How To Create An Effective Productivity Plan – Optimize Time
To start, let’s discuss what a productivity plan is. A productivity plan is a plan that you create for your time. It is a combination of:
Looking at what you need to do
Recognizing when you need to do it
And then creating a schedule that organizes your day into a manageable structure
In other words, it’s a way to map out your time so that you can get everything done that you need to each day AND make real progress forward.
That may sound easy, but there’s a good amount to it. Because you can’t just throw some tasks on a list and call it a day.
No.
It requires more thought, more deliberation. You need to understand your big picture, where you’re going, and why you want to go there in the first place. Things like goal setting, time management, and productivity are all factors that you’ll need to keep in mind when creating your plan each day.
Make more progress
Having a productivity plan is essential. Why? Because of what it allows you to do: better optimize your time and get more high-level tasks done.
I touch on this a little bit in my post on daily planning, but essentially, having a plan for your time allows you to focus on the important things and disregard the unimportant.
It allows you to prioritize your tasks so that each thing you work on will help you make progress towards your goals.
That means that in the micro, your productivity plan is a way to make more progress in the short term. And conversely, in the macro, the progress you make today will lead you to making greater progress each week, month, and year.
Soon you’ll find that you are moving faster and more effectively than ever before.
So see it as your action plan to improve productivity at work, with your health, or really any area that you are looking to make progress in.
How to create your productivity plan
You can create a plan with your work in mind so that you can enhance productivity in the workplace. Or you can create a plan for this afternoon to ensure that you get some exercise in.
Or better yet, and this is what I do, you can create a plan for your entire day.
Either way, the following steps are ones that you can apply to your time in whatever way you’d like. With that, here are the steps to creating your very own productivity plan.
Productivity Plan Step 1: List everything out
The first step to creating your productivity plan is to list out all of the tasks that you need to do within a certain amount of time.
For instance, if you are creating a plan for the hour of downtime you have between getting home from work and going to the gym, write down every single task that you need to do during that hour.
Productivity Plan Step 2: Organize by importance
The next step is to re-organize your list by importance. Go ahead and place your highest-importance tasks at the top and your lowest-importance tasks at the bottom.
When I say important tasks, I mean tasks that will help you make progress towards your goals. Not tasks that are irrelevant or are easy chores to handle.
Productivity Plan Step 3: Note your time
With that step now complete, the next step is to note your time. To do that, you need to do two things. Write down:
How much time you have total
And how much time each task requires
So if you have one hour to complete your tasks, your total time available is one hour. And then looking at your list, you’ll want to note how long each task should take to complete.
Productivity Plan Step 4: Finalize it
The next part in creating your productivity plan is to finalize your list. Take a look at the total amount of time you have available. Then add up the total time you need to complete all your tasks.
For instance, if you need two hours to complete all your tasks, but only have one hour available, that’s a problem.
In that case, you would remove the lower importance items to ensure that you can get everything done within that hour. Or if you find that you have 45 minutes worth of tasks and one hour available total, that’s perfect.
Your list is ready to go and you can move onto the next step.
Productivity Plan Step 5: Do the work
The final phase is to now do the work. You have your finalized plan, you’re ready, and now it’s time to take action.
Work through your list, keep yourself focused and on track. Make the progress that you are wanting to make by taking action and by putting in real, meaningful work.
When to create your productivity plan
You now know what a productivity plan is, why it’s important to have a plan, and how to create it. The next item on the agenda is when to sit down and create your productivity plan.
And the simple answer is… really whenever you want.
Whenever you want to put in real, meaningful work you should create a plan for your time so that it gets spent wisely.
That said, I recommend creating your plan at the end of each day with your next day in mind. Meaning that if today is Monday, at the end of today you’d create your plan for Tuesday.
Why?
So that when you wake up, you’ll be able to get right to work without having to scramble or waste time figuring out your plan. You’ll be prepared and ready to go. You’ll have your plan and can get right to work.
Simple
To conclude this guide to creating your very own productivity plan is the final piece of the puzzle – where to do your productivity planning.
And good news! I saved the easiest part for last. Because deciding where to create your productivity plan is straightforward and entirely up to you.
You don’t need a fancy productivity planner. You can simply use a note on your phone, or a Google Doc, or a pad of paper with a pen. Keep it simple and write out your plan on whatever is most accessible to you.
Let me repeat that last point.
Keep it simple. Seriously.
In fact, go ahead and apply that advice to this entire post. Productivity plans can quickly become a long, drawn-out, complicated thing. Don’t let that happen though.
Keep your plans simple, easy to navigate, and well organized. Write them down somewhere that you can get to easily (like a note on your phone) and watch how you start to make real progress forward each day.
Moving forward with your productivity plan
That’s it! You’ve made it to the end of this post and are now prepared to create an effective productivity plan. Well done for making it this far!
What’s next?
Well, first and foremost, don’t let this newfound knowledge go to waste. Actually go through each of the steps that I described and create a plan that you’re excited about.
Don’t just chalk this post up to a “good read.” No. Put in the work!
Because remember, you read this post for a reason.
You’re driven and have a lot to do. Maybe you’re even looking to add more to your plate. You’re busy and need a thorough plan for your time.
So go ahead and create a productivity plan of your very own and start moving faster and more effectively towards your goals.