How to be a great planner and live structurally

To-do list

In my opinion the most powerful planning tool I have been using for many years now, is the to-do list per day. This goes hand in hand with a weekly planning, in which you segregate the huge bulk of tasks for the week in bite-size portions for a day. Now that’s a game changer. Too many people work on mountains every day, and of course seize doing it. With a handy to-do list per day, you will have a clear goal in mind every day, a finish line, about which you will feel the ability that you can reach it. And don’t get me started on the rewarding feeling of crossing out completed tasks throughout the day.

Weekly goals

During one of my years at university, I decided to join a group of people that come together weekly to discuss their weekly ‘planning’. This group is called the ‘Plan and Do’ group. It was one of the best decisions in my life. After teaching me the most important planning techniques at first, it became a group of life- and self-improvement, with holistic goals such as reading, exercising, and working on a side-hustle. The most important element of this group is the discussion of your planning, with all of the justifications involved. It all comes down to you planning every hour of your day with certain activities, and then you have to fill out whether you did that activity, or did something else.

While this is good in and of itself, a very useful part of this planning is the weekly goal setting. It involves setting work/study-related goals, as well as personal goals and longer-term goals. Of course you also have to justify the (non-)achievement of these goals as well, which makes it all in all a very powerful tool for your productive week. So try to set personal, work-related and longer-term goals for yourself as well!

Long-term planning

An extra note on the long-term planning. While planning effectively day in day out, week in week out, it is important to know where you want to be heading overall. I’m talking on a yearly basis. The way you can figure this out is with a long-term planning, that you can then keep in mind to help keep you focused to reach your ultimate goal.

Sales?

If you are able to implement all of these elements into your daily life, I can guarantee you will become a more productive person. But I still have not talked about one thing: how does this all relate to sales? ????

Truth is, the tips I have given apply to just about any work you can do. So structure your days according to a to-do list, set-up a planning for yourself, set goals for yourself, and stick to a longer-term planning. Then the leads will follow along by themselves.