Monday Motivation 2/28/2000

True confession time.

I've never been a much of a day-to-day planner.

Oh, I'm getting better, but I've still got a way to go. I'm not one of those people who sits down each morning, and plans out my day to the very second.

But I am one of those people who actually sets up a "To Do" list and puts it to work.

Why should you set up a plan of attack?

I'll tell you straight. I learned it from a CD-ROM product (DreamVenture from Nightingale-Conant) put out by Brian Tracy. I learned that by merely optimizing my day, and then working my plan to the best of my ability, I get a great deal more accomplished.

I used to make fun of people who had their planners. (Actually, I still do at times.) Some of them spend so much time doing the planning that they never work their plan. I'm not quite that extreme, but I have found that (much to my surprise) when I set up a task list, I'm more likely to get the items on that list actually completed during the day.

I wondered about this for a while when I first started doing it. I had brutally made fun of a friend's Franklin Planner, especially for her four years' worth of archived pages. Now, by using a few techniques that I learned, I was suddenly getting a great deal more accomplished. How could this be?

What I decided was this: The mere motion of setting up a task list, and then prioritizing the things on that list, makes you more centered on accomplishing that list. In effect, it gives you a daily goal. Checking each item off reminds you where you were when life's little interruptions take your mind off your goal. That means you are more likely to get the material on the list completed, since you are less likely to get diverted from your task.

(Not that a little bit of diversion isn't a good thing...it's just no way to run a railroad.)

Planning can make a difference in your life, if you let it.

Let it.

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