Daily planning is a process of planning your daily activities and tasks in order to manage your time effectively. A well designed daily planning sheet can help both personal and professional to manage their time effectively and improve their work efficiency and time management skills. Time is the most precious assets of a person. Planning your time wisely and effectively can help a person to take control their most valuable resources.
Daily Planning Process
Before you plan your time, you need to create a to do list. A to do list will show what activities or things you need to do next day. When create a to do list, you need to consider all things that will take up your time over 30 minutes. When you have finished your task list, you may ask yourself the following questions: Are these things I really need to do in the next day? Are these things connected together? etc.
Daily planning need to prioritize things. When you have thought over the appointments, events and activities you need to do in the next day, you need to give priorities to these things. In the perfect situation, we may complete all the things in the to do list sheet, however, there are always uncertainties in the future, you need to make sure that you will complete all those things that are in your priority list. You may use a ABC system to indicate the importance of the activities. For example, you may give A to the most important things in the list, B to the second important things and C to the least important things. You may also use your own customized label to indicate the priorities of activities.
Daily Planning Strategy
Daily planning has been proved to be an effective tool for daily time management, however, it is important to make the daily planning ahead as your habit. The following are strategies and tips of planning your time ahead.
- Set a time slot in the evening to begin your daily planning. When you are planning your next day activities, you need to make sure you are not interrupted by other things such as TV, phone calls or other things that can distract your attention.
- Know your own best performing time. Studies show that there is best time for everybody during the day. The best time is the time that your performance and energy is the highest in the day. You may review your task list and put the most demanding tasks in the best time slot. For example, If you think your energy is best during the afternoon, you may assign your excise into that time slot.
- Put your daily planning into perspective. When you are planning, you need to make sure that your daily planning is within the target and principle of weekly planning, monthly planning or yearly planning. Daily planing, weekly planning will work together to achieve the yearly planning target.