Why create a 5-week plan?
The reason is simple, to not only help you reach one goal, but keep track of all your goals. The “To Do” checklists in here are going to help you keep your focus on what’s important. By looking at it every day you maintain the focus you need to stay driven and on task. Remember that life gets in the way if you let it. I let it get in the way too often when all I wanted was to stay on task or at least accomplish something every day that would take me closer to the goal. We all lose focus, but it helps when we can plan something to be done each day to get s to the goal, the to do lists helps us do at least one thing to get us to our goals and reach our dreams.
The purpose of this journal is to help you build your daily checklist. Let’s go over the pros and cons of building a to-do checklist. It should not be something you put together quickly. Most of us do, we have a checklist then we add to it then we think of another thing and jot that down. Soon you have a huge checklist that becomes next to impossible to complete everything.
Now you must think about what you want to do, but you don’t want to lose your idea or your task. So, what do you do? I think that you should gather in a master checklist.
Do you ever feel overwhelmed? Do you feel there aren’t enough hours in the day? Did you ever look at what you’ve done only to realize that many of them were not that important?
Here is what I am asking you to do, create a master checklist for your daily tasks. Think about what you want to get done. You don’t need all the details, but you do need to remember to do the task. This is what you can do. You can list them all out the week ahead of time, maybe even a month prior if you’re working on a larger project. This is how you can get back on track.
Make time each week to plan your week out. Set up priorities. It may be that they change from day-to-day, but here is an opportunity for you to take control of your time each day by taking an hour or so to plan the week.
Then, at the end of each day, prioritize the next day. This will help you go into the day prepared with a plan. Things may come up that throw you off, but this may help you prioritize when those surprises come up that are not important, these checklists can have you take a breath, look over your list, and think about what is more important. What you’re doing here is responding, not reacting.
Did you ever have someone else’s problem become your problem? I was an engineer that worked on problems. The problem with other people’s problems is that they become your problems even if they are not your problem. If you react, then you’re going to help them, which is a gut reaction, you want to help people, right? But, at what cost to you? Are you really helping them or are they coming to you to save themselves time? Would it be better if you would tell them what to do instead of doing it for them? Of course, it would be better if you could teach them what to do rather than doing it for them.
If your job is support, then you may have a different answer, but I spend a lot of hours getting interrupted by people who don’t really need my help, but they want me to do it for them.
It is up to you to teach them to do it themselves and then get back to what is important to you and your life, whatever it might be.
If you are interrupted by a work call when you are taking care of your kids or out on a date, what would you do? For one, if you’re not on call, you probably would not respond, or you would try to handle it quick. Now, what if our kid is screaming because they got hurt? Then you would not care about the call; you would tend to the child.
I know this is extreme, but you need to stay focused on the big picture. What is important to you? Think about that than put that at the top of your list and the to-do checklist can get you there. If it helps, think of the goal that you’re trying to reach.
If it helps, set aside tie for you to do specific tasks on your list. Try to set everything up so that you have no interruptions, if possible.
The point of this is to stay focused. This journal will help guide you, keep you focused, and let you have that feeling of accomplishment when you mark off tasks. It really feels good to get done what you want to get done each day and mark off the weekly goals.
If you think that you don’t have time to plan, like I did, then you’re looking at this all wrong. Build a plant to reach your goal, and if it doesn’t work out, then you can correct the next plan. Failure is a lesson that leads to success! Don’t be afraid to course correct.
Good luck my friend.
Now get busy!
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