We all encounter days when we have planned to do a lot of things, but by the end of the day, we end up accomplishing very little. This can be immensely frustrating. You may think of yourself as not being disciplined, competent or productive enough to follow through your original plan. This WorthWorkin4Wednesday blog is all about planning effectively to succeed.

You may think that you have all the motivation and tools at hand, yet you are not able to be as productive as you like yourself to be. Sometimes, the problem is not with you and how you execute things, but how you plan things. Faulty planning makes execution harder and difficult, if not impossible.

We often blame our bosses and project managers for devising hard to achieve plans, setting unrealistic goals and deadlines, and setting higher expectations and impossible targets. But when it comes to setting personal and professional plans and goals, we find ourselves to be guilty of the same issues: unrealistic plan, setting over ambitious, unrealistic goals, targets, and timelines for ourselves, the inability to visualize the outcome and choosing the harder and longer route to reach the end goal.  
So, if you have been having issues in actualizing your plans, there might be issues with how you are planning things:

Here are three signs of faulty planning and how you can fix the gaps in your planning:

You Don’t Have a To-Do List!

Most of us plan our day and goals in our head and consider it sufficient and good enough to reach our goals. The problem with this preference is that you might be trying to remember and keep track of a lot of things in your mind.

Consequently, you may end up getting overwhelmed quickly because of the mental load you would carry around all day. You may even end up forgetting some of your goals or their urgency.

Thus, it’s always good to compile a to-do list at the start of the day or the night earlier. It doesn’t need to be fancy. It can be something as basic and simple as a Post-It and jotting down three to five tasks you need to tackle the next day on it. Ask yourself what do you want to accomplish tomorrow. You can keep it nearby and have a look at it in the morning while having your coffee. This would give you a structure to your day.   

You Have a To-Do List (But It’s is Too Long)!

When you try to tackle too many complex and time-consuming things in a limited amount of time, you end up getting much less done. In some cases, you may end up getting nothing done at all.  It’s the pressures of the toxic productivity culture that make you cram your day and week with an unrealistic amount of work.

A functional To-Do list is not a mile long. It can be short but functional. I for one like to keep the balance between urgent and important tasks in my To-Do list. This means that I include the top two to three most important things I need to get done on a given day and two to three urgent ones. This strategy is based on the idea that the urgent things might not be the important ones and vice versa. But both of these kinds of tasks need to be done. If you would continue to tackle urgent tasks only, then you won’t have much control over your day, as you would be constantly rushing to put out the fires. You would be constantly on your toes, in a rush and constantly stressed out. So, keep your list short, sweet and realistic. Don’t overcommit yourself by scheduling too many tasks in a single day. It’s better to accomplish a few important tasks well than to rush through many and not do them effectively.

Your Plan Is Unrealistic

What about all the time when you had a plan but it didn’t get executed well? Faulty or overambitious planning leads to nothing but issues and failure. The thing is that what looks good nay perfect on paper doesn’t play itself like that in reality.

That’s why during planning, we have to keep aspects like the available time and resources in mind, otherwise, we would encounter a wide range of issues and challenges during the execution phase. For instance, unrealistic planning often leads to setting an overly optimistic timelines.

So when you are unable to get your work done in the set timeline, you feel stressed. Moreover, trying to rush through the task can lead to accidents or create a shoddy result. Likewise, faulty planning also includes issues like not taking into account the resources you need and the additional, hidden tasks and work.  

So here is how you can create a more realistic plan for yourself: Estimate how much time each task will take to complete. Be realistic and include buffer time for unexpected interruptions or delays.  

Moreover, leave some open slots in your schedule for unexpected tasks or emergencies that may arise during the day. This ensures you can handle surprises without them derailing your entire plan and day.

Do Remember

Remember that creating a realistic daily plan requires practice and adjustment. Effective planning allows you to prioritize tasks and allocate time to complete them. This can lead to increased productivity as you focus on what matters most.  Over time, you’ll become better at estimating your capabilities, managing your time effectively and boosting your productivity!