Hey y'all!
Now I don't claim to be a planner expert, there are people out there far better than me, but this is what I've found to work for me. So I thought it would be nice to share with you all today!
If there is a word for being planner obsessed then I'll add it to my list of descriptors. I've had a variety of planners over the course of my life, and suffer from planner envy for the ones I haven't tried. But today's type doesn't care if you're a paper planner, a phone planner, a to-do planner, or any of the other types. It works for them all!
In the past I would make a to-do list of every single thing I had to do, get overwhelmed, and run and hide. End result: nothing would get done, or if it did, I'd be super stressed out and on the verge of a melt down.
My secret: Top Three/Five!
Now, if you're anything like me you've see a top three in planners before and thought "that is the stupidest thing I've ever seen. There's no way I can narrow it down to three things. Who has that small of a schedule?"
I'm here telling you I was wrong and I'd bet money you are too! I started doing it at work a couple of months ago because I was always leaving work feeling behind and never feeling accomplished. It worked so well that I carried it over to my home life and it's great!
Here's how to do it:
Remember that overwhelming to-do list I mentioned a minute ago? Pull it back out, we need it. Now sit down with the list and a week's worth of days. Skim your list. If it is a time sensitive item, go ahead and plug it into the appropriate day. Then go through and plug in the things that really need to be done this week. Keep in mind the 3/5 rule when doing this. If they are large, time consuming items, keep your daily list to three. If they're small-medium tasks you can have five. If you've filled in all the must do items, and all the should do items and still have room, then feel free to plug them in. If not leave them on the list.
Why it works for me (and hopefully you):
Some days it is an honest struggle to get my top three done, but if I do, I go to bed feeling accomplished (and who doesn't love that?). Some days I'm riding the productivity train and knock out my top list and get started on the next's days list. I always leave feeling accomplished and it keeps me feeling productive. *mind trick*
Now, let's be honest for a minute. There will be days that you don't finish a single thing on your to-do list. And you know what? That is called life and you can't be superwoman (or man) every single day. So: IT. IS. OKAY. This is what I struggle most with. But worst case scenario is, you're only behind five tasks. So chalk it up as a bad day and buckle down the next day.
Do you have a planning secret/tip to share? I'm always looking to improve and would love to hear about it. I do hope this helps you as much as it has helped me!
xo Courtney
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