How to Plan Like a Pro

"It's night time already, where did the day go?"

"I had 10 things on my list but only got through 3 of them..."

"I don't even have time to stop and think I'm sooo busy!"

Any of these sound familiar?

You're not alone. Modern life with its increasing demands, multi tasking and full-fledged assault from digital distractions doesn't make it easy to get your important things done.

As Benjamin Franklin said, "If you fail to plan, you are planning to fail".

And he's qualified to talk about it. In his life apart from being one of the founding fathers, he was also:

a writer
a printer
a political philosopher
a politician
an active Freemason
a postmaster
a scientist
an inventor
a humorist
a civic activist
a statesman and a diplomat

Ok we're not all polymaths who ended up on money, but point stands: it's risky to just try to "wing it" when it comes to your day...

Want to be productive and achieve the goals that are important? You'll have a much better chance with good planning.

Planning starts with planning time to plan.

Unlike the last sentence (got a bit inceptiony - sorry!), planning doesn't have to be complicated at the start.

Set a consistent time daily to sit for 5 minutes, write out your top few priorities, and arrange your schedule so you can have as long uninterrupted blocks as possible to make headway on them.

No emails, no social, no other apps visible - just good ol fashioned focus. Remember the high cost of interruptions and don't let them in the house of your mind.

Then at the end of the day, take 5 minutes to review progress and if something went off course, learn from it and iterate.

Before long you'll be planning like a pro.