How to Plan Your Day and Get The Right Things Done

Do you wish you could get more done in a day? Have you ever found, after working hard all day, that something important slipped through the cracks? The solution to these problems is planning ahead. This post will guide you through planning your day effectively.

In order to plan your day, you need a task list to work from. Sometimes, there will be more than one task list. You'll also need your calendar, and something to plan with - an app like gantry or a simple piece of paper will do.

For most people, it makes sense to keep a running todo list separate from your daily plan. The act of scanning through your todo list and actively choosing what to work on means you're, well, choosing. It's easy to assume that yesterday's unfinished business are today's top priorities. This isn't always the case. Sometimes after putting something off for a day or two, you realize it's not as important as you thought. Other times, something new came up that wasn't on your radar yesterday.

Like your daily plan, your running todo list can be in an app or on a blank piece of paper. If you use paper, you'll need to re-write it from time to time, so that unfinished items don't get lost among all the completed items.

It's helpful to have your calendar handy when planning your day for two reasons:

The first step in planning your day is prioritizing. First look at your calendar to see how much time you actually have available to work. If you don't have much time, don't choose too many tasks!

Next, scan your running todo list. What are the most urgent and/or important things on the list? How many of these can you realistically get done given the constraints of your schedule? Copy them to your daily plan, in order from most to least important. If you're using paper, leave some space on the left.

Stop! Do a quick scan. Make sure the things you wrote down are actionable - can you actually "do" the thing on your todo list? Here are some common symptoms of tasks that are not actionable:

Optional: Sometimes it can be helpful to categorize your tasks using the ABC method: to the left of each item, write an "A" for anything you must do today, a "B" for anything you should do today, and a "C" for anything you can do today. Then, if desired, you can number the tasks by category in order of priority (A1 is top priority, A2, A3, then B1, B2, C1...)

If any of the items on your todo list are going to take more than 15 minutes to complete, or if you schedule is particularly full, it can be a good idea to set aside time to work on specific tasks. Find an open block of time on your calendar and make an appointment with yourself to get it done. Set a reminder or whatever you need to do so you don't forget.

Anyone can make a plan for their day, but there are some secrets to actually getting those things done. The first two were already covered in the prioritizing step: not over-planning, and making sure our todos are, in fact, actionable. Scheduling blocks of time is another one.

Here's another tip: Build the habit of checking your daily plan every time you start working or switch tasks. Better yet, make a habit of checking your plan just before checking your email (or the news, weather, reddit, whatever).

It does no good to make a plan, then never look at it. When you finish something, mark it as done. If you remember something you missed while planning, or something unexpected comes up, update your plan.

By the way, it's totally legitimate to add something you already did to your todo list and immediately cross it off. It can help you feel productive and boost your motivation. But if you find yourself adding a bunch of "C" items and ignoring your "A" items, you might need to shift gears.

For those more time-consuming tasks and/or scheduled blocks of time, consider using the Pomodoro technique to help stay on task.

There's an old saying, attributed to various great leaders in one form or another: Plans are useless, but the act of planning is indispensable. At the end of the day, it's almost certain that you will not have accomplished everything you hoped to. This isn't necessarily a problem with your plan, it's just the way things are.

Instead of feeling disappointed by your lack of progress, try and celebrate what you did get done. Often, seeing the list of things you crossed off is enough to make you realize that what felt like an unproductive day was actually quite productive.

If you got very little or nothing done, think about why that was. Did you plan too much? Did unexpected or forgotten things come up that took up your time? Did you forget to look at your plan through out the day? Did you spend all your time on C priorities instead of A priorities? Or did you simply give in to procrastination?

Whatever the reason, try to let go of any frustration you may be feeling. You won't be able to do better tomorrow unless you forgive yourself for today. Know that procrastination usually isn't a sign of laziness, but of overwhelm. It can be a sign that you planned too many things, too big of tasks, or tasks that weren't actionable. Or it could be because you're stressed by something else.

Think about what you can do better in the future. If you come up with anything actionable, write it down on your running list.

It's great to make a plan one day, but if you're reading this, you'd probably like to be more productive in general. Here are some tips for sustainable productivity.

Now that you know how to plan your day, you can get not simply more, but more of the right things done. Happy planning!