“Planning is bringing the future into the present so that you can do something about it now.” – Alan Lakein
“If you don’t have a plan for yourself, you’ll be part of someone else’s.” – Proverb
Yesterday, we talked about how to take your Legacy Plan and Life Plan and drill it down into a five-year outline. Today, we are going to talk about how to drill it down even further. We’ll be developing a one-year plan, a monthly plan, weekly goals, and then I will show you what I’ve learned about making daily to-do lists.
This 1 Year Planner contains spots for a six-month breakdown of your annual goals. In each month’s spot, you will enter high-level activities, taking care not to overextend yourself. Make the goals manageable. For instance, in my sample layout, I have set the following goals for my Life Books project.
- January: Finish printing existing layouts. Move the rest of my audio tapes onto the computer. Burn DVDs of the layouts I have included in my book so far. (I can do this while I am printing layouts.)
- February: Rework old layouts that I wouldn’t print otherwise. Make contact sheets of photos I am not going to use on layouts. (My thought about that is that I will concentrate on the photos that were taken in photo sessions that I have already created layouts about, rather than trying to tackle my entire photo library in one month.)
- March: Organize photo files. Start burning DVDs of photos to include in my Life Books. (These would be photos that I never intend to scrap.)
- April: Go through old journals and find things that I want to include in my Life Books. Start scanning and/or building layouts about these things.
- May: Continue journal project.
- June: Move some of my Muses onto layouts. Burn Muses that I want to save onto DVDs to include in books.
Notice that I have tried to be realistic about what I can accomplish. Some of the tasks are things that don’t require my complete attention, so I can work on them while I do other things.
I will follow the same process with the other goals I will set for my year.
“A good plan today is better than a perfect plan tomorrow.” –Proverb
“Organizing is what you do before you do something, so that when you do it, it is not all mixed up.” – A.A. Milne
Once I have my 1 Year Plan completed, I will start making weekly goals to accomplish them. Over the years that I have owned Scrap Girls, I have found it very helpful to do this. Sometimes, I don’t meet my weekly goals, but most of the time I do because I purposely don’t give myself too many to accomplish at once. Life has a way of throwing extra work at me, and I need to be flexible enough to respond to new things that come up right away.
I use Google Calendars to track projects. In fact, I use Google Calendars for tracking almost everything imaginable. I have multiple Google Calendars – each one assigned to single topics such as my appointments, my activities, Scrap Girls company events, editorial calendars, and more. Each one is color-coded so I instantly see what is happening when I look at it.
I am able to sync my Google Calendars to my mobile devices (my cell phone and iPad) so I am able to enter my appointments or other items onto my calendars no matter where I might be. When I set up an appointment or calendar item, I enter pertinent details about location, file names, or anything else related to the item in its description. It’s easy to set up reoccurring appointments, as well.
I have my calendar account set up so that it sends me a daily agenda each morning. I also have it send me reminder emails for certain things. I can also have it remind me via pop-ups and text messages.
Before I started using Google Calendars, I constantly forgot or was late to appointments because when I start working on something, I become so laser-focused that I lose track of time. Google Calendars has saved me from myself.
But when I am planning out my goals, I need to write things on paper so that I can see them in a glance before I can move them into the Google Calendars, so I sketch them out on paper. I am planning to start putting my planning sketches in my Life Books because I think it will be interesting to look back at them in the coming years.
Here is an example of my weekly breakdown of January’s Life Scrapbook Project.
The first two weeks, I am planning to print out layouts while I bring audio files onto my computer. I’ve been doing it this way for a while now, and it’s very pleasant. I have to turn the tapes on and let them run in order for the software I am using to record the audio onto the computer. While the tape is playing, I print out layouts. The last two weeks of the month will be dedicated to burning DVDs containing the layout files.
“He who fails to plan, plans to fail.” – Proverb
After I have my weekly goals set up, I have to determine what my daily tasks will be. I used to write big, long to-do lists in notebooks and on scratch paper. They invariably became so unwieldy and intimidating that I avoided looking at them, relying on my memory instead. It never worked.
Then I learned about a cool little app named ToDo (Tomorrow) (Free for Android and iPhones). This app is very simple and only allows you to enter today and tomorrow’s to-do lists and cross off the items once they are finished. If you don’t finish and cross off a list item, the app automatically rolls the item over to the next day. They also have a web browser version of it that syncs with the app on your mobile device. This is what the web version looks like.
I’ve learned not to put my entire laundry list of the things I would like to do in the app. Instead, I have a big master list of to-dos that I keep on a whiteboard in my office. I only look at it once every week or so. I limit the items in the ToDo (Tomorrow) app to a very short list. Three is a good number. If I find myself accumulating too many items on my ToDo (Tomorrow) list, I force myself to prioritize, then I move some of them onto my whiteboard.
People say that once they start using this app, it becomes their most-used application. I can see why. I find it very helpful to enter to-do items that pop into my brain at odd hours (usually right before I go to sleep) and then decide what to do with them once I go to my office to work.
“Discipline is the bridge between goals and accomplishments.” – Jim Rohn
As you write your to-do list, make sure that you are not confusing a project with a to-do item. To-do items are very limited tasks. Weekly goals are limited projects. Monthly and annual goals are large projects.
Not proper To-Do Items:
- Write War and Peace
- Remodel the bathroom
- Reorganize the house
Proper To-Do Items
- Write 1,000 words of my new novel, War and Peace
- Pick out paint colors for the bathroom
- Reorganize the upstairs bathroom
“To accomplish great things, we must not only act, but also dream; not only plan, but also believe.” – Anatole France
“No matter how carefully you plan your goals, they will never be more than pipe dreams unless you pursue them with gusto.” – W. Clement Stone
Well, that’s it! I’ve just reviewed with you a very workable process that will allow you to determine your big life goals and then take them and drill down to your daily activities so that you can accomplish them. I hope it will prove helpful to you.
My wish for you is that 2012 brings you lots of love, joy, happiness, lessons, growth, and success!
All the best to you and yours,
Ro
Layout supplies:
ScrapSimple Digital Layout Album Templates: 8.5×11 Legacy Planner Mini
http://store.scrapgirls.com/product/24772/
8.5×11 Basic Neutrals Paper Biggie 2201
http://store.scrapgirls.com/product/24778/
Supplies: Angie’s planner
ScrapSimple Paper Templates: 8.5×11 Everyday Moments Planner
http://store.scrapgirls.com/product/24865
Here are some more great products from the Scrap Girls Boutique that will help you plan.
ScrapSimple Calendar Templates: 8.5×11 Perpetual
http://store.scrapgirls.com/product/23957/
ScrapSimple Calendar Templates: 4×6 Calendar Squares – 2012
http://store.scrapgirls.com/product/23934/
ScrapSimple Calendar Templates: 8.5×11 Perpetual – Painted
http://store.scrapgirls.com/product/14150/
Everyday Moments Planner Paper Mini
http://store.scrapgirls.com/product/22206/
8.5×11 Everyday Moments Planner Paper Mini
http://store.scrapgirls.com/product/24773/
ScrapSimple Calendar Templates: 5.25×8 Life in Action Planner 2012
http://store.scrapgirls.com/product/23099/
ScrapSimple Digital Layout Album Templates: 4×6 Organizer
http://store.scrapgirls.com/product/13354/
I love this – it has inspired me!