Do you have a Daily Action Plan?

I came across this line on the new year's day 2018, which read "1 year = 365 opportunities". An opportunity to explore novel ideas, innovate, work, live, enjoy + much more.

Every morning we wake up to realize about all those extraordinary possibilities that the day could bring us. And of course! along with them we realize about the number of tasks that lay ahead of us waiting to be finished.

Sigh!!!

I am a person who is quite far-sighted in every journey I embark upon . I do not rely on the habit of meticulous planning, but I do prefer to take a step forward only with complete awareness, guidance and clarity.

As I said in a previous blog post 8 effective ways to create a well balanced life, life in its crude form is the time we have got on this planet.

The average life expectancy of an Indian is 68.35 years (Hmm...So?).

Life is too short to be not following your dreams, accomplishing your goals, pursuing interests & hobbies - making the most out of it precisely. With this realization, I also realized the value of time.

I was a carefree child, running in the rat race, competing to be better each day than others (people) - at least that's how I thought things worked back then and also the demands of the society were on the similar lines (continuously measuring you against some hypothetical other). Social Conditioning yeah! I was too young to understand all this.

It was not until I lost my uncle (whom I loved and considered as a father) passed away a few years back, I realized that life was too short and was not meant to be lived in such a mechanical fashion. I was deeply affected and shattered by his death. But the impact he left behind just changed things for the better. I decided to quit the rat race. Be my own self (away from the comparison game), compete to be better than my older version, learn new skills and just be me and a better me with every passing day!

This brings me to the point : Life is Time

And...

The foundation for effectively managing time amongst various aspects of life - family, work, hobbies, entertainment and so on, is by having an action plan.

Having said that...

Here are five easy steps that will guide you to create an effective action plan, turning every daunting task into a workable one (that's how it is for me).

Before that; read this quote by Eric Thomas:

"Don't think about what can happen in a month, Don't think about what can happen in a year. Just focus on the 24 hours in front of you and do what you can to get closer to where you want to be."

Step #1 - The Mental Picture:

The whole point of this step is to first get you started. It's like you are visualizing your next day right in front of you; as if you are watching it on a movie screen.

You see yourself:

~ Doing Yoga or running or doing some form of workout

~ Completing Office Tasks

~ Spending time with your pet or family

~ Eating healthy food

But now, you should break everything down into specifics. For example, Consider this: Healthy food - just picture what would you like to have for your breakfast or lunch. Or, your Office Assignment - Calculate a tangible amount of time you might need to wrap up, how far are you from the deadline, the chunk of work you want to finish - is it practical enough or not? So that the whole thing does not take a toll on you.

This process can take about a few seconds to minutes.

What people often do is they just start writing everything down on their to - do lists (whatever comes to their minds), barely calculating about the basic practicality. In such situations, most of the to - do items are not checked off as it might seem too burdensome to be completed in a day.

And, the official process of procrastination begins! Then, Over cramming! Due to this, most of them compromise on sleeping hours, meals...health! Hey, I was one in this category of people too.

"To - Do" definitely means you have/want to - do it! But when, where, how and how much is in your hands. You can either over cram yourself or break it up into practical amounts. That's the crucial role of an action plan and it is not just a to-do list.

You might as well think at this point, the whole idea of an action plan in itself sounds meticulous and daunting. Believe me; it is not! And you will thank yourself for the extra time you would gain by doing this.

Certain techniques I would be sharing with you in this blog post have not only proven effective to me but also to many people as well.

Step #2: Categorize: List down your action items into categories!

Did you ever look at a to - do list where everything is listed down in bullet points or just picture it for once.

When you look at it, everything is just overlapping, mixed up with everything else- from recipes you want to try to your office assignments or something you have to pick up from the grocery store.

I say your to-do list should speak to you, not giving you a chance to move your finger from the top to the bottom & bottom to the top of your list.

It's simple! you name a category "Personal" per say or "Work" or "The Blog" or "Gardening" or "Entertainment"... You get it!

And just list down all of the action items for that category under the heading. They could amount to one or ten or...!

Apart from the usual list of action items, when you see these various categories underlined or bold; you get a glimpse of the wide range of activities you are about to take up the following day. This in a way, helps you to identify whether a certain category is as important or not.

It's clean, neat and clear.

"Wanting is not enough; ACT upon your goals" - Steve Maraboli

There is also a power in the words you use. "To - Do" conveys you "To - Do" something; whereas when you say I will take "Take Action" there is a sense of spirit.

The only things I act upon are those that really matter. Too many unnecessary tasks are mere clutter, the priorities are the ones that actually matter.

This lays the ground for my next essential step!

Step #3: Prioritize: Use the Matrix - The Eisenhower Matrix!

Image Credit: www.joshmedeski.com

This is the one of the best techniques of prioritization! The whole concept is super simple yet effective.

There are four quadrants, the y axis marks Importance & x axis marks Urgency:

Quadrant 1: High Importance & High Urgency / Important & Urgent

Quadrant 2: High Importance & Low Urgency / Important but Not Urgent

Quadrant 3: Low Importance & High Urgency/ Not Important but Urgent

Quadrant 4: Low Importance & Low Urgency/ Not Important & Not Urgent

The concept speaks for itself as it is easy to understand. But, let me write a few more lines to brief you about how to use it?

In the Quadrant 1 you place those action items from your category list which you think are highly important and urgent at the same time. This could be a fast approaching deadline of your office assignment or a test/exam you must take.

While, in the Quadrant 2 you place those action items that are important to be done but they are not that urgent (i.e., not the first or the last thing you gotta deal with tomorrow itself). If your target is to loose so & so many calories by the month end, it is not a task of urgency but of high importance - your workout is important. Or, writing your blog post for the next week or finishing office tasks prior to the deadline. So, you definitely gotta tackle these ones. Tackling these action items helps you boost your efficiency in handling long-term tasks.

Quadrant 3: Now, if you ask me why would I do something unimportant with such urgency. Well! some are such. For Example, you might have to return a book at the Library tomorrow, or drop your clothes off at the laundry, water your plants in the Garden - given the nature of it.

Quadrant 4: These could be those tasks like watching an episode of your favorite TV show (you do need it after all - at times) or those tasks that do not need your full focus and attention. This quadrant could also help you in getting rid of those distractions which you have hung upon for a very long time. Try eliminating such elements gradually.

So, now you are well set to go! Tackle first things first - Focus on the Quadrant 1, then 2. In the rank of their order. After all, if there were anything that urgent and important then those items from the final quadrant would have already been placed up the ladder - Don't you think!

Prioritize ~ Focus on one thing at a time ~ Check them off your list!

Step #4: Eat that Frog

This is a concept which I have learnt from the book "Eat That Frog : 21 ways to stop procrastinating and get more done in less time" by Brain Tracy.

According to an old saying, if you eat the ugliest frog first thing in the morning that means you are done with the worst thing that you had to deal with on that day. Most of the times, while deciding what's to be picked as our first task for the day, we start with something rather simple and tend to avoid the ugliest or the hard tasks.

We tend to finish other tasks which might not be as equally important or the ones that do not actually make a huge difference to our set goals.

According to Brain Tracy, if you tackle the most important task i.e; eating the ugliest frog. You would have a positive high knowing that one of the hardest and worst of all of them has already been dealt with and you lay your ground for checking off all the others in the flow.

Before I knew about this approach, I used to stop with the previous step - The Matrix. But now, I pick two ugly frogs from the Quadrant 1 and then just start to work on them the first thing in the morning. And yeah! I tell you when you tackle these, you are gonna be so relieved.

Which is so unlike me! I used to have a rather peculiar form of picking my tasks before. I used to do the opposite basically. Like pushing the hardest ones to the last, thinking if I am done with the small tasks in less time which are supposedly to be easy (Psst), I could pour in all my concentration to the hard tasks later. But that never happened.

If you could relate - I say go with Mr. Tracy! It's super effective and shoots your productivity right up high.

5. Reward yourself for the Accomplishments:

Accomplishments need not necessarily mean something huge. Even a small task accomplished today is gonna take you closer to where you want to be right?

Feel proud of yourself every night before going to bed, that you have done something today which was worth spending your time for. It's not just about checking off your action items but the fact that you have accomplished them should be visible to your eyes.

Some people write down whatever they have accomplished for the day. But I use two highlighter pens one green and the other pink. Green highlights my accomplishments & Pink says may be I could look into them tomorrow. I prefer to see as much green as possible but sometimes all your tasks are not just yours when you work in a team or just something unexpected pushed it further. So, don't freak or panic!

Last but not the least - Reward yourself with something you love! This could be giving yourself sometime to watch a movie in the weekend, or visiting your favorite restaurant. The idea is not to throw a big party and call all of your friends but it's something more personal to you.

Telling yourself - "you have been great today, you will do better! No pressure, No hurry, Everything will move in it's own pace and you are strong that you have come this far". After all self - motivation is the most essential thing.

Honor your accomplishments irrespective of big or small - the point is "You did it".