Part 3 of 3

Monthly Planning Calendar                               Weekly Planning Calendar

Welcome back for part three of the Plan Ahead series. Tuesday I introduced you to my Monthly Planning Calendar download and some tips for keeping track of appointments and events. Wednesday I wrote about weekly planning and published my Weekly Planning Calendar download. I also offered some suggestions for breaking down preparation for up coming events into managable tasks, assigning deadlines, and integrating these “to-dos” into your weekly planning. You can find these posts here:

Plan Ahead – Monthly Planning

Plan Ahead - Weekly Planning

And the downloads here:

Monthly Planning Calendar

Weekly Planning Calendar

Today I want to share with you my daily planning routine and how it helps me lay out a path through the day.

Why Plan Daily? You can…

How To:

1. Review your monthly planning calendar events and weekly planning calendar tasks list.

2. Design the flow of your day and how you will accomplish your To-Dos among your appointments, travel, meal times, and bed-time. Group like-tasks together. (For example: make all your phone calls at one time and plan a route for your errands so you don’t need to backtrack.)

3. Log your phone conversations and other coorespondence on a separate notes-only page so you have a record of what occured on which day. (It took me 5 months to schedule my son’s surgery! A phone log kept me on track through the entire process because I noted when my last conversation occured, with whom I spoke, and what follow-up I needed to initate.)

4. Forward To-Dos to a later deadline date only when necessary. If you are consistantly forwarding the same task, you are procrastinating, or the task isn’t that important and shouldn’t be on your To-Do list at all. If you are forwarding multiple tasks each day, you are scheduling too much for one day. There are only 24 hours in one day so be realistic about the number of  tasks you will be able to accomplish.

5. When you need to schedule future events go through the same process:

i. Note a scheduled event in your monthly calendar.

ii. Break down your preparation for this event into a list of To-Dos.

iii Assign deadlines to your To-Dos and note your To-Dos in the week or day they are “due”.

iv. Each month, note your scheduled appointments in your weekly calendar in the day in which they occur.

v. Each week review your To-Dos and weekly reminders, add those that arise, and assign due dates.

vi. Make sure you observe the space limit and remember if you can’t write it in, you can’t do it all.

6. Finally, only note items that you have control over and are your responsibility.

Spend 5 minutes daily noting long-term reminders and appointments in the month you want to accomplish them, assigning due-dates to your tasks, and reviewing your daily “To-Dos.” These 5 short minutes can help you be prepared for and navigate through the day smoothly.

How do you plan daily? Do you planning tips for others? Leave a comment below!