Daily life in the modern world is challenging. Your time is limited and your attention span is short.
There are so many tasks, both at work and at home, so many meetings and so many chores that need to get done, that it can feel overwhelming.
Is it possible to live your life without this stress and without worrying if you had forgotten to do something?
Absolutely. All you need to do is learn how to plan your day properly. And I am here to show you how to do it in just 5 minutes.
Now that I've given you these great productivity hacks, let's review!
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Let's get to it!
1. Get Your Juices Going
Before you start planning your day, give yourself time to actually wake up – both mentally and physically.
You have quite a few options, it all depends on what you like. You can go for a run, to the gym or take a cold shower.
Perhaps you've got laundry left from the day before, or dishes to clean – it is always nice to have a tidy house throughout the day.
The importance of this is that you first need to wake up entirely before your brain can function at its normal level.
The amount of time for this process varies from person to person.
Ideally, once you wake up, give yourself between 30 minutes and an hour to wake up before you lay out everything you need to start planning your day.
2. Gear Up
Before you can even begin planning, you need to make sure you have the necessary tools to plan.
Always have papers and pens available to you, so that you can write out everything that you want to do today.
Writing out your plans on paper as opposed to technology is far better for you.
Now, I am not saying that technology is bad – but it is a distraction.
Whether you like it or not, the internet and technology can often get in a way of the important things that you're supposed to be doing.
For that reason, pick up a paper and pen and do it the way your father and grandfather did it!
3. Plan Your Day Like A Pro
Planning your day effectively begins with The Priority Matrix.
The Priority Matrix is a tool you can use to keep track of and plan out the tasks that you need to complete during the day, ranked from urgent to not urgent and important to not important.
Let's break this down into more detail.
The first category is urgent and important. In this category, you want to put in your main goal of the day. Even if you don't do the rest of the tasks, just by achieving this one – you can rest easy knowing you've done what you really needed to do.
The second category is important but not urgent. Basically, this is where things and tasks that can come back and bite you in the ass if you don't deal with them on time should be placed.
The third category is urgent, but not important. All of the tasks that need to be handled ASAP, but not necessarily by you should find their place in this category.
And the final category is not urgent and not important. The tasks that you don't have the time for that day, but you'd still like to remind yourself that they need to be addressed should be in here and you can do them when you find time for them.
By planning your day this way you recognize what the priority is and you knock out the important tasks first, then deal with the others later.
4. Keep Track Of Time
Another important thing you must always do is keep track of your time.
Be honest with yourself and write down exactly how much time you need for each task.
Genius entrepreneurs such as Bill Gates and Elon Musk use the technique called timebox – they plan out every single second of their day. By doing this, they have a strict schedule and they know the amount of time they got on their hands.
Proper time management can be crucial in dealing with your everyday tasks and your success in finishing them.
The advice that I can give you is to write out your plan on paper, then add it in your Google calendar with specific times for each task – that way you will know exactly what to do and when!
5. Follow Your Progress
Finally, once you've planned out your day and you started with the tasks you have – it is important to follow up on them.
Each time you finish one of the tasks from your list – make sure you mark it as done.
Not only will this help you keep track of what's done and what's not done, but you also get a sense of accomplishment as you go through the day and see more things being taken off the list.
