I’m always juggling too many balls. Between career objectives, day-to-day job demands, family, health, learning, hacking, hobbies and even this blog thing, I focus on a daily basis on two goals: Be as productive as possible and deliver as good as possible, on all of the above.
Some people, I guess, are born with the natural inclination to just ace things. Maybe it’s instinct, maybe there is a subconscious action where they plan ahead, maybe it’s luck. For the rest of us seeking excellence out of every deliverable, professional or personal, planning is a must.
Immediate gains out of planning your day, week and life in general:
- Reduces procrastination: When you plan you set expectations you’ll need to chase. If you are planning to include procrastination, well, then planning isn’t really the solution nor the problem.
- Improves time management: Knowing there is a limited time frame to achieve something gets us into super productive mode. However, planning the right time for each task is important.
- Improves quality of deliverables: Planning is as important for the “when” as it is for the “how”. Client meetings, coworker meetings, cooking a meal, working out, doing a hobby, etc. Anything worth doing is worth doing right.
Does this mean you’ll ace everything you do? Hardly. It does mean that you’ll maximize your chances to succeed, learn and gradually improve. Worst case, you’ve given it your best shot and that’s all that should matter.
Related: Daily, Weekly and Monthly planning