"One hour of planning can save 10 hours of doing."
Let’s imagine just for a moment that you are one of the best athletes in the world, and you have been invited to a world class competition on the sport you are the best at. Would you go to that competition without any sort of practice, training, and preparation? I am assuming the answer is no, and yet, without realizing it, that is probably what you have been doing for a long time. The reason I say that is because training for an important competition is no different than preparing yourself for the competition of life, setting your goals, and planning your work in advance. Every time we start our week without having a schedule or plan for our week of work, we are going to the “competition” without any sort of preparation, just hoping for the best.
Did you know that a recent study made in 2021 revealed that the least successful time management technique is “dealing with whatever comes up”? Yep, being there, done that. And trust me, it’s no fun. I never felt like I had any control. I was always stressed, always on reaction mode, extinguishing fires everywhere, and not getting anywhere.
And not to mention work-life balance. You know, having a hobby, exercising, and spending time with loved ones, which is almost impossible when we do not have a good time management and planning system in place.
Did you also know that according to a study made at the University of Scranton, only 8% of people who set New Year’s goals achieve them? Why? The study mentions a couple of reasons, one of which is that these group of persons make use of good time management tools (prioritized to-do lists, schedules, deadlines, etc) and practices (habits and daily routines) that supports them in the achievement of these goals. These people don’t “deal with whatever comes up”. These people know what they want and where they are going, and they have plans of action to get what they want.
So why is planning so important? What are the benefits and advantages of preparing your Game Plan? These can be endless, and we will now get into a brief description of a few of those benefits and advantages.
Planning provides Focus and Clarity
The first thing planning does for you is that it provides you focus and clarity. Planning your work forces you to ask yourself: what do I need to accomplish? What are my desired outcomes for this week or day? These questions will help you determine where your focus needs to go. It’s impossible to hit a target if you don’t know what’s the target. You need to be as specific as possible when defining your goals and outcomes.
Once you have identified your outcomes, you must then ask yourself: What are the necessary actions I need to take to achieve my outcomes? Writing down these actions will provide you with clarity on what is needed to accomplish this. Remember, writing down your outcomes and plans is the first step in turning the invisible into visible.
Planning sets yourself up for Success
“The key is not to prioritize what’s on your schedule, but to schedule your priorities.”
In any area of life, if you have goals, you need a strategic plan to achieve those goals. Identifying those tasks that are key, the ones that are the “needle movers” in the achievement of your goals will give you a sense of direction in terms of where to invest your time and energy. Once these priorities are identified, they must be scheduled for execution taking into consideration their due dates and the required time to execute these tasks.
But before we continue, what does “scheduling” really means? It is simply identifying the task you want to accomplish, and then define a point in time (date and time) in which you are going to work on it. I think this term is best described by the following quote :
“If you talk about it, it’s a dream. If you envision it, it’s possible. If you schedule it, it’s real.”
Scheduling your most important tasks for execution, and then executing them, is what sets you up for success in any area of life.
On the other hand, not planning your work, and not scheduling your most important tasks for execution is the same as leaving your success to randomness or pure chance. It is always better to schedule your day before it schedules you.
The fact is, if you don’t plan your work and develop your working schedule, someone else will, and you will end up working on the priorities of other people, the ones that actually took the time to schedule their priorities.
Planning increases confidence and reduces stress levels
Stress and anxiety are the result of the feeling of not having control over a certain outcome or situation. Planning your work in advance gives you back the sense of control over you goals, your schedule, and your tasks. As a result, there is a reduction of stress and anxiety levels and increased levels of confidence and certainty, which also increases overall performance and productivity levels.
A study was performed in 2021 by the Kansas Journal of Medicine to evaluate the association between workplace stress and productivity among employees. The study concluded that performance and productivity levels are inversely correlated to stress levels, or said differently, higher stress scores were associated significantly with lower productivity scores, while lower stress levels demonstrated to increase employee productivity and performance.
Planning improves your quality of life
Work to life balance is a key factor to have outstanding levels of mental and physical health. Once you gain back your sense of control over your time and tasks, you will notice that you have more time available. You can use this time to invest it on those aspects of your personal life that matters the most to you. When you decide to invest time on yourself and on the things that matters most to you, you will notice an improvement in your happiness and fulfillment levels. In the end, this is all that matters and the reason why we do what we do.