or years?

When we lay down a track to run on through adequate planning, we can sprint through our tasks rather than wander around in them. Thoughtful planning creates confidence and efficiency. Fresh on my mind is my recent trip to the local gym. I arrived without a plan for my new weight training regime and being quickly intimidated by all of the equipment, piddled around on a few machines and left because of my frustration. Had I planned ahead, much time and mental anguish could have been avoided. Things are no different with the rest of our daily lives. Planning facilitates progress.

Challenge:

My challenge to you this month is to spend some time each week planning your overall week and your individual days. Create a list of things that need to be done. Scrutinize your list by asking if each item fits into your long-term plans. Work from your list and stay "on task". Then, notice how much time you saved!

Organizing Our Collection

I got it all together, but I forgot where I put it. - Anonymous

Have you ever finished a massive cleaning project and then couldn't remember where you put something? There is more to getting things done than merely being efficient at getting papers off our desk and ideas out of our head. Processing our workflow requires a good physical organization system.

If you've been reading the last few months, you've been following along with me as we proceed through David Allen's "Getting Things Done" steps. So far, we've covered the steps of Collecting and Processing. Now, we are ready for the step of Organizing.

Processing and organizing go hand in hand and I've found that in practice it worked for me to develop an organizational structure as a part of the initial processing process. As I've implemented these steps on my own, I set up a working structure before processing anything and modified it as I went along. Keep in mind that the organization step is one that can't be set up all at once and takes some experimentation. Find what works for you.

For everyone, however, there are seven primary types of things that will need to be organized:

A "Projects" list
Project support material
Calendared actions and information
"Next Actions" list
A "Waiting For" list
Reference Material
A "Someday/Maybe" list

All we really need is a calendar, lists, and folders...and a process to review our lists so we don't forget what is on them! We'll discuss the review process next month. That's when we plan how to get things done.

For more information about this process, I would be happy to consult with you. Please use my contact information at left. Additionally, check out the book "Getting Things Done" by David Allen.

As a Certified Professional Behavior Analyst, I can help you or your organization develop leadership skills that will contribute to the "bottom line" through the use of the DISC and Personal Interests, Attitudes and Values assessments. Contact me for details at 913-219-7844.