3 Life-Changing Lessons I Learned When I Started Planning Consistently
I’ve been part of the planner community online for about 10 years now.
I actually scrolled all the way back into my YouTube history to find my very first planner related video that is titled “How I Organize My Agenda + Office Supply Haul!” The video was published on March 10th, 2013 and in the video I shared my planning tools that were used mostly for work: a full size Blue Sky planner, a Martha Stewart for Avery junior size disc bound notebook, plus a haul of some other fun Martha Stewart for Avery office supplies I had purchased at Staples, along with a bunch of stationery goodies from the Target Dollar Spot.
This was back before the Martha Stewart for Avery line essentially blew up in the planning community online and you couldn’t find the beautiful aqua discbound notebook covers or the color coding dots in store for what felt like years. Before collecting (ahem, hoarding) patterned page flags scoured from the Target Dollar bins was a thing. Before the planning community turned into a massive marketing machine of paper, (faux) leather, stickers and washi tape.
So many of us found our way to the planner community during this time. Attracted by the craftsmanship of beautiful binders, the creativity of mixing artistic mediums into a practical daily tool, and the genius of a beautiful planner spread that became the status symbol representing a life well organized, well documented, and well lived. From the outside looking in, planning, in some circles, seemed like the ultimate inspiration and aspiration for the busy, overwhelmed and often, exhausted women who wanted to take back control of their time and their lives to make their dreams happen.
But the pretty pictures of planners populated with perfect penmanship were purely pretentious.
They showcased another impossible standard for women to aspire to, but never showed us how the act of planning well could transform our lives in meaningful ways. So, our individual planners, in an attempt to emulate these paradigms of pretty planning, became shallow with no substance.
I often wonder how many well-intentioned women were drawn to the planner community out of a sincere desire to better themselves and left dismayed when they found that they could not buy their way to productivity with paper and stickers. That designing a beautiful planner spread wasn’t going to help you finish the tasks on your to-do list to create your beautiful life. That, once again, the capitalist machine telling you to buy your way out of a problem had failed, and that the only way to improve your life was actually through effort and sacrifice. I wonder more, how many women are still stuck inside the machine and haven’t made their way to this realization yet.
I sincerely hope they make it out.
Because there is a way forward to achieving our ultimate shared aspiration to live our lives with more ease, more beauty and more purpose. And the answer does involve planning!
Not just any planning, but Functional Planning.
When we plan consistently, with a proven process of research backed strategy that becomes a daily routine that we live by- that’s when planning can change your life. Here are the 3 life-changing lessons I learned when I started planning consistently.
3 Life-Changing Lessons I Learned When I Started Planning Consistently
1. Clarity breeds focus: Consistent planning provides a roadmap for our goals and aspirations. By taking the time to define our objectives and breaking them down into actionable steps, we gain a clear understanding of what needs to be done in order to achieve our goals. This clarity eliminates ambiguity and confusion, and allows us to focus our time, energy and resources on the most important tasks. As a result, we become more efficient and effective in achieving our desired outcomes.
So, if you have a hard time getting focused on the things you need to do each day, I recommend taking some time to get clear on what it is that you want and why you are doing the tasks you put on your to-do list. For each task on your to-do list, before it earns its spot into your daily or weekly plan, it needs to answer the following questions:
Q1: What ultimate goal or outcome does this task serve and why is this goal or outcome important to me?
This question is asking you to identify the area of your life that the task affects, and helps you get clarity on why it’s important for the task to be complete. For many of us, simply remembering why a task is important is enough for us to find motivation to get it done.
Q2: Why was this task chosen?
When we are creating a to-do list or brain dumping tasks we think we need to complete, it’s important to question why a specific task was identified. Was this because you have always done the task and feel comfortable doing it? Was it because someone else assigned the task to you or this task was the way you learned to achieve some outcome? This question is asking you to find the reason why this task is the way you think you should spend your time and effort because in truth, there are usually many ways to achieve the same outcome with different tasks.
Q3: Is this task the best way for me to achieve the desired outcome, and if not, what task would be a better option?
Often times, we get stuck in mindsets that make us believe that there is only one way to get something done, but that isn’t true. Sometimes, we complete tasks out of habit when they are not even the best use of our time and effort. This question is asking you to think outside the box and determine if there is another way to get the same outcome by doing another task. This is especially helpful if you find yourself resistant to a specific task you’ve planning to do. When we don’t feel aligned with a task, we often procrastinate on it
Inside the Charmed Life Master Mind, I host regular planning sessions to set our goals, break our goals down into objectives and action plans and do quarterly and monthly planning check ups to ensure we stay on track. My master mind sisters get access to goal, project, daily planners and more to keep them clear and focused on the priorities that will impact their life.
2. Discipline enhances productivity: Planning consistently requires discipline, but it is a skill that pays off tremendously. When we develop a habit of organizing our days, setting priorities, and allocating time for different activities, we optimize our productivity. By establishing routines and sticking to them, we minimize procrastination, distractions, and indecisiveness. Through disciplined planning, we create a structured environment that empowers us to make progress towards our goals consistently.
Discipline requires accountability. So, it’s important for you to remain accountable to your planning routine. Use the following questions to help you define and remain accountable to your planning routine.
Q1: What is your planning routine? Keep in mind different routines for planning different periods of time like the day, week, month, quarter and year.
It’s important to have a clear process for what steps you will take when you sit down to make a plan. Define your planning routine for each time period and keep the routine with your planner to reference it to ensure you are capturing all information and executing all steps of the routine to make the best plans possible.
Q2: When is the best time for you to complete each part of your planning process on a daily, weekly, monthly, quarterly and yearly basis?
Yes, you need to have a plan for when you will plan! Create a recurring schedule for when you will perform each part of your planning routine on a regular basis to ensure you remain accountable to your planning.
Q3: How can you remind yourself to stick to your scheduled planning routine?
A planning routine is no good if you don’t remember to do it. How can you remain accountable to the routine? Do you need to block off time in your schedule, set alerts or find a planning accountability partner? Decide which form of accountability can keep your consistent to your routine and put that accountability framework in place.
Inside the Charmed Life Master Mind, I post regular reminders for my master mind sisters to keep them on track with their planning routines- sharing tips on how to plan and providing questions for them to use to make the best, most complete plans possible.
3. Balance promotes well-being: While planning can help us achieve professional success, it’s equally important to consider our overall well-being. Consistent planning enables us to find balance in our lives by allocating time for various aspects, including work, relationships, self-care, and personal growth. By intentionally scheduling moments of relaxation, exercise, and social connection, we nurture our mental and physical health. This balanced approach to planning ensures that we not only achieve our goals but also cultivate a fulfilling and sustainable lifestyle.
Q1: What priorities or activities would I like to spend more of my time on?
For many of us, a major goal of planning is to minimize the time we spend on things we have to do, so we can maximize time on things we want to do. We all have those activities we wish we had more time for and we know would make our lives feel more balanced and in alignment with our best life. The first step to getting in alignment with this best life is to identify those priorities or activities we want to spend more time on and exactly and what those activities would reasonably be for us. For example, if you know you want to spend more time with family, what activities do you want to do with them? Does it mean family game night, dinners together or vacations? You need to identify what we need to make more time for specifically.
Q2: How can I turn these activities into a regular part of my routine?
Once you know the activities you want to make more time for, decide how often it makes sense to do them. Continuing on from the previous example, is family game night a weekly occurrence or monthly? Do you want to have dinner with your family every night or just on week nights? You are setting the expectation for this activity, so decide how often would be ideal for you, but make sure you get others on board who may be involved to ensure the expectation makes sense.
Q3: What other tasks will I have to set boundaries around or limit so I can protect this time for my priorities?
Inevitably, when you spend more time on one thing, it means you will need to spend less time on something else to make room for it in your schedule. So, what activities are you going to spend less time on or put boundaries or limits on so you can protect your time for your preferred activity?
Inside the Charmed Life Master Mind, we regularly check in with our daily and weekly routines to optimize them for our season of life. Balance is a topic we come back to time and again because it’s not one final ultimate state of being, but instead it’s a target that is often shifting as our lives change and improve.
Consistent planning is a powerful practice that can transform our lives. Through the lessons I’ve learned on this journey, I’ve witnessed the profound impact of clarity, discipline, and balance. By embracing consistent planning, we gain focus, enhance productivity, and promote overall well-being. So, if you’re looking for a life-changing approach, I encourage you to embark on the path of consistent planning and experience the transformative power it holds.
FREE ON-DEMAND PLANNING CLASS: How to Plan for a Balanced and Successful Life
→ Have you been struggling with your planning and personal organization?
→ Do you question how to best set up your planner for the year?
→ What inserts to include?
→ How to establish a regular planning routine?
→ And how to ensure you actually use your planner to get more done with less time and effort?
Learning how to properly set up and use your planner is the first step to ensuring you have the systems in place to confidently plan a balanced and successful life.
One where you have visibility to all the important tasks in your day, the time set aside to get them done, and still have room each day to care for yourself, your family and the other priorities in your life.
Whether you work for yourself, another company, are a stay at home mom, student or even retiree, having a reliable planning system at your fingertips is the difference between a balanced, intentional and fulfilling life and one where you feel completely disorganized and out of control.
That’s why I have created a NEW FREE TRAINING Class called How to Plan for a Balanced and Successful Life!
In this FREE Training, I am going to teach you:
✔︎ How to set up a functional planning system, one with the inserts you need to ensure you are capturing all of lifes tasks, and then how to establish a simple routine to ensure you are utilizing your planner to get things done on a daily basis.
✔︎ I am going to teach you how to use your planner to create a system to ensure you are able to quantify and track your work to make your planning process easier, and also to make organizing your tasks and scheduling them into your life a seamless process so that there is a time for everything and everything gets done.
✔︎ Finally, I am going to teach you ten time, task and energy management strategies to help you complete a long to-do list. These are simple, practical strategies you can implement immediately in your life for a greater sense of productivity and satisfaction with your work.
You are going to walk away from this training armed with knowledge that you can put to use immediately to finally commit to a planner system that works for you, to help you get all your tasks organized and to ensure you know fundamental productivity strategy to work smarter not harder.
Greatest of all though, you are going to walk away from this training with a sense of confidence and clarity that you know how to handle the endless stream of tasks that life brings to you!
Embodying that sort of confidence will immediately bring you more ease, intention and balance to your life because you will begin to recognize that you don’t need to hustle to get it all done. You don’t have to sacrifice your personal goals, time with your family, your wellbeing and even your sleep just to complete a to-do list.
As Elton John sings in the Circle of Life, “there is more to do than can ever be done” in this life! The to do list is always going to grow no matter how much we check off each day, so utilizing systems to manage the work is the best way to bring yourself a sense of peace and trust that you are in control of your life and it’s direction!
YOU GOT THIS!
And I’m here to help!
→ This class is now ON-DEMAND, so register below to secure your access!
I sincerely hope this class brings you the clarity you need to put the lessons I learned about planning into practice in your own life. We are each working towards our own version of our best live’s and that is work I think that can best be done when we learn from each other!
xoxo,
