Introduction
“If you don’t know where you are going, you’ll end up someplace else.” Yogi Berra, former New York Yankees catcher
The majority of us recognise the importance of planning and preparedness. A sporting event without a game plan results in blunders on the field. Don’t you also feel that a large event that lacks all of the specifics, results in chaos?
Despite this awareness, we frequently fail to prioritise planning in the areas that are most important to us: our daily lives. If you want to avoid failure, then start your day with a daily plan schedule.
We set objectives in the order of seasons and years, but it’s what we do every day — the habits we form, the chores we c omplete, and the priorities we set — that add up to success or failure over time. Each month, a few aimless days might help us refresh and find balance.
But when our days without intention outnumber our days with intention, we end up falling short of our objectives and wondering where the time went. A good offence in the form of a daily planning ritual is the best defence against busy but unproductive days.
Managers typically have more duties than regular employees. They frequently have to balance their days in order to meet their own and their employees’ needs. And this balance becomes harder to harness when you’re a manager of managers. Each day, they must be organised and prioritise their tasks to ensure that they are productive and complete their work on time.
This article will show you how to organise your days for calmer, more focused productivity that gets you closer to your goals. While planning your day should only take about 10-15 minutes, the underlying strategies for meaningfully crafting a day with intention are worth delving into in depth.
Let’s take a look at what the components of an effective daily schedule of a manager looks like. And this could look like yours if you pay close attention.
Effective Components of a Manager’s Daily Plan
Morning routines
Creating and sticking to a morning daily routine might help you stay focused throughout the day. This way, you can easily keep to your work plan and be prepared for the day. Following a morning routine takes time, and you may need to try a few different routines before you find what works best for you. Here are several practises that contribute to a successful morning routine:
Appointment slots
Every day, managers are bombarded with disruptions. If you want to use your daily calendar successfully and complete tasks on time, you should make an appointment window to address staff queries.
For example, if someone asks you a question during a task that requires you to come over to their desk and show them how to do something, you should consider how long it will take and arrange a time with them later to address their question.
Most of these questions and interruptions should take you no more than 15 minutes.
Meetings are timed according to their purpose
Each meeting has a distinct purpose. As a result, many meetings do not last the same amount of time. If you make a habit of timing meetings based on what is discussed, you will have more time in your day. A meeting to introduce oneself to a new hire and explain a few duties that they should begin should, for example, last no more than 30 minutes. A meeting that addresses the launch of a new project and involves brainstorming, on the other hand, could last an hour.
Larger projects are divided into smaller pieces
A daily routine schedule where you time smaller activities will make things far easier and more efficient than attempting to complete an entire job at once. This allows you to arrange other things around the smaller jobs that are also important. If you develop this practise, you will be less likely to feel discouraged when you see enormous projects.
Work-life balance is maintained
Delegating personal and business time is an excellent habit to establish if you want to create a successful daily routine plan. Work-life balance alters your workday, allowing you to be more productive while also lowering stress.
Best Practices
- Create a task list ahead of time: Make a task list in your planner the night before you go to work. Include both work-related and irrelevant duties. Unrelated tasks must be documented, especially if they occur during the workday. Such tasks could include making a doctor’s appointment or taking your dog to the vet. Making a task list ahead of time allows you to obtain a clear picture of everything you need to do, and writing it down makes it less likely that you will forget about it. Including non-work duties ensures that you make time to finish them as well.
- Determine which tasks are most important to complete: Ask yourself the chores on the list you can perform that will make the biggest impact in your day. Circle those chores and assign a number to each in order of priority to you. The easiest method to decide how to do this is to consider which tasks you have been putting off for a while that you will be happy of yourself for finishing the next day. Color coding may be useful for distinguishing high-priority chores from low-priority tasks.
- Block out time for each task: Make a list of how much time you intend to devote to each high-priority task. The time you set aside for each work should be realistic. You also don’t have to do the highest-priority jobs first thing in the morning. They are only there to remind you to make an appointment with yourself to complete them that day.
Aim for consistency and flexibility above perfection when preparing your day. While we’ve provided strategies and tactics for efficiently managing your day, there is no silver bullet solution. Instead, when we consistently show up, we feel the best prepared to face the day. Productive days can lead to productive weeks, months, and years. There is no limit to what you can do when you chip away at your work with intention and focus day after day.
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