Tips Productivity 1: Make a Plan
Planning is an initial process before working on it. Large jobs will not be carried out without a plan that is mature, measurable, and well prepared. For this reason, the first tips in this productivity series are to have a plan.
Can something be done without being planned in advance? The answer of course can be, but almost certainly the results will not be as good as the work planned. The plan is like a compass that guides the direction of the goal and invites us to focus on that goal.
How do you arrange your plan?
There are many ways to do that.
Make a list of activities
The easiest way is to make a list or points you want to do today, tomorrow, next week and so on. For example, today you want to make a writing, go to a garage for car service, accompany your wife to shop monthly and so on. Use a small note or notes function on your mobile.
Breaking big plans into small plans
Another way is to make a big plan then split into smaller plans to actions that can be completed within 1-2 hours. Suppose you are planning a wedding in the next 3 months. Then set the main things that become your plan for example: determine the location of the event, determine the vendor of the food provider, form a small committee and so on. From these plans, it breaks into smaller activities such as: calling catering, paying the sign money to rent a building, making a list of invitations and so on.
This way you will know the details of a large activity and allocate enough time for each item.
Plan what you will do in each activity
Suppose you and your wife will go shopping monthly today. Will you leave immediately or make a small note first of all what to buy?
Many people choose the first way that is directly shopping without planning in advance. This method is fine if you have good memory and know exactly what you need to buy. If not, it will risk you buying what is not needed because it looks attractive and forgets what you really need.
It is best to take 10 minutes to look into your kitchen what is missing and needs to be purchased. Record items for your needs so that nothing is missed. If you need to group by type such as: Meat / fish, milk / coffee / tea, noodles, rice and so on according to your habits.
This method will help you shop quickly and efficiently. You will also avoid impulse buying - buying unconsciously and suddenly because something attracts your attention.
Similarly, when you turn on the computer to do many things, first determine the plan that will be done. Are you going to check e-mail, see Facebook for some time, work on reports and so on. In this way your attention is not distracted by other activities that actually hamper productivity and neglect the actual tasks that need to be done.
Some types of people don't like planning like this. In my opinion it is natural because not everyone is the same. If you are the type who likes something without planning, at least have a big plan and you will be more productive.
Plans are the first creations
In the book The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People, Stephen Covey explains that each action requires two stages. The first step is to create it in your mental idea and the second stage to manifest it into a real form. It's like an engineer who imagines the image of a house in his mind and makes it happen on paper. Then from mature technical drawings manifested into the real building.
By making a plan, you can think clearly what you really want to do, the extent to which you will do it and how much time you will spend on it. Imagine if an engineer built a house without a plan, then what happened was that the house had to be demolished here and there because of a wrong arrangement.
