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Today’s post is from  The Daily Saint. 

There is never enough time to do all that I want to do and have it done right. This is a sentiment that I hear repeated quite often by busy executives and administrators. This type of comment led me to consider how I am able to juggle all of the different responsibilities I have. I thought about all of the literature, workshops, conferences, and professionals out there who have myriad ways of helping me get and stay organized. Upon reflection, however, it is something of my own design that works best for me. I utilize a 3-pronged preparation plan that doesn’t take long to employ, yet, is invaluable to me. 

Planning 1-3weeks out

Begin by spending a few minutes each week looking ahead 1-3 weeks out. Although I keep a calendar of events, activities, and meetings that covers several months, in my experience, to plan tasks and projects in any great detail beyond this point is time wasted. Consider the following steps as you begin planning:

• Look at your calendar and/or agenda books. Establish what is fixed (i.e. meeting with the boss) and what may be negotiable. Use this information to help plan benchmarks and deadlines
• Determine what projects and tasks must be worked on and/or completed in the next 1-3 weeks
• Break larger projects and tasks into parts; determine benchmarks and/or deadlines for each part
• Prioritize, prioritize, prioritize…What can wait until week 3? Week 2? What needs to be worked on next week?
• Create separate lists of tasks for each of the next 3 weeks.

The more you utilize this type of planning the more comfortable you will feel with it. Soon it will become second nature and the time spent preparing will decrease. Also, once you have the first three weeks planned out, each subsequent week will be mostly refining the work you have already done. The benefits of planning ahead 1-3 weeks can be enormous and include:

Gaining perspective (“10,000 foot view”) instead of just dealing with what is right in front of you

• Allowing you to deal with relevant and meaningful work based on intentional prioritization
• Helping you to avoid last minute rush jobs that are more likely to have mistakes and create much more stress for you and your colleagues
• Giving time to catch mistakes and make revisions before being finalized
• Allowing you to deal better with unexpected issues that inevitably arise

People will often ask me how I find time to do such preparation. I ask them, how can anyone work effectively without making the time to do it? You must make the time; planning your activities, tasks, and projects must become a priority. The time you spend planning will come back to you tenfold. I am convinced preparing this way will help you focus, deal with unexpected problems, and, ultimately, save you time. In the coming weeks as we discuss and you implement weekly and daily planning you will save even more time and your productivity and effectiveness will increase as well.

*Posted with permission from author, Phil Piercy 

Resources for the Road

Be Cool.  Be Organized.

One Simple Question About Productivity

Keep it Simple: Goal Setting

If you found this post useful, please share it with your friends on Twitter using the tinylink http://tinyurl.com/5ntp3l. Thanks, I appreciate it! Feel free to comment below, I enjoy discussing these ideas. ~@Stephen