Plan Ahead
“I’m so busy, I don’t have time to plan!” If this is your mantra, take another look at your work style.
One of the greatest fallacies about time management is that planning takes more time than it’s worth. For those of us without personal secretaries, the single biggest move we can make to take control of our time is to plan ahead.
Planning doesn’t have to be daunting. It can be as simple as taking 5 or 10 minutes before you start work to actually think about what you want to accomplish. This may be the only time in your workday when you can be proactive instead of reactive.
Planning has several benefits:
- It keeps you on track. By thinking out what you want to get done, you keep moving in the right direction.
- It minimizes downtime. If you have a list to come back to between tasks or during slow spots, you can immediately address the next project, rather than having to figure out what needs to get done.
- It allows you to focus on your priorities. If you know what absolutely has to happen today, you can concentrate your efforts on making sure it gets done.
Still Have Doubts About Planning?
Try this experiment.