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How to plan your day the right way. How to Organize Your Day: Techniques of Productivity Geniuses

How to plan your day the right way. How to Organize Your Day: Techniques of Productivity Geniuses

26.09.2019

The state of chronic lack of time gives rise to feelings of guilt and inferiority in a person, and also contributes to the development of psychological complexes. People who mismanage their power and resources, take on too much, or avoid any planning tend to fail in all endeavors. It is difficult for them, and as a result, the solution of each task is given to them with great difficulty and does not bring inner satisfaction.

A day to get things done? How to make sure that time pressure ceases to be the norm of life, giving way to composure and joy from each next overcoming?

7 reasons to make a to-do list

The inability to think through one's actions a few steps ahead and draw up an appropriate algorithm leads to the fact that a person loses an idea of the time frame. Insignificant or meaningless activities can take away from him all day, and really priority tasks will recede into the background and lose their relevance.

The ability to enclose each next micro-goal in a strict "time capsule" and assign it the right place on the priority scale is the main idea of such a direction as time management. And before you understand how to plan your day in order to do everything, you need to determine for yourself 7 advantages of this practice:

Develop good habits and break old ones. The most reliable option to introduce some useful component into your life and give up what interferes is to start filling out your “success calendar”, marking each stage of victory over yourself on a daily list. For example: "Day 7 on a healthy diet" or "Day 3 without fatty foods."
Reasonable distribution of forces. Many tasks take a huge amount of energy from a person, so planning will help divide energy-intensive processes into periods alternating with less complex issues.
Increasing your own efficiency. Through a clear indication of the goal, an understanding of the need to obtain a result comes to a person, and it is easier for him to concentrate on achievements.
Increasing stress resistance. When an individual clearly understands what he wants to achieve, he ceases to be tormented by uncertainty and doubts, which are the main source of everyday stress.
Development of punctuality and constructiveness. A person practicing time management is able to soberly assess his capabilities and understand how much time this or that task will take him. This frees him from unnecessary fuss and allows him to feel like a master of the situation in any situation.
Relieve stress from the brain. The lack of plans on paper forces a person to keep all current tasks and prospects in mind, so it will not be possible to achieve full concentration at work - the brain will constantly send alarm signals about the need to do a lot of things.
Disclosure of creative potential. When a person does not need to rush about in search of another goal, a lot of creative energy is released from him. As a result, even routine tasks are perceived by the individual with interest. They say about such people that they "gush with ideas."

In other words, they plan the daily routine in order to put things in order in all their affairs and become the real owner of their time, and not its blind consumer.

When is the best time to plan

How to learn to plan your day? According to the results of scientific research, it has been proven that a person learns motivating information best if he thinks it over and puts it on paper before going to bed. By morning, the brain manages to fully assimilate the list of planned tasks and accept them as a due necessity.

Waking up, a person no longer wonders whether or not he needs to fulfill the items of the compiled list, and thus, from the very first minutes after waking up, he is ready to start implementing it.

How to make a to-do list

For beginners, planning for the coming day is best done on paper, in the classic way. So he has time not only to indicate all the necessary goals, but also to consider their necessity. Perhaps the task indicated on paper will not be as important as the others, as it seemed at first. In addition, it is more convenient to carry a notebook with you constantly and reread it often. It does not depend on the power of the phone battery or other electronic media.

For experienced planners, any handy gadget will work well. There, it will be easier to adjust the to-do list taking into account force majeure circumstances, and they do not need to view the compiled program for the day as often as beginners.

How to plan your day so that you can do everything?

There are several rules that will help the inexperienced follower of time management to avoid mistakes in making a daily plan and following it:

you need to choose the media (notebook or gadget) that will be comfortable to hold in your hand, which is nice to look at;
You should always have a to-do list with you.
each completed item on the list must be crossed out immediately after its execution;
opposite each item, you need to put down the time for which it must be completed (in the first month of practice, the time is indicated “with a margin”);
it is impossible to indicate more cases in the list than a person usually performs, but it is necessary to enter 2-3 tasks that must be solved by all means, no matter what;
it is necessary to make a list in such a way that complex cases alternate with simpler ones and time is allocated for rest.

The main rule of this analytical direction: the list should open with the most important task for the day and gradually descend to insignificant goals. If you do the opposite, a person will wait all day with fear for the moment when he will have to take on a difficult task, and his productivity will decrease in all respects.

Determining your goals

Before making the first to-do list, a person must analyze his life as a meaningful movement towards some significant event. It can be a year or two ahead (a trip to an expensive resort, a wedding, or buying a car) or a long-term project (become a famous writer, get a leading position in production).

In any case, every passing day should move a person in the indicated direction, which means that items on the list of tasks that contribute to this advancement are also needed. The best way to achieve a major goal is to use the “tactics of microsteps”, the essence of which is to form a set of sequential algorithms, steadily bringing the individual closer to his idea. How to plan your day using this practice?

Tactics of "microsteps"

How this one of the main time management strategies works can be seen from the example of an individual's intention to open a tailor shop. What will he need for this?

Make a business plan.
Obtain investments, take out a loan or accumulate the required amount.
Register with the tax authorities, etc.

Each of the items in itself contains many different manipulations, which means that it cannot be part of a daily plan, but will be the final moment of a certain period - 1-2 weeks, months, years. Therefore, having compiled a list of large tasks, a person should return to the first item and break it into several more parts. Thus, the section on writing a business plan will take a more specific form with an easily implemented procedure:

Search online for several accounting firms.
Study reviews and choose an organization that is trusted by businessmen.
Make an appointment with a specialist, etc.

Now a person understands exactly what he needs to do, and can gradually include the necessary items in his daily list, but always taking into account his ability to fulfill his plan. The goal, which only yesterday seemed an unattainable dream, will turn out to be accessible, and the desired will be realized much faster than if the future entrepreneur approached the matter without a clear idea of \u200b\u200bits actions.

Organization of the day: nuances

How to plan your day so that you can do everything? It is necessary to immediately abandon the habit of “sleeping off” after a working week, since a long sleep, like its absence, entails disorientation in time - it is much more difficult for an object to “get into a rut” and fulfill its plan.

According to psychologists, the 8-hour period from 10:00 pm to 6:00 am is the most productive time for rest, after which a person feels ready for accomplishments and energetically renewed.

How to plan a working day? In the service schedule mode, there are tasks that require a momentary solution - for example, a business call or an urgent meeting. If unexpected circumstances do not interfere with the implementation of the plan, then they can not be fixed in any way, but if force majeure requires a serious approach, then less important things should be replaced by the time spent on it. At the same time, unrealized goals are transferred to another day or solved at your leisure.

Proper organization of the day also includes the introduction of a strict limit on the use of social networks, email and other distracting applications (if this is not part of the workflow). You should allocate no more than 30 minutes a day for Internet communication or viewing news from the mail, breaking this time into 2-3 approaches.

Refusal and Delegation

Don't know how to plan your day the right way? Remember one more rule: it is very important to eliminate the disturbing factors that arise daily and manifest themselves in the pressure of society on the feelings of duty, guilt or responsibility of the individual. As a rule, most of these moments are not based on the real need to turn to a person’s help and are only the desire of someone to lay down the burden of unnecessary affairs or make life easier for themselves at the expense of a friend. If an individual practicing time management is aware of an opponent’s attempt to take advantage of his reliability, he needs to learn to immediately refuse, without explanation or promises to return to this issue “another time”. Just a few unsuccessful attempts and received refusals - and the manipulator himself will leave you alone and turn his attention to someone else.

But there are situations when help is really needed. Then the object must find the best way out of the situation and decide whether it is possible to provide assistance through delegation (shifting responsibility for doing the job to another person), or it is better to do everything yourself. Feedback from experienced followers of the described direction confirms that after a thorough analysis of the situation, hardly 10% of this type of force majeure that arises really deserves a person’s personal attention and can be completely solved in other ways.

Planning a child's day

A child of preadolescent age is not able to correctly operate with the concepts of time and energy balance, therefore it must be constantly directed in the right direction, not forgetting that older children need stimulation. The student must have an hour or two a day for what he is interested in at the moment. It is in his free time from classes that his creative potential awakens and personal (and not imposed by parents) target tasks are born.

It is necessary to draw up a schedule for the child's day with his participation, and although each item on the list requires discussion and acceptance by both participants in the process, we must not forget that the opinion of the student should be prevailing. The parent only needs to adjust the time frame for each lesson, based on the real capabilities of the child.

It is necessary to make sure that the student tries not to deviate from the created algorithm, unobtrusively. It's okay if some business is done in a hurry or remains unfulfilled - it is more important that the child learns to draw conclusions by analyzing the past day and correctly evaluating his actions. To do this, every evening before compiling a list of tasks for the next day, it is necessary to discuss with the young planner all the problems that he encountered along the way of following the algorithm, and then jointly decide how to prevent the recurrence of obstacles.

Error analysis and correct conclusions

How to plan your day so that you can do everything? The first steps in the organization of self-discipline are inevitably accompanied by mistakes and blunders coming from a person's ignorance of their own capabilities and inability to effectively manage the allocated time limit. Usually, in order to eliminate the main causes of periodically occurring "failures", it is enough to analyze each day for 1-3 months and, making the next list, take into account the conclusions drawn.

But it happens that even 3 months, and even six months of regular planning do not bear fruit. By the middle of the day, the schedule ceases to be relevant, and the implementation of the projects indicated in it is pushed into the future. In this case, the method needs to be adjusted. The planner will have to temporarily abandon the compilation of a daily schedule and keep a “diary of his affairs” throughout the week, recording in it all the actions performed and marking the start and end times of the manipulations.

After the required time, the data of the compiled timing is compared with the records of the old lists. Most likely, the real numbers of minutes and hours spent on some manipulations will be very different from those that a person planned to spend initially. The next routine must be formed already on the basis of their actual capabilities. After a few weeks, the time allotted for less important things can begin to be reduced - first by a few minutes, and then to the minimum necessary period.

Followers of time management in their reviews claim that any person who is determined to adjust his life so that he never faces the load of time pressure is able to achieve visible results in 5-7 months. To do this, it is not at all necessary to study all the nuances of the analytical direction - it is enough to adhere to the general principles of the method and apply the basic techniques for organizing your time.

How to plan your day in order to have time for everything? What rules should be followed to avoid stress and feelings of dissatisfaction? In this article, you will learn what you need to do to increase your productivity and efficiency.

If you are often late, create blockages at work, forget about important events and are nervous that you did not have time to do a lot of things, then this article is for you. Where to start to learn how to properly plan your time?

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Get a diary. Do not start your day until you write down plans for the next day in the morning, and even better in the evening. Making a to-do list is a necessary activity in order to understand what needs to be done and be in time.
Set yourself reminders of meetings, events on your mobile phone.
If you work on a computer, keep a separate document with a to-do list.

How to make a to-do list?

The to-do list should be written every day, preferably in the evening.
Write no more than 7 priority cases on the list. It is not worth more, because it is impossible to do more in one day.
Write down all items in detail. For example: go to the store and buy everything you need on the list. Write down the list of necessary goods on a separate piece of paper. Then going to the store will take you much less time.
You should put on the to-do list the approximate time it will take you to complete this or that action.
The to-do list should always be in sight. If you are a new mother who is constantly tugged at by children and the list gets lost, then write a few copies.
Write a to-do list for the week ahead, this will help you understand which tasks are particularly urgent and which can wait.

Basic rules on how to plan your day so that you can do everything

To properly plan your day and do everything in time, it is very important to accustom yourself to wake up early.. It doesn't matter if you have to go to work or not. Organize a normal sleep schedule. To feel cheerful, you need to sleep 8 hours a day. Therefore, think about what time you need to go to bed so that you can get up early and still get enough sleep.
It is important to listen to your biological clock . You know better what time you feel full of strength and energy to quickly do a lot of things. If you feel energized in the evening, plan your day so that you have especially important things left for the evening. The rest of the time, take care of less important things, set aside time for rest, self-development, meeting friends, etc.
It is very important to prioritize when planning your day. . First you need to do those things that are the most significant in their priority, and only then proceed to secondary ones. Never put off important things for later. Otherwise, you will think about them all day and be distracted by thoughts.
Do not spend a lot of time and energy on things that will bring you insignificant results. . The time spent and the end result should be commensurate.
When planning your time, you should consider all possible options to make your life easier. . For example, if cleaning the house takes a lot of time, consider hiring a housekeeper. Or throw away things that have long been unnecessary, put everything in boxes, systematize. Then cleaning will take less time.
When doing things, analyze what factors most often distract you and take your time. . Perhaps you are often distracted by social networks, talking on the phone, thinking about other things. Very often, psychological factors play a role, for example, the fear of not being able to do the work on time, the fear of taking on a difficult task, laziness.

What to avoid in order to be successful

Don't waste time watching TV. You can watch any news, movie on the Internet without advertising. This will save you time.
Limit your time on social networks, forums and games . It's a waste of time.
Try to get rid of bad habits . Have you ever wondered how much time you spend on smoke breaks? This not only takes your time, but also your health. Bad habits are not compatible with success.
Learn to overcome laziness, lack of concentration and lack of punctuality. Set reminders on your phone, alarm clock in advance, so as not to be late. Set a time limit to complete all tasks.

David Allen advises to properly organize the workplace, to acquire all the necessary stationery. Also, create a file cabinet, for each case, create a corresponding folder. Allen also advises writing 4 to-do lists:

Make a list of things to do in the near future.
Include in a separate list projects that require an integrated approach.
Make a separate list of projects that, for one reason or another, cannot yet be completed.
"Someday" list.

To complete work tasks faster, you need to perform similar tasks in a row. The brain gets used to a certain type of work and each time copes faster and faster.

If you have a very difficult task or project in front of you, you need to divide it into stages. Then the task becomes more understandable and real to be completed. Use the principle of "small steps".

Learn to say no, don't do work for others, don't become a tool to achieve someone else's goals.

All successful businessmen plan the most important things in the morning. You can’t put off until later what is your priority. As the saying goes: "Did the job, walk boldly."

Learning to complete all tasks on time is very simple. Most people create their own problems and obstacles in their lives. It just takes a little effort and just start planning your life. You must understand that a tired and unhealthy person cannot work productively and live his life fully.

Therefore, it is necessary:

get enough sleep .
Eat properly. Eat as many vegetables and fruits as possible.
Sports boost immunity , give a charge of vivacity and have a beneficial effect on brain activity. Memory, concentration improves, neuronal cells are updated faster.
Stick to a to-do list . Write it for every day, for a week and for a year.
Don't get distracted by things you don't need , useless communication. Don't do work for others.
When planning your day, don't take on more responsibilities than you can handle. . Adequately evaluate your time and effort.
Maintain order both at home and at work . Every thing must have its place, and every thing its time. When you maintain order, you spend a lot less time getting things done. Let the order and systematization of things become your habit.
Optimize your work . Try to simplify any task as much as possible and reduce the time for its implementation.
Use modern technology . Even at home, a slow cooker, microwave, electric meat grinder will save you a lot of time on cooking.
Always reward yourself for any success . If you have completed an important task on time, allow yourself to rest for 15 minutes and eat something sweet or look at your classmates for 10 minutes.
Do not strive for the ideal, it does not exist. If you obsess over doing everything better and better, you will end up treading water and driving yourself into hysterics.
Do not accumulate unfinished business. What you have planned to do today - do it!
Never be afraid to ask for help or distribute certain tasks among employees.

In addition to making a to-do list, there are some other effective planning techniques that are widely used in time management. This is a time management technique that includes rules and principles that help a person to properly organize their time and achieve maximum efficiency in any business.

Basic planning techniques

The Pareto Rule or the 80/20 Principle. Only 20% of your thoughts, conversations and actions lead to 80% of your results. And 80% of other actions lead to 20% of the result. Therefore, do not try to do everything at once, but initially do those things that will bring you the maximum result.
Timing method is that you need to write down all your time, on what and where you spend it. Analyzing these records will show you what activities to avoid, what distracts you, and what processes need to be accelerated.
ABC planning is that you need to distribute the cases in order of importance letter by letter. Category A cases are the most important. They make up 15% of all cases and bring 65% of the results. B - important cases that make up 20% of all cases and bring 20% of the results. Category C - these are the cases of the least importance, they make up 65% and give a result - 15%.

If you want to learn how to properly plan your day, to be the master of your life, it takes a little. Just have the desire to learn it, make some effort and start working on yourself. You just have to make it a habit to plan your life, write a to-do list for every day, develop responsibility, perseverance, punctuality. Learning how to plan properly is one of the self-improvement methods that can radically change your life for the better. You will learn to prioritize, identify core values, set goals and achieve them within a clearly defined time frame.

Hello dear readers! Do you remember what goals you set for yourself last year? Learn English, lose weight? Did you have a plan to exercise regularly? Or maybe you wanted to change your job and earn more?

We set such ambitious goals for ourselves at the beginning of the year, but, as a rule, we forget about them after 2-3 months. Why is this happening?

The reason is not a lack of strong will, but how we set specific goals and what we do to achieve them.

Here are some tips on how to properly plan and achieve your goals in 2018.

Where to begin

If you don't know how to properly plan your goals, write down all relevant areas of your life and think about what you would like to achieve in those areas. Here are a few options to make it easier for you to get started:

Career Where do you want to work and in what position? Do you want to move up the career ladder, get a high position? Or maybe you want to start your own business? What do you need to learn, what skills to acquire to achieve this?

Family Do you devote enough time to your family? Are you a good parent? Or maybe you are just planning to start a family and need to prepare for this event?

Finance How much do you want to earn and how? Are you considering additional sources of income? How do you want to use the extra money? How do you want to improve your financial future?

Health Do you want to change your eating habits to healthier ones? Do you plan to exercise regularly? What kind of lifestyle do you want to lead?

Education- What do you want to know? What competencies do you need to develop in yourself? Maybe an additional language or distance learning?

Save on sheet 2.3 targets from each area. Then choose the ones that are most important to you, what you like the most, and plan to complete them.

What should be the goals

Half the success in achieving the goal is their correct designation.

Brian Tracy, world's personal effectiveness expert, management consultant, writer, public speaker, compares target to a missile's homing mechanism. When a rocket has no target, it stands still. However, when the exact parameters of the target are entered, it rises into the air and flies until it hits the specified location. The same thing happens in our lives: when we have a clear idea of what we want to achieve and how to properly plan everything, it is much easier to work and persevere in this.

Goals should be simple, clear to you, and specific. They must be measurable, realistic, achievable and timely.

Write down all your goals and dreams

Let's focus on how to properly plan your year so that your plans come true.

Write down all your dreams and goals that you want to achieve this year or in the near future on paper. How to do it better. This will free your head from various thoughts, questions, ideas and help you look at your goals more realistically. Now evaluate how important it is for life and what it will give in the end. Set dates and deadlines for completion. Enter in the annual plan all significant events that are planned in the family, in the service, in education and other areas of life. After the analysis, you will receive long-term plans.

Long-term goals are difficult to achieve because life is full of unforeseen situations that can turn plans for the fulfillment of a dream upside down. That's why you should always, at least once a month, review the list you've made to add to or correct it.

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Divide big into small

Goals have been set, the vector of life is set by annual plans. Now we need to start putting them into practice. We divide long-term plans for their implementation on a monthly basis. How to plan your goals for the month? Monthly plans should be written in the last days of the previous month. Be specific about your tasks, including start and due dates. Be sure to plan what you will do on the weekend. Plan what week of the month you want to do.

Try to make plans for the week on Sunday evening or Monday morning.

What is written in your weekly plan should bring you closer to the goals that are in the annual plan. Therefore, boldly delete from the weekly plan everything that will not bring you any benefit.

Schedule time for unforeseen or urgent matters.

And finally, how to properly plan your working day. It is best to do this in the evening, then in the morning you will do what you have planned without fuss.

Make a list of all the cases, including those related to the family. Then you need to prioritize them and group them by importance, urgency, duration. Choose to complete no more than 5-7 tasks. It will be real and will not cause you frustration and stress if they are not completed. Schedule the day by the clock, do not forget to leave time for rest and eating.

This is where the 70/30 rule comes into play.

Never schedule more than 70% of your total work time. Something unexpected can always happen. Planning everything down to the minute is only a source of stress and unnecessary frustration.

At the beginning of the day, it is worth doing the most important and biggest task. After that, you will have more motivation to do the rest. If you know how to properly plan everything, then such a success in the morning will give a huge boost of energy and a positive attitude for the whole day.

After completing the work, be sure to cross it off the list! And be sure to praise yourself for your punctuality and commitment. A fully completed to-do list will be your best reward at the end of the day.

Use a calendar for planning, which should always be in your circle of attention. It can be paper, desktop calendar or mobile phone. The main thing is that it is always at your fingertips.
Learn to delegate your work to others. You cannot be in time at once and everywhere, you must have assistants.
Be punctual and responsible in completing the tasks, then you will not have to shift them to other dates and move away from your dreams.
Apply the 20/80 Pareto rule, which says that "20% of effort gives 80% of the result, and the remaining 80% of the effort - only 20% of the result"
Do not be distracted from the planned cases, exclude demotivators (TV, telephone, Internet) from your field of vision until the work is completed.

In conclusion, for a better understanding, we suggest watching the video

Dear readers! We told you about simple ways how to plan your activities correctly. Now is the time to set your goals for the coming year and plan to achieve them. We hope you find these tips helpful.

Hi all! Today we will talk about planning the day. Why is it needed, how to do it correctly, and what results can be achieved by devoting planning to just 5 minutes a day.

The world is improving, new technologies are emerging, more and more new activities are being invented, more and more opportunities are appearing, people are setting new goals for themselves, but the time to realize all this is getting less and less. Despite the many gadgets that help us do what we have in mind, such as calendars, alarm clocks, reminders, phone apps and computers, sometimes we don't see the obvious. For the effective and productive implementation of everything we have planned, we need. This is what will help us to realize our dreams, ideas, and not forget anything.

How to properly plan your day?

In fact, it is not only about work, but about us as individuals. It is necessary to plan not only the hours when we perform tasks of the employer or household chores, but we also need to set aside time for ourselves, for our health, for family and hobbies. If we fully devote time only to work, what will be left of us, what will we be? A downtrodden horse with bags under his eyes? I have already said that people do not use a simple and easy way to do everything without hurting themselves - this is planning. All successful people use this time management tool, achieve success and set new goals for themselves. I will tell you how to properly plan your working day so that it becomes productive for you and you can accomplish everything you have planned.

The planning of the working day should be done in the evening. Why? Do you know the phrase “Today begins yesterday”. This statement clearly defines one of the principles of planning. Of course, it's not bad to start the day with a to-do list, as long as you're upbeat, with clear thoughts. But still, in the morning it is only necessary to correct, change something, add or remove something. Make it a habit to plan your next day every day after the day. This will be your evening ritual.

How to make a schedule for the day?

Take a pen and paper and write down a list of the tasks you plan to do the next day. It is very important not to overload yourself in full, look realistically at the situation, remember that you are not a robot and you cannot redo all the cases at once. Pay attention to all areas of your life. In addition to the work schedule, be sure to include plans for recreation (going to the movies, reading, walking), health (gym, jogging), hobbies, family time, self-development. Thus, you take care of yourself, which is very important to realize.
The next step you need to take is to write down the time it takes to complete the tasks. Write an approximate time, but still try to fit into the real framework.
Then arrange . Identify and write down the most important and urgent things that need to be done during the day, then the important and not urgent, then the urgent optional, then the non-urgent optional. What is it for? First, in order to solve the most mandatory tasks. Secondly, so that they have enough time to complete them. For example, you have a to-do list of 20 tasks, each of which must be given an hour. It is simply impossible to allocate twenty hours a day for the implementation of plans. Consider which tasks can be left and carried over to the next day, and which cannot wait. If possible, delegate any tasks to another person.
Tie each case to the time of day, that is, at what hours you will complete the tasks. Try to do them as early as possible, if possible, then you will have extra time that you can spend on your own. If there is a long gap between important, urgent tasks, use it as productively as possible and fill it with non-urgent important tasks.
When the schedule of cases is ready, you can begin to fulfill your goals. During the day, try not to be distracted by extraneous and unplanned activities. As you complete tasks, be sure to check your actions so that you don’t start doing unnecessary things. For convenient work, cross out the tasks that you successfully complete, check the boxes, circle them, in general, make the designations clear to you.
At the end of the day, be sure to review your day. Mark which tasks are done successfully, which will be carried over to the next day, and which should be removed from your schedule forever.
Lastly, reward yourself for a job well done. How you do this depends on your desires and capabilities. Any pleasant trifle is capable of pushing you to accomplish new tasks.

Take just 5 minutes every day to plan your day, and every time you will be closer to your ultimate goal. Planning, as a time management tool, has led to the success of a huge number of people. And you deserve more. All in your hands!

Try to write a rough to-do list for the next day right now and you will soon appreciate the benefits of task planning, evaluate the productivity and efficiency of the past day.

Maybe you're running into trouble trying to make sense of your life, or maybe you just want to organize your day. Either way, you'll need to make a plan. It may seem difficult to you, but with effort, creativity, using the right tools, you can properly prepare a plan and begin to achieve your goals.

Steps

Method One: Planning the Day

Take a sheet of paper. You can write in a notebook, notepad, or create a text document on your computer, whichever is more convenient for you. Write a list of things to do that day, including scheduled appointments. What are your goals for the day? Do you want to include time for exercise or rest? What do you absolutely need to do?

Create a schedule for yourself. What time do you need to finish the first task, project or task? List all the tasks, starting with the very first, and schedule tasks for the day by the hour. Be sure to include appointments if they are scheduled. Of course, everyone has different plans, so everyone has their own schedule. In general, the plan should look something like this:

9:00 - 10:00: Come to work, check mail, answer letters.
10:00 - 11:30: Meet Oleg and Natasha.
11:30 - 12:30: Project #1.
12:30 - 13:15: Lunch (healthy food).
13:15 - 14:30: Review project #1, meet with Alexander to discuss project #1.
14:30 - 16:00: Project #2.
16:00 - 17:00: Start project #3, prepare materials for tomorrow.
17:00 - 18:30: Leave the office, go to the gym.
18:30 - 19:00: Shop for groceries on the way home.
19:00 - 20:30: Prepare dinner, relax.
20:30: Go to the cinema with Dima.

Shift your attention to something else almost every hour. It is important to set aside a little time so that after each task you can review how effective you were during this time. See if you've done all you need to. Then allow yourself a moment to rest: close your eyes and relax. This way you can effectively move on to the next task.

Review your day. When most of the day has passed, review how you were able to stick to the plan. Were you able to finish everything you wanted? Where did you make a mistake? What worked and what didn't? What distracted you, and how can you prevent it in the future?

Method Two: Life Planning

Part One: Assessing Your Own Roles
1. Determine what roles you play in life. Every day we play different roles (from student to son, from artist to biker). You need to think about what roles you play in life at the moment.
  - These roles may include traveler, student, daughter, writer, artist, worker, tourist, grandson, thinker, etc.
2. Decide what roles you want to play in your life. Many of these future roles may overlap with those you currently play. These are the nouns you want to identify yourself with at the end of your life. Take note of the roles you are currently playing. Are there any that bother you a lot? If yes, then they do not need to be played further. Make a list of roles in order from most to least important. This will help you determine what you truly value in life and what matters most to you. But do not forget that this list can change significantly, as you, too, are constantly evolving.
  - Your list might look something like this: mother, daughter, wife, traveler, glass blower, caregiver, volunteer, backpacker, etc.
3. You need to understand why you want to play the roles you want. Choosing a role for yourself is a great way to define who you are, but the reason you want to play a role is because of its meaning. Perhaps you want to be a volunteer because you see the problems in the world and want to do your part to fix them. Or perhaps you desire to be a father because you want to give your children a wonderful childhood.
  - In order to determine the purpose of your role, you can imagine your funeral (this may seem terrible, but it works well). Who will come to them? What would you like to be said about you? What do you want to be remembered for?
Part Two: Goal Setting and Planning
1. Set big goals that you want to achieve over the course of your life. How do you want to develop? What are you striving to achieve? Think of it like a list of things you want to get done in your life before you die. These should be the goals you really want to achieve - not the ones you seem necessary. Sometimes it's easier to categorize goals to make them easier to present. These categories include the following (of course, not only them):
  - Career/Vocation; trips; family/friends; health; money; knowledge/intelligence; spiritual world.
  - Here are some examples of goals (in the order of the categories listed above): print a book; visit all continents; get married / get married and raise children; lose 10 kg; earn enough money to educate children at the university; get a master's degree in the specialty "Philology"; learn more about Buddhism.
2. Set specific goals and determine specific dates by which they need to be achieved. Now that you have your life goals in general, set specific goals. That is, determine the dates by which you need to reach them. Here are examples of more specific goals than in the previous paragraph:
  - Submit the manuscript to 30 publishers by June 2014.
  - Travel to South America in 2015 and Asia in 2016
  - Until January 2015, lose weight up to 55 kg.
3. - Your goal is to print the book and send the manuscript to publishers by November 2014. At this point, you have already written half of it, but you are not completely sure that you like it.
4. Decide how you will achieve your goals. What steps will need to be taken to achieve it? Evaluate and write them down. Let's continue the book publishing example:
  - From now until November 2014, you need to: A. Re-read the first half of the book. B. Finish the book. B. Redo things you don't like. D. Correct grammatical, punctuation, spelling errors, etc. E. Have a few critics you know read the book and ask for feedback. E. Determine which publishers might want to publish your book. Y. Submit the manuscript.
5. Write down all your goals in steps. You can do it in any format convenient for you: manually, on a computer, draw, etc. And congratulations! You have just made a plan for your life!
  
  Review and adjust your plan. Like everything in this world, your life will change with your goals. What was important to you at 12 may not be as important at 22 or 42. Changing your life plan is normal: it shows that you yourself understand the changes in your life and adapt to them.
Method Three: Problem Solving Plan

First part: identifying the problem
1. You must know what results you hope to get by solving the problem. What goal do you want to achieve by eliminating it? Perhaps you are hoping for more than one outcome. Focus on achieving the goal, you will get the rest after that.
  - For example, your goal is to get your grade up to at least a 4 in math. At the same time, you hope that when you improve your grade, your mom will let you go skiing.
2. Determine what your actions are causing the problem. What habits may contribute to its development. Take your time and consider what you are doing wrong.
  - Your problem is 3 in math. Look at what your actions are causing the problem: you talk a lot with a neighbor in class, or you don’t do your homework in the evening because you recently signed up for football, and all you want after practice on Tuesdays and Thursdays is dinner and lie down sleep.
3. Consider what external factors are contributing to the problem. In addition to their own actions, due to which a problem may arise, external factors can also cause it. Think what it could be.
  - You have a 3 in math and this needs to be corrected. Perhaps it's the fact that you don't really understand the material that's bothering you, not the fact that you're talking in class. Maybe you've never been good at algebra. After all, you don't really know where to look for help.
Part Two: Finding Solutions and Making a Plan
1. Identify possible solutions to your problem. You can simply write them down on paper or use special techniques, such as making an associogram. Whatever you choose, find solutions to correct your own actions, as well as eliminate external factors that contribute to the development of the problem.
  - How not to talk to your neighbor: A. Sit away from him. B. Tell him that you have a very low grade in the subject and you need to pay attention. C. If you have a writing assignment, ask the teacher to seat you so that you can concentrate better.
  - How to do homework despite training: A. Do some of your homework during your lunch break, or when you have free time during the day so you don't have to do everything in the evening. B. Make a schedule for yourself and strictly follow it: after class you will have dinner and then do your homework. After you're done, you can watch TV for an hour as a reward.
  - What to do if you do not understand algebra. A. Ask a classmate to explain to you what you do not understand (only if nothing will distract you). B. Ask the teacher for help. Approach him after class and ask if you could meet him sometime, as you have some homework questions. C. Contact a tutor or sign up for a course.
2. Make a plan. Now that you've figured out the root of the problem and found several solutions, choose the ones you think will work best and write down a plan for yourself to help you visualize it. Hang it where you can see it often, such as on the mirror you look into every day. You don't need to use all of the solutions listed, but you should save a couple just in case.
  - Your math improvement plan should look something like this:
  - Plan to increase the score in 4 weeks:
    - Tell Sasha that I can’t talk in class (if he continues, then change seats).
    - Do my homework every Tuesday and Thursday during my lunch break so I can go to practice but don't have to do much in the evening when I get home.
    - Study with a math tutor on Mondays and Wednesdays; ask the teacher if there is anything else I can do to improve my grade.
  - Goal: By the fourth week, I will have corrected my grade from 3 to at least 4.
3. When one week has passed, evaluate how successful your plan is. During the first week, did you do everything as planned? If not, what did you do wrong? By understanding what you need to work on, next week you will be able to stick to the plan more effectively.
4. Once you've reached a goal, cross it off your plan to see your progress.
5. Don't forget that planning is the only part of the job that turns chaos into mistakes. Don't expect that just because you have a plan, you can easily achieve everything without making mistakes. The plan is just a starting point.
6. As you add details to your plans, try to guess what could go wrong and develop contingency plans.