As Christmas time draws ever near, many people find themselves ridiculously busy in their desire to get presents, ornaments and prepare for the many different tasks they have to do over the holiday season. Life in general tends to be busier than ever with so many things to plan and prepare for.
To help you through this busy period, I recommend that you identify your priorities. Once you have decided what your priorities are… the next step is to plan and schedule the tasks you need to accomplish in the most effective way possible.
Here are some tips which might help you become a masterful planner:
- Be clear over exactly what you want… when… and how you will know you will have achieved it.
- Identify what the potential challenges are which might stop you from achieving it.
- Understand what resources you have at your disposal which will help you to achieve it.
- Create a strategy which lets you know exactly what you need to do in order to overcome the challenges and achieve the goal using your resources.
- Break the strategy down into smaller chunks and put them along a timeline where they act as milestones for you to reach.
- Organise the strategy so that the different parts of the task fit nicely together. If you have to do a number of things in nearby locations group them collectively together.
- Plan for problems or challenges or delays and give yourself plan b’s and extra buffer time just in case.
- Be clear about whose responsibility each task is and check in with others regularly.
- Anticipate any other potential issues which might arise and prepare for them as well.
- Ensure everything is scheduled so you have a clear time and place for every action.
These steps will provide you with a really useful system for planning effectively for any situation but I hope they will be particularly useful over the coming weeks.
