Why You Need a Planner
You Need Structure
Another new year to achieve new resolutions! Or, rather, to achieve the resolutions that didn’t come to fruition last year. Or to find the motivation to stick with anything, really.
Right now everyone is talking (or laughing) about the idea of resolutions. It’s the fresh start effect in full swing. New opportunities, new motivation, new year, new you…right? Well, if you don’t have good structures in your life, then probably not.
Maybe you’ve tried to get more sleep, stay more on top of documentation and emails, improve your energy and strength, have a deeper marriage, eat healthier, progress your career, read more books, connect with God, take more con-ed courses. And then you did a vision board, wrote your goals down, found an accountability partner, and posted it all on that sticky next to your computer. And yet the achievement never really came or you fell back into the same old habits with a weight of disappointment and confusion of how to get back on track.
The problem isn’t WHAT you’re trying to achieve, but HOW you’re trying to achieve it. We are creatures of habit and we often drift to our defaults. So we need a framework, a system, to help us counteract that natural slide.
“You do not rise to the level of your goals. You fall to the level of your systems.” – James Clear, author of Atomic Habits
The solution is a PLANNER
A planner creates consistency and focus. It reduces our decision-fatigue by doing the routine busy work for us. A planner frees us to do the bigger work of dreaming and putting those dreams to work. It provides an avenue of giving flesh to our thoughts so we can see and understand our thinking which is too often mingled with and blurred by emotions.
“I write entirely to find out what I’m thinking.” – Joan Didion, American author
So how do you get started with a planner? Here are some quick steps:
- Find a *good planner – You’ll want your planner to have a section for goals so you can quickly reference and review them often. It should also contain some form of monthly/quarterly calendar that allows you to see your months as a whole so you can see the big picture and schedule what’s truly important. Then, you’ll want to make sure there’s a way to analyze and plan your weeks and your days. Many planners will have all kinds of neat and helpful tools but these are the foundations of an effective planner that will help you achieve your goals without compromising your values along the way.
- Write 3 goals for this quarter – To pick your goals, it helps to start with writing a list of your dreams for now and the future. Consider your primary life domains (mind, body, spirit, love, family, community, work, money, hobbies) and what you’d like them to look like. Then, once you have your list, choose 3 of those dreams on which to focus and write out a clear, specific, measurable, and timebound goal for each of those 3 dreams.
- Review and write DAILY – A to0l is only as good as the one who uses it. It is essential to develop the daily ritual of reviewing and writing in your planner. Take it with you everywhere you go. Lay it open on your desk at work. Find your daily rhythm of reading through your written goals. Choose what you will give your attention to that day. Design the day you want. Define the success of your days and your weeks.
This is such an exciting time for a new beginning and a new journey with your planner! I still remember the impact on my life when I began to experiment with my own planner and system, my daily rhythm and ritual of taking my days more seriously.
This year, commit to a planner so you can start gradually and consistently becoming the kind of person you want to be. Play with what works for you. But stick with it. Soon you will discover the same truth I did…
“We shape our tools and thereafter they shape us.” – Marshall McLuhan, Canadian philosopher
*I highly recommend using the Full Focus Planner – a quarterly planner designed with a productivity and goal achievement framework baked into every page. If you’d like training on how to use this, contact me to register for a quarterly workshop.