The other day in the midst of all of the chaos of life, I found myself with no deadline that had to be fulfilled. Yes, I had a very long list of things that needed to be done but they did not have a specific task list with a deadline.
Of course what do you think I did? I’d love to tell you that I accomplished everything on my list that was not on the deadline, but I’d be lying to you and I have much more respect for all of you than that. What I did was pretty much nothing. I wrote a little bit, I even took one or two phone calls. But I really didn’t accomplish anything. I could blame it on the chaos of the world or my lack of focus due to the chaos going on, but the truth is, it’s 100% my fault. The reason that I did not accomplish anything is pretty simple. I didn’t have a plan for the day. When we don’t have a plan, it will be filled up with the things that seem urgent or seem relevant even though they’re not. The old saying goes something like this.
“if you fail to plan you plan to fail”
At the end of the day I realized that this statement was 100% true for my day. I could’ve taken that and left it but what I decided to do was begin to make a detailed plan. Going forward making the detailed plan has kept me on track day today. It’s so important to have a plan moving forward.
What I’m not saying here is to plan so far into the future that you are rigid in everything you do. What I’m saying is that we must plan in order to be successful. So, what is your plan for today, tomorrow, the rest of this week, this month? We at View From The Top subscribe to the 12 Week Year. And here’s the reason why, it’s short enough that it creates urgency and long enough that we have time to accomplish things.
Do you know what your plan is? Do you know where you’re headed for the next three months? What are you doing today with the urgency to accomplish that plan?
