Impact of Planning your Day in Advance

There are hundreds of management books which talk’s about planning, impact of planning in your professional life etc. However, I would like to share my personal experiences related to planning and the impact it has when you plan your day effectively. Since, I am sharing my real life experiences, I am sure many of you would relate to it, especially in your professional life. Every day, when I reach office, the first thing I do is check my emails and then prepare my TO DO list and plan my entire day accordingly.

Initially I used to prepare the list on paper but now since the responsibilities have increased, I have started maintaining excel. I write down all the activities which ideally I would like to complete in the given day, and then I put a time stamp against each of the activity on the basis of their criticality for the day. This helps me to identify what are those activities which are must to be completed by end of the day and what needs to be carried forward for the rest of the week.

Many people make fun of it and say that you spend good 15 min in preparing the to do list, it’s of not use. But now, I will tell you what the impact of having it is and how it makes me stand out of the peer group and enhances my performance for the day.

The moment you freeze your work for the day, you are completely focused regarding the tasks that need to be completed for the day. There are no doubts in your mind at any given point of time. Hence the quality of work delivered is excellent as your focus is sharp. Another strong impact is that at any given point if someone asks you or your boss or someone from senior management wants to inquire about your list of deliverables for the day, you are always ready with it and if there is something which could not be done in the given day, then you have the exact explanations for the senior management that why it cannot be done in the given day and when can they expect it to be done. This will help you earn high reputation for yourself and you will never fail your promises and you will earn the reputation of man who lives by his words which benefits a lot in your professional career.

The impact of perfect planning is that you are always relaxed, crystal clear throughout the entire day and you never miss on anything. There would never be a situation, when you will say, “sorry sir I forgot to do this”. You will always say, either the work is completed or will be completed by xyz day due to ABC reasons which will earn you respect and trust of your seniors/stakeholders. So try it just for one day and see the impact of planning your day. I can guarantee, once tried, it will get converted into your habit.

This blog post is inspired by the blogging marathon hosted on IndiBlogger for the launch of the #Fantastico Zica from Tata Motors. You can apply for a test drive of the hatchback Zica today.