How not to Plan: 66 ways to screw it up

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If you’re struggling to create realistic daily to-do lists that reflect all of your goals, you may have too many. Overextending yourself isn’t only tiring, it also means you’re unlikely to make meaningful progress in all these areas. Complete a commitment inventory to hone in on a smaller number of goals that are most important to you. As a general rule, avoid having more than 5 big goals at once, and consider a mix of short-term and long-term goals. Step two: Look at your week as a whole

We stand on the shoulders of giants. ‘Always read something that will make you look good if you die in the middle of it’ PJ O’Rourke FOREWORD A paper planner can take any number of forms including notebooks, agendas, or specialized planners. A digital and paper hybrid Start by setting an alarm for your daily planning session at the same time every day — either during a work shutdown ritual or first thing in the morning. To make building the habit easier, bundle your new daily planning session with an existing habit like drinking your morning coffee or listening to music. When marketing efficiency is the focus, targeting and segmentation come to the fore. And that’s the second problem. Like many marketers, our clients focused on a tightly defined market segment. When shown how customers were defecting to the smaller brands, they argued that these weren’t competitors. Some were too cheap. Others too premium. They defined their market segment so narrowly, there was only one other brand in it: their big rival. It’s not uncommon to need to experiment and try a few iterations of daily planning before we land on the method that actually lead to getting more done.

At the tactical level, troops were sent to Norway poorly trained, inadequately equipped and without proper support, and in administrative chaos reminiscent of the Crimea. The result was predictable. A French officer in Norway commented, `the British have planned this campaign on the lines of a punitive expedition against the Zulus, but unhappily we and the British are in the position of the Zulus`. Learn more about aligning your day with your long-term priorities in our guide to creating a Commitment Inventory. This method forces you to take a realistic look at your responsibilities, continuously trim your list of priorities, and assign time to your tasks that matter most. In general, your project goals should be higher-level than your project objectives. Your project goals should be SMART goals that help you measure project success and show how your project aligns with business objectives. The purpose of drafting project objectives, on the other hand, is to focus on the actual, specific deliverables you're going to achieve at the end of your project. Your project plan provides the direction your team needs to hit your goals, so you can create a workflow that hits project objectives. This article was co-authored by Jennifer Clark. Jennifer Clark is an Evolution Coach and the Founder of Soulful Solutions, her life consulting business which helps both individuals and organizations evolve and grow into their full potential based in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada. She has over 20 years of experience assisting over 8000 individuals with life consulting, workshop facilitation, and public speaking training. She received a Risk Management Certification from the Sprott School of Business in 2000, an Integrated Energy Therapy Master and Instruction Certificate in 2004, and an Assertiveness Coach Certificate in 2015. She earned a BA with Honors in Political Science from Queen's University in 1992. Macho marketing language is common, but dangerous. And objective setting is where it’s perhaps most dangerous. Marketing plans are littered with words like ‘disrupting’ and ‘transforming’. Plans hardly ever use more modest, but more realistic, words like ‘nudging’, ‘reinforcing’ or ‘reassuring’ – they just don’t sound impressive enough. It probably doesn’t help that the box on the brief titled ‘objective’ has often been replaced nowadays by one called ‘ambition’ or ‘vision’. And when the brand plan writer won’t be there in two years’ time anyway, they may as well write wishful bullshit.

Despite this knowledge, we often fail to prioritize planning where it matters most: our daily lives. Getting started in the morning without a clear plan sets us up to fail. Everything in our professional world moves so fast that we might now hesitate to publish an authoritative volume on the craft and practice of planning for fear of speedy obsolescence. But despite changing circumstances, there are eternal principles and rules, and ways of approaching problems that remain helpful – and we’re keen to uphold them. We think they will continue to guide planners, strategists, marketers and researchers for many years to come. And it is these principles and ideas that Les and Sarah have used to create this incisive ‘How To’, or rather, ‘How Not To’. oBut watch out. Small brands en masse can have a bigger market share than brand leaders, and so be the main competition. Project plan vs. work plan: A project plan and a work plan are the same thing. Different teams or departments might prefer one term or another—but they both ultimately describe the same thing: a list of big-picture action steps you need to take to hit your project objectives. Break down your goals into daily tasks. For example, you can’t add “Get in shape” to your daily to-do list, but you can add tasks like “spend 30 minutes on my Peloton” or “go for a nightly stroll”. Review your personal and professional goals when you sit down to plan your day, and add tasks that get you closer to both.Unfortunately, these interruptions can snowball into unproductive days and ineffective weeks. We decide that daily planning doesn’t work, and there’s no point in approaching our days with intention. That couldn’t be further from the truth! You’ve made planning your day a habit, translated your long-term goals into actionable tasks, chosen a productivity method, and selected your tool of choice. You’re set for more productive days that build to more meaningful weeks, months, and years.