How many tasks do you do each day? There’s one in particular that we could call the most important, and very few people do it. Ironically, it only takes 10 to 20 minutes a day, and it could make your day much more productive.
We’re talking about planning. But careful: we’re not talking about setting goals a year ahead. We’re talking about planning the next day. And it’s something we should all do every day.
There are two kinds of people in this respect. There’s the person who gets up in the morning, thinks about what clothes to wear and starts gathering what they need to take to work. And then there’s the person who lays out the next day’s clothes the night before, along with everything they need to take to work that day.
This second kind of person has been shown to start the day with less stress and more energy, and to end up having more productive days than the first group. It’s a more important habit than we think, and it’s one of the habits that shape success.
Why is planning the most important task of the day?
We’re not just talking about laying out tomorrow’s clothes the night before. We’re talking about planning the most important tasks you’ll need to get done that day. That way, you have a plan. There’s no improvising. And make no mistake: improvisation as a lifestyle sounds good, but it leads to improvised results too.
Write down the five things, both personal and work-related, that you need to do the next day, and put them in your diary. Pick the two most important things on the list and focus exclusively on them, as if they were the most important thing you had to do in your life.
Has it ever happened to you that you start the day knowing you have loads of things to do, but you don’t know where to begin? You’re a victim of poor planning, and that’s what leads you to start reading emails and wasting time. Chances are that by the end of the day you’ll feel you haven’t been as productive as you should have been, or could have been.
The most important 10 or 20 minutes of the day
It only takes about 10 or 20 minutes to prepare the day’s most important matters: finishing a half-done design, calling that crucial client, taking care of an important errand, solving something important that’s about to become urgent, and so on.
When we go through life without planning, we tend to end up in places we don’t like to be. And that happens with long-term planning, which, after all, is exactly the same as daily planning.
See also: Experts reveal their tricks for being more productive
Success doesn’t come or go overnight. It’s the sum of doing small daily actions correctly. If those daily actions are well planned, the results will come in the long run.
Time is our most valuable resource, and spending those 20 minutes planning before going to bed can save us many wasted hours the next day.
Featured image: Nenad Stojković, CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons.
