One Key to Successful Planning: Re-Prioritization!

Are you a planner?  I certainly am.  Am I perfect at it?  No.  Do I make a conscious effort to plan every day?  Yes.  And, yes, not just on work days…weekends too.  I’m a bit obsessive about it, admittedly. 

But it’s the only I can put myself in a position to get done what I have to get done.  And for some reason I always have a long list of things I want to get done.  But how?  There are never enough hours in the day, it seems.

Plan you work.  Work your plan.

That’s how.

Those of you who know me know that this has been a tenet of mine for a very long time.  Because making a plan is one thing.  Executing on that plan is another. 

That’s where prioritization comes in.

When you make your initial plan for a day, you need to prioritize what is most important – what HAS to get done – versus what you would like to get done.  Then, throughout your day, as you work your plan from start to finish, you need to constantly do the same thing.  Because you will get interrupted.  The key is, when those interruptions happen, you need to decide on the spot if the interruption is more important than whatever it is you are working on at that moment.  If it is, you need to allow your plan to be interrupted.  If it is not, you need to have the discipline to defer it to a later time or even date in some cases.

Once the interruption is handled, you then have to reprioritize the remainder of your day.  How much time do you have left to work?  What tasks remain on your plan that have to get accomplished.  Something inevitably will have to be sacrificed (this past weekend, for example, I never got around to updating my Quickbooks data...or maybe I just procrastinated because I really did not want to do that…but I digress).  Anyway, something has to give when you reprioritize. And that’s ok.  In fact, it is necessary.  When planning, you have to allow yourself the flexibility to move tasks around your daily plan so that you can position yourself for successful execution by making sure the most important tasks get done.

Planning is personal.  There is no ‘one way’ to do it.  Each individual has to figure out what method of planning works best for them.  And once you do, you have to be consistent at it.  You have to make it a habit.  Because in life, one thing we always have control over is our time and how we spend it.  So take control of your time.

And remember to prioritize and reprioritize how and where you spend your time.  Do that, and you will be more productive and feel more in control of your days.

John Ruffini is the Vice President of Professional Development for HealthTrust Workforce Solutions in Sunrise, Florida. He is a 30-year recruiting veteran, trainer, and motivator and is the author of the Amazon Best Sellers “Money Makers: Proven Ways to Increase Sales and Productivity in the World of Professional Recruiting”   and “A Quest for Alex.”