Plan Your Day and Get More Done

Planning allows you to group events that have something in common – making telephone calls, doing out-of-office business, meeting clients.

Planning increases confidence. You control your time instead of your time controlling you. That sense of control has the potential to increase your effectiveness throughout the day.

We need not fear that managers whose foresight in planning and determined delegation brings them dividends of extra time will have difficulty in deciding how to spend those bonus minutes. The most important of their unstarted projects will be waiting, ready to go.

Ted Engstrom, Alec Mackenzie, Managing Your Time1967, Zondervan Publishing

Five Days of Action

• DAY ONE Take time today to plan. Very intentionally set some time aside to think about what you want to accomplish and what steps need to be taken to make it happen.

• DAY TWO Purpose to never again begin your leadership day without getting organized with a plan. Be intentional about never again running wildly into the day without knowing what needs to be accomplished and who needs to do it. This is a major crossroads that can make the difference between mediocre performance and effective leadership.

• DAY THREE Don't be confused: quality planning is not the same as micromanaging. The time taken to think through even the simplest plan, to organize in even the most basic way, will reap dividends in saved time, greater confidence, better results and more achievements. Remember this moving forward.

• DAY FOUR People who know where they are going generally get there faster. Walk taller today because you have a plan and you are working within it. You've made a significant attitude shift and it will reap rewards in the weeks and years to come.

• DAY FIVE Today, think about how you can improve your planning time. Is there something you need to learn or a skill you need to add? Take time to do the necessary research to add that knowledge or skill to your toolbox. Become an increasingly better planner.

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Thanks for doing this.
Gary