Getting the important things done

When you plan, you determine what important tasks you would like to accomplish in the weeks and months ahead. Then you list the various steps (if more than one is required) in order to complete those tasks, and estimate the amount of time it would take to complete each step. To this you add a realistic safety factor to allow for interruptions and other problems, and schedule the total time in your planner.

For example, if you feel it could take 50 hours of uninterrupted work to write a book, make it 75 hours. Then divide this figure by the number of weeks you plan to work that year. For example, if you work 50 weeks, then you would have to work 1½ hours each week in order to finish your book by the end of the year. If this amount of time is unrealis¬tic, set the goal for the end of the following year and work half as long each week. Don't be impatient; be realistic. Some of your goals could take one, three, five or more years to attain.

The secret to goal achievement is to schedule adequate time in your planner to actually work on them. Don’t leave priorities on a “To Do” list.

That doesn’t say that To Do lists are useless. There’s nothing wrong with being reminded about what has to be done. But those priority, goal-related projects and assignments should never be relegated to a To Do list. They should be scheduled in specific time slots throughout the week. You generally don’t schedule your daily routine. You schedule your projects. These are the important things you have to get done within a specific time frame, within a set budget. Your planner serves as a project manager.