At Semester Student Planner, it goes without saying that we are keen advocates of quality planning.
In todays blog, I wanted to discuss a three step strategy that you can use when it comes to maximising planning as a tool, to ensure that you feel it works for you and not against you.
“By Failing to prepare, you are preparing to fail.” – Benjamin Franklin
1. Reset
This can be useful if you feel like your goals and tasks are starting to feel like they are mounting up.
The feelings of ‘too much to do, not enough time’ are creeping in…
We all get this sometimes!
We live in a world where everything is fighting for our attention and life throws different pressures at us.
When this starts to feel as if it happening, you need to shift back to getting very clear on your priorities and understanding that it is impossible to get everything done in a day!
To begin:
Rewrite all your goals (Get clear on what it is you are trying to achieve)
Rewrite all your relevant tasks that you feel you need to get done.
Look at both the above and ask yourself which ones are the most important ones to you me now?
What needs too attention first?
What will bring me closer to my goals?
What needs to be put on hold?
2. Readjust
Sometimes when it comes to operating at your best, it might just take a bit of readjusting.
This could look like
- Assessing your time to ensure you are spending it in the correct places (The Semester Student Planner is equipped with a full time assessment growth hack!)
- Assessing your calendar to see if anything can be moved or changed around to better suit you.
- Assessing your current strategy (whatever this might look like for you) – is this working ? Could this be improved ?
Try some readjusting some element within your life and see if this can serve you.
3. Refocus
Now we have had a bit of a ‘reset’ we should feel a bit calmer. Now we have readjusted some things we know we can take back a bit of control. Now we must refocus.
This comes back down to a number of tools. For example, if your struggling with motivation you could go back to your ‘why.’
Why is this particular goal important to you ?
What are the consequences If you fail to carry out the action on this goal ?
Get clear on why you want to carry out these actions and it should allow you to refocus on its importance.
It then also comes down to our actions and habits.
Improving your ‘focus’ can be helped by a number of tools in the Semester Student Planner.
Set the actions – Set the tone – This is all about focusing on your key actions! It’s included within the
weekly review and for good reason. It’s setting clear intentions of where your focus needs to be.
“Where focus goes energy flows” – Tony Robbins
A Habit tracker – The habit tracker is a great tool for getting clear on what habits need to be carried out this week. The idea is to create the habits that you need to be engaged in to move you closer to your goal.
The focused few – This tool is designed to get you thinking about your key actions to move you closer to your goals. Its about getting clear with your focus. At the end of the week you should have nice tick boxes next to your key actions, and if so… you are making small steps towards your goals.
To finish… planning is designed to get you taking back some control of your schedule. By doing so, it helps you manage feels of stress and overwhelm and this is part of the reason we created the Semester Student Planner. If you find yourself struggling with these feelings, try this three step process here. Remember, Reset, Readjust and Refocus. This should help you get back on track!
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