The Planning Mistakes That Are Making Your Life Harder.

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The more you plan, the more time you save in execution.

And yet a lot of us still avoid planning because it feels too restrictive or because we think we can do it well inside our heads.

Except both of those are simply not true.

The time I have spent planning in advance has saved me so much time, so many headaches and energy that I can’t even convey it into words.

With 3 kids, a full time job (shift work!), a business, a role in my husbands business, a hobby farm and a home, I would be a serious HOT MESS if I didn’t take time to plan out my days, months and year inside my planner.

(I use the Life Book; a planner I created myself because I just couldn’t find one that worked for the ambitious, heart centred mom with a full life. Go here to learn more. Or here to take it for a free test drive.)

So the first mistake people make is not planning at all. If you don’t take time to plan out your time, projects or goals I can guarantee you, sh*t will often not go well.

Read on for 3 more common planning mistakes.

1- You are all over the place

Something I often see people do is use separate planners for work and personal life. I’ve even heard of people using 4 or 5 different planners to organize and manage their lives. Holy heck….I can only imagine how much time they have to spend flipping back and forth from one planner to the other before they can plan anything, or how often they double book or forget things.

Get ONE planner and organize your schedule for ALL THE THINGS in it. Of course you might have separate calendar where you plan content or business projects in detail but your time should be managed in one place. The only way to really have clarity on how much time you have and what you have going on, is to be able to see it clearly all in once space.

(The Life Book is a great planner to be able to do this as I literally designed it to be able to organize and manage all areas of my life. I call it my personal assistant, because its almost as good as one. You can learn more here. Or you can test it for free here)

2- Buffer time

You are not a machine and even the best made plans don’t always go according to plan. You need to make sure your day is not scheduled down to the minute. Its a sure fire way to burnout and get super frustrated that things never go according to plan.

Interruptions happen.

Your brain needs breaks.

Its takes time to transition from one task to the other.

Schedule in buffer time to account for these things. It really depends on a lot of variables but roughly, allow for 10-20% of your time to be buffer time.

3- A plan you can stick to

A day scheduled down to the minute is one example, but there are a lot of ways we create plans that if we are being honest, are simply not going to happen.

Personally, I know not to schedule pretty much anything after 5pm. Once the kids are home, its supper, bath and bedtime and by 8pm, my brain is toast. I am simply not a night or even an evening person so I can plan to do all sorts of things after the kids go to bed all I want, but I know from experience its not happening.

So consider your personality, responsibilities, constraints, like and dislikes before creating a plan so you make sure its one you will actually stick with.

Do you do any of these?

Whether you do one or all of them, thats actually good news because it means there are some pretty simple things you can do to save some time and make life easier!

And who doesn’t want that?!

Jennifer

Organized Owl

p.s. If you enjoyed this post and would like access to daily free content on all things organization and productivity, you can find me on IG @organized_owl.

How To Plan Your Day

Every minute you spend in planning saves 10 minutes in execution – Brian Tracy.

Even if this is partially true, and I am inclined to believe its mostly true, imagine the time you could save over a life time if you started planning?!

I honestly believe this is one of the main reasons why I seem to get so much done compared to a lot of other people. I don’t think I’m a harder worker or have some special talent other don’t, I simply take time to plan things out.

My husband is one of the hardest workers I know and since he doesn’t plan very much (yes, I get the irony…) his days are often a hectic mess and he loses a lot of time to things he might have foreseen if he had done some more planning.

Goal planning, yearly planning, monthly planning, event planning, occasion planning and yes, day planning.

It all adds up to a heck of a lot of time saved and headaches avoided.

Today I want to share the 5 step process I go through to plan out my day so I can be prepared, organized and optimally productive.

Just before we get started, make sure you have a good planner to do this in. I use the Life Book planner, which I created myself because I couldn’t find one that worked well for me. So many planners lack the necessary space to plan properly. You can check out the Life Book here, or download the free mini version here to test it out.

1-Whats already scheduled

Look at your monthly calendar and see what is already booked or scheduled for today. Write that into today’s schedule.

2- Non-negotiables

These are the things you do, often daily, that take time and must be done. We often forget about them when planning our day because they are part of our normal routine but we have to take them into consideration before we create a to-do list so we know exactly how much time we have. So add in any non-negotiables, like school drops off, kids sports practises or meal preparation.

3- To-do List

Looking at how much time you have left in your day, create your to-do list. Look at your weekly, monthly or Master to-do list and decide what should be done today. Start with the most urgent items and add in whatever else you have time for (2-4 items max). If you want, identify any other task you will do IF you have time.

4- Identify your frog

Brian Tracey coined the term Eat That Frog which basically means you should identify and do your most important task of the day first. There are a few reasons for this; 1, since the longer the day goes on the more likely life is to get in the way, it ensures it actually gets done; 2, getting done the task that is the most important first takes off the pressure and makes you more productive the rest of the day. So figure out which task that is and schedule that in first or as early as possible.

5- Loosely schedule in the rest

Lastly, schedule in the remaining tasks on your list at the general time (morning, afternoon or evening) you plan on doing them. Being too rigid with your schedule by putting everything at super precise moments puts a lot of pressure on you to have the day go perfectly and if there is one thing we know, perfection is a myth. You are setting yourself up for failure by doing this because you will likely get off track, get overwhelmed and stressed because things are not going according to plan. So just pick a general time.

Bonus tip:

Start this the evening before so that you have time to prep anything necessary in advance. This is actually a super important step. I get asked all the time if we should plan in the evening or the morning of and I always say both. Start the day or evening before and then finalize it the morning of.

This may all seem like a long process but I promise you, once you get used to doing it, it only take 5-10 minutes tops! Especially if you have already started planning for your week on Sunday, which I also recommend.

If you would like more great content like what you read here, make sure to follow me on IG @organized_owl or on FB @organizedowl.

Happy Planning

Jennifer

How To Make Sure You Use Your Planner

Don’t waste your money on another planner you don’t use!

I heard someone say the other day that planners are like personal assistants and I couldn’t agree more.

Mine absolutely runs my life!

Of course, making sure you use it is the first step to making your planner your most important employee.

So here are 3 tips to making sure you actually use your new planner.

Make sure the planner is well designed

And I don’t mean pretty. I mean the layout is designed in a way that truly works AND it has the features you really need, like customizable spaces and planning pages. One whole page per day may give you lots of room each day, but its hard to organize your week and have a clear idea of whats going on when you can’t see it all out in front of you. Make sure the planner you choose lets you customize it to suit your unique life and personality.

Put all the things in it

Its not simply for your schedule. Your planners needs to contain things like habit tracking, planning, to-do lists, important dates to remember, reminders, deadlines and more. Having all these things organized in ONE place is the secret sauce of a planner that really makes your life easier. Having it all in once place gives you try clarity and helps you to avoid forgetting things and double booking.

Create a planner habit

Make sure to set up a new habit of using the planner. Otherwise, when the novelty wears off, you will stop. Not sure how to create a habit that sticks? Check out this blog post that explains how.

In other words, your planner has to deliver, otherwise you won’t keep using it and it will be hard to create a habit.

Can’t find one? The Life Book planner has the unique features and layout that will deliver big time!
Learn more at www.organizedowl.com (link in bio)

Jennifer