How often do you feel like you're not where you want to be in life? You feel like you're always busy, always checking things off of a to do list, but never really making progress in life.
Then, when you look at your daily life, you're probably not being efficient. You're wasting time on social media or doing things that are unproductive.
Why does this happen?
Well, it's because you might not know what you should be doing. You don't have a daily plan to help guide you through the day.
Why planning is important in our daily life
"An hour of planning can save you 10 hours of doing." -Dale Carnegie
What is the importance of planning? Time.
It's that simple, it all comes down to time management. No matter what you do in life, you can never get more time so you want to make the most of what you have.
When we don't plan things out, time is typically wasted. You lose focus, you get distracted. Avoid time gaps, gaps lead to distractions.
If you have a plan for the day, when you complete one task, you know what the next task is so can quickly get started on it instead of spending time figuring it out.
7 benefits of daily planning
Some ways that planning helps your life:
- You're organized
- You know the top priorities for the day
- Increased mental energy
- You can create rhythm completing daily tasks
- You'll free up more time to take a break
- You'll be more successful
- It reduces stress
Make regular planning a habit
Good habits are the key to success and happiness. If you build a habit to plan regularly, you enjoy all the benefits that come with it.
Planning your day is not a difficult habit to start. It only takes a few minutes each day but with save you a lot of time in the end.
You can use the free time to do things you want to do or enjoy which helps reduce stress. You'll be happier knowing you accomplished what you needed and can spend your free time enjoying the things you want to do.
Build your to do list around your goals
It's extremely important to focus on your goals when you build your to do list.
Often, people build to do lists with things they "think" they need to get done but the reality is, most of the time, they are time wasting tasks.
Everything on your to do list should focus around your goals. This way, when you complete tasks, you're actually working towards you goals.
This is the entire system that our planners are built around. With the goal of being successful, goals are key.
First, you create proper goals that are achievable. Then, you build your task lists based on those goals.
So as you complete your tasks, you eventually complete all of your goals.
It's a planning system built for success.
How to stick with your daily plan
We understand that sometimes, it can be difficult to stick with a daily plan. You have to take the time to actually do it.
Well, that is one of the solutions to stick with your plan. You need to schedule time each day to work on your plan.
The greatest control is being the kind of person who just does it. It doesn't need to be an hour, all it takes is a few minutes each day to update your plan for the next day.
Each morning you'll wake up and have a plan for the day. Avoid anything that isn't on your plan and get done what you already planned.
The planning process is much easier when you're consistent. This is important, your success will be determined by your consistency.
Write out your plan every day at the same time
To make it even easier, it's helpful to manage your planner at the same time every day.
A popular schedule is to sit down at the end of the day for a few minutes and do it then. This way, when you wake up in the morning, you're ready to go.
This is key to creating a successful planning process, set the habit of doing it daily at the same time.
Plan your day with a productivity method
There are many different productivity methods that you can use and it's all about what works best for you. When you ready about the process certain people use, you have to understand that their methods might not work for you.
If you try a productivity method and it isn't helpful, just try another method. You'll get a sense if it's a good fit or if you should keep trying.
Some popular productivity methods are:
- Time blocking
- Rule of Three
- Eisenhower Matrix (our planners include an Eisenhower Matrix)
- Task batching
- 80/20 rule
- 2 minute rule
- Pomodoro
These are just a few productivity techniques out there for you to try. Give them a try and see which one helps you be more productivity.
You can always change up the method you use if you find it loses energy.
Daily planning builds time management skills
One reason that people hate planning is because they are bad at it and have poor time management skills.
You know what they say, practice makes perfect. As you continue to plan your day, you get use to the time schedule. You learn how you work, how to control you time, you can create strategies to break down your day.
Understanding that you created a schedule that you need to follow, you'll learn how to get things done so you have time to complete everything.
You'll learn ways to prioritize tasks, you'll make each hour of the day more effective.
It's not difficult and does not take a lot of energy to do but time management skills will help you accomplish whatever personal goal you set for yourself.
What are good daily planners to use?
We offer several different planning options but since today we are talking about daily planning, we're going to focus on just those planners.
We offer a few different daily planner options and in all formats as well.
Digital
Our first daily planner option is our digital version. Daily planning with this planner is incredibly easy and gives you plenty of planning tools to extract peak performance from your schedule.
The daily planning section has includes room for:
- Daily affirmation
- Habit tracker
- Hourly schedule
- Prioritize goals
- Notes
Printable
Next we have a printable version of our digital daily planner. You can enjoy all of the tools but in a printable version.
We also have another daily planning printable template, it's a version of our paper notebook template.
So with our printable options, you have two daily planning templates that you can use and try out.
They are slightly different from each other but both prove to be helpful with planning your day.
Paper notebook
Our paper notebook was the original daily planner that we created. All options include very similar tools and traits.
They focus on not just the to do list that many time management tools center around, but it also includes resources to aid your daily planning.
Things like:
- Life goals
- Habit tracker
- Reading list
- Eisenhower matrix
- Prioritize projects
- Monthly calendar
- Weekly planning
- Daily planning
- Note taking
You get a beautiful notebook with everything ready to go. We have 2 different versions, a Compact version with is a 90 day planner and the Ultimate version that is 6 months.
Both versions are available in multiple cover options so you can get something that you love and matches your energy.
How do I write a daily plan?
Proper planning isn't just about throwing some tasks on a list and checking them off. It's about figuring out what is important, creating achievable goals, and building an action plan to accomplish everything.
When you plan your day and life properly, you should have complete focus.
The first thing you need to do when you plan your day is look at the big picture. Taking a few minutes to figure out where do you want to be in 1 month? 6 months? 1 year? 10 years? etc. Go all the way out too your full life if you want to.
The better you understand the bigger picture, the easier it is plan the shorter time.
Then you work backwards. From 1 year, you look at monthly, then weekly, and finally you'll be able to figure out how to plan your day.
When you know you want to accomplish XYZ this week, you can break it down into daily tasks.
Focus on 3 important tasks at a time
With our systems, we focus on 3 goals or tasks per period. So each year, set 3 big goals for the year. Same with monthly and weekly. Again with the day planning, you create 3 goals or tasks you want to accomplish.
Slow and steady wins the race. As you accomplish every goal and task, you're getting closer to the big goals.
What is the right option for you?
Picking the right daily planner for you is going to come down to what works best for you. Everyone is different.
Whether you want digital or paper, either the printable or our notebook version, will depend. We see many of our customers actually use both. You can use them side-by-side or go back and forth.
It's also important to note that sometimes things get stale and it's good to change things up. You should give each one a try before you determine which one is right for you.
Our paper planners are straightforward but if digital planning is new to you, you can read an article about digital planning and how it could improve your life.
We also offer a free mini planner which is a small example of what our daily plan template is like.
Planning is important so no matter which method you pick, this is your life and if you're looking to increase your productivity, planning helps.
You'll have a happier and less stressful life.