What Planning Does For Your Mind
Are you struck by overwhelm and mental fog? Are you having lots of great ideas but don’t seem to get anything done? Are you having problems with clarity and what to do next?
Is indecision keeping you where you are?
Feel stressed because it takes a lot of time to get that one thing done, but you keep on being “busy”?
Looking for that sense of fulfillment at the end of the day, knowing that you made progress towards that desired goal of yours? Even if it’s just one little baby step?
I know everyone is busy and there are days that we can’t make the effort or find the time to make big progress.
However, planning ahead and knowing that you will accomplish what you have in mind, by a certain day gives you a lot of mental peace.
All you have to do is be open to put effort in making a planning and working towards it.
Planning can really help you get focused and get you started on the things that MATTER!
Planning ahead will not only help you getting your st*ff done! It also has benefits for your mind!
Journaling
Before diving into the five benefits of planning, there is something you could do to start getting your mind ready for order and structure. You can do this by journaling.
Getting all your blockages out on paper can immensely help you get unstuck. Journaling it all out gives a lot of space in your head and gives you insight in your thoughts.
When you have a seat and jot down everything that you want to get done, without breaking your head on when it should be finished or the great big “HOW”, you actually declutter your brain.
Write out all your stress, frustrations and off course your desired outcome.
Writing is all out really clears the mind.
When you re-read your journaling, you can find what is bothering you, what’s keeping you stuck and what it is that you actually want.
Journaling is such a sanity saver when it comes to getting clarity and getting started with a good planning.
Want to know more about the benefits of journaling? Here’s an article where 8 benefits of journaling are given > Benefits of Keeping a Journal.
After pouring your heart and soul out on paper. Let’s start getting into the 5 benefits of planning.
Benefits of Planning
Five Benefits of Planning
Clarity
When it’s clear what you want and you melted your frustration and insecurities with a torch, you can start planning. Because you journaled out all that you want and more, you can clearly see where it is you want to go. You can see your end goal, what’s holding you back at the moment and what your action steps should be. Not only the action steps you could take to accomplish your goal, but also action steps disabling whatever is holding you back now, so that in the future this will not be a thing anymore. Hooray for progress and personal development!
A ‘smart‘ way of setting goals is using the SMART method. There are many sources out there that describe the SMART method. However, I found the way that mindtools.com explains it is really easy to understand. Here is the link to read their article.
Read into the SMART method and let it help you get started. I wrote out the SMART method in my own words, hopefully, it resonates with you to make it actionable.
Specific
Be as specific as can be. Don’t be vague. Let’s say you want to increase your income.
By only stating that you want to increase your income is just way too vague but very easy to accomplish. In this case, if you happen to find some money somewhere on the ground, you increased your income! But it’s not what you wanted, I assume!
Be very specific!
For example I want to increase my income by € 2.000,- by selling my old furniture and clothes.
Measurable
With the above standing example its already made measurable since I stated € 2.000,-
Acceptable/Attainable
In this example, looking at my furniture and my clothes and researching its market value, it should be attainable to make this of money.
Realistic/Relevant
This is realistic and relevant since I want to change the furniture in my house, (where selling gives me a budget) and since I lost a considerable amount of weight and my good clothes don’t fit any more. This is in line with my long-term goals keeping the weight off and redecorating my house.
Time
When do you want this to be done? What would be the most realistic timeframe and most importantly: what can you do now?
Is there something you can do today, what do you need to have accomplished within 2 months from now or 6 months from now.
Make really clear what you need to do and by when to have the most profitable outcome.
Example of a complete goal:
I want to increase my income with at least €2.000 by selling my clothes and furniture in order to help me realize my goals of redecorating my house and keeping a slim body. I want to have made this money by 30th November 2021.
These are actually 2 goals in 1 but you get the picture right?
SMART Planning
Roadmap
If you plan well, in a step-by-step manner, with your end goal in mind, you will have an amazing roadmap of what your next step will be. It’s truly amazing to see what good planning can do for your goals when you take the time to plan it out.
Using ‘reversed engineering’ can also help you make your road map more clear. Simply said, reversed engineering means that your start with the end in mind, and from there you determine your ‘milestones’, the smaller goals in between to make sure you are making progress in the right manner and timely order. Then determine the steps you need to take to make your end goal reality and your milestones along the way.
The most important part is always the START. Making an amazing planning is of course very good but if you never ever start, all your work and good effort is for nothing.
I’m even inclined to say that having a ‘mediocre’ planning while starting is even better than having a good planning and not starting. You get the picture right? Mediocre planning can be improved along the way because of the mistakes and downfalls you make.
As we go along, we get better.
I know mediocre can sound so degrading. However, I truly believe that when you invest your best effort in something and you have an open and growth mindset, you will have the grit and flexibility to make your planning better as you go. You can not do more than you know, but sometimes that is exactly enough to get you started.
Here are the steps once again of reversed engineering:
1. Set Your End Goal
2. Determine Your Milestones
3. Determine Your Steps
4. Start Climbing
Peace of mind
When you see all the steps laid out and you know where you’re going, and to some level know how to do it and by when, you will feel so much more at ease. This is such a positive influence on your mind than an unstructured cloud of ideas and dreams with no end or beginning.
Having a plan reduces stress, anxiety, and overwhelm because you have everything under control and in good bite-size pieces to move forward.
Having peace of mind is a great benefit when pursuing your dreams because the chance of you quitting because of overwhelm, stress or exhaustion is smaller.
Peace of mind through planning
Confidence
Knowing that you have your plan figured out not only will give you peace of mind but also a lot of confidence. You can see your path before you and you know that it’s achievable, hence the SMART method. You know, even if some unfortunate events might happen for whatever reason, you do have a plan of action! This grows your self-confidence and belief in yourself. You know that you can achieve it, even if it takes longer than expected, and it makes you more resilient.
Life balance
Because your work or your passion project is not all we can focus on in life, and honestly you shouldn’t want to, we can create a better life balance. With life, balance is meant that ‘work’ and ‘life’ get their well-deserved cut of your time, energy, love, and effort.
When you plan out your week, month, quarter or your year, out well. Nobody or nothing has to be uncared for or not taken into consideration. Mostly it’s not having a planning or having bad planning that things get forgotten or neglected and that is a sad thing.
This should be enough encouragement for you to consider and start planning your life out better.
Perhaps you did this in the past or maybe one or more aspects of life but not all of them.
Having a good planner that helps you take everything into consideration will help you a lot!
It will make the world of difference.
Below you can find planners that can help you out with this.
These planners take all the important aspects of life into consideration.
Not one aspect has to be forgotten unless you choose to.
Take a look at the planners and see what they can do for you. Click to go to the shop overview.
Future Me Planner
7 Reasons Why Daily Goal Setting Is Important
How important is it to have good daily planning?
Making a plan might not be the most enjoyable activity you can set out to do but, it certainly is an effective way if you choose to live as productive and progressive as you can.
Carving out half an hour to an hour to ‘design’ your week ahead and investing time for a longer session to plan out your month ahead can be a life-changer in the ‘get sh*t done’ department.
To some degree, everybody has a plan. It would be very hard for anyone not to plan ahead, even if they hate the thought of it. Even thinking about what to have for dinner tonight is a form of planning.
You may have encountered people who seem to take and make life as it goes, and it all seems to be very liberating and independent. However, you really want to know what’s ahead to prepare the best way possible and know what you can accomplish by the time the month passes.
If you are a student, mother, employee, or business owner, planning is very powerful when it comes to getting your stuff together and getting ahead.
Here are some benefits of good planning:
You have an end in mind
It is stress-reducing and gives peace of mind
It invites strategic thinking
It aids skill development
You get to evaluate your work/project
It enhances your productivity
It helps you pay attention to different roles in your life
To make a good plan, it is wise not to just make a day-by-day plan alone. It is much better to start with a complete overview of your month if you are new to planning. And when you are used to your new planning skills, you can of course expand to quarterly and/or yearly planning.
Having an overview of the month ahead gives you clarity on where you are going, and what you want to accomplish by when. From there you can easily break down your monthly overview into weekly planning, and then break it down to daily planning. By doing this, you clearly see what to do every single day of the week.
Don’t worry if things seem overwhelming at first. With time, you will be amazed by what you can accomplish if you simply write things down for yourself and plan. It takes some getting used to, but don’t give up or discard it. You will thank yourself when you reach all your goals and accomplish what you desire to do.
Have the end in mind
Before you start filling up your plan, decide on what you want to achieve, accomplish or make some progress in the next coming month?
State clear goals and try to make them as SMART as possible. This will help make it easier to set more realistic goals. If you are new to SMART goals, here is an article that explains it well.
What are your objectives? Do you intend to complete a course before Christmas? Would you like to write a book?
Make these as clear as possible. And don’t be one-sided in this wither. Take all elements of life and state what your goal is with this. More on this later 😉
Stress-reducing and gives peace of mind
Ever felt overwhelmed by all the things you have to do?
Or are you scared to death that you will forget something important or have something pop up at the last moment, and have to settle or compromise because you didn’t see it coming. Ugh… who wants that?
Of course, not all things in life are predictable and things can still pop up, that is the beauty of life isn’t it? However, having space and mental clarity to actually handle these events effectively and accurately is something that you get to give yourself. Not everyone has the ‘luxury’ to keep everything going as it was planned ahead, simply because they didn’t have the complete picture in mind and on paper.
Knowing what’s coming gives you time and space to prepare, and progress the right way that it benefits you.
This equals not having to break your head about things and stress out. You knew it was coming and you are prepared!
Practice strategic thinking
As I mentioned above, you can strategically plan ahead and make sure you tick all the boxes on time before finishing up your project, work, or whatever your goal is.
By planning, you are able to make good choices and plan for quality and success because you have the end in mind. You have a whole landscape of what you want before you, and you are able to plan it out ahead of time.
If it is a book you are writing and you want to write it within 1.5 years? Plan ahead!
Again, be very specific and precise in what you want.
- What is it about?
- What are the chapters about?
- How many pages are in the book etc.
Make sure you have a clear vision and make it easy to understand for yourself.
Then schedule a finish date into your calendar.
Work on your chapters consistently and be prepared for your big day.
Skills development
Being skilled in planning helps you, not only with planning itself but will also help you in other areas in life. Your ability to focus, plan ahead, and have a sense of time will also help you in several ways, as this is not a skill you will regret having learned.
You will probably be more organized and put together than your peers at work or school and this will be visible. It’s a very important personal development skill you really need to hone.
At first, you might not always do what you want in the amount of time that you wished. However, the more you plan the more you grow competent with it and soon you will be able to make a sound plan that will help you progress in daily life, in a lot of ways.
Evaluate your work/project
This might be where the tish hits the fan. Did you do a good job following up your planning or did you stagnate and procrastinate? It’s important to be honest and objective here.
Don’t be too hard on yourself when you are behind and you did the best you could. You are learning and sometimes, we are not able to indicate correctly how fast things are going to progress. Sometimes unforeseen things are popping up that we can not always help or leave aside. These are all things you have to weigh in on evaluating.
On the other hand, did you do the things you planned? How thorough were you at this? Did you slack or were you procrastinating along the way?
This is not something to do at the end of your week or month. Rather, this is something you do daily and maybe even in the middle of your day.
Find the balance in giving yourself a kick in the butt or cutting yourself some slack. However, don’t just reduce your goals. You made that goal for a reason and you made it SMART, so it’s doable and realistic. Make sure you do everything you can to fulfill it.
Enhanced productivity
Think you might have guessed this one already, your productivity enhances!
Do you think your productivity would enhance when you follow the steps above? I THINK YOU DO!
Unless you are already a productive machine you will not see a lot of difference. If you are new to this, your productivity will skyrocket!
If you are looking for resources and books on productivity. Stephen R. Covey might help you out! He’s written a bestseller on productivity with his book - 7 habits of highly effective people.
Attention for different roles
I already promised you to get back to this.
What I mean by the roles we have in our lives:
When you are married and you have a job next to your family life, you already have 3 roles. If you also have some friends and other family members you already have 5 roles, and so on.
Determine what roles are important in your life and write them down. What is your goal with this? Do you want to spend at least one hour per day of quality time with your kids and husband? Do you want at least one social meeting a week with your friends? Do you want to work on your health and work out 3 times a week?
Define what is important for you and write it out. Sometimes we can not do all the things we want but even if you do half of what we planned, at least it’s something. You will be amazed at all you’ve accomplished, even if you didn’t tick it all off.
Make use of planners
Planners are a great tool to set up structure and have your ‘planned life’ in one place. There are simple planners with just small areas to write down your to-do’s, and others that are detailed and motivating to help you along the way of getting your desired life together. This goes much further than just simple scheduling.
Push Your Potential has a complete planner where all aspects of life are put in to help you out with realizing your goals and putting your desired life together.
This covers:
Yearly overview
Monthly overview
Weekly overview
Daily overview
Habits
Health
Money
Goals
Notes
Lists
The planner gives you great and valuable insight into your goal setting as you go through your days.
Check out the shop for all the planners and printables of Push Your Potential.