Planning: The Key to Productivity

And How to Do it

I’m convinced planning is one of the most useful things you can do to increase your productivity easily.

I’ll try to explain to you why, and how you can start planning your days from now.

Planning is Important

It allows you to know what you have to do and to find time to do these things.

I have noticed a certain paradox that applies to me, and perhaps to you as well when I do not plan my days: the smaller my to-do list for the day, the harder it is to keep to it. Inversely, when I have a really big to-do list for the day, I usually manage to complete all my tasks, even if I’m completely exhausted at the end of the day.

It works also with time: the more free time I have in a day, the shorter the day seems to me.

It’s because when you don’t plan anything, you’re wasting time stupidly. For example, I can waste 10 minutes on Facebook after breakfast, then 20 minutes on Reddit after dinner, etc…

Planning allows you to have longer days. And that’s not a joke. You know when you have to do such or such thing, so it avoids you to waste time and having the feeling that the day was too short even if you had not a lot of things to do.

But planning also allows you to be more efficient. You can plan time slots for complex tasks and split your day into sessions. If you have 3 hours available and 2 tasks to complete, it’s better to spend 2 hours in a row on task 1 then 1 hour on task 2, than 1 hour on task 1, 1 hour on task 2, and one hour on task 1. Using planning, you can optimize your time slots and split your day into sections of focus on specific tasks.

Finally, planning allows you to respect your to-do list. It allows you to have an overview of your day, allowing you to don’t plan too many tasks or not enough tasks for the day. It allows you to increase your productivity without getting more exhausted.

How to Plan your Day

Planning your day is an additional effort and an additional task. But it’s a useful one as we’ve seen previously, so you have to do it. I’ll give you some tips to help you to plan your day.

Planning is a Task

By saying this, I mean you have to find a time slot and be focused to plan your day. If you do it correctly, your productivity will significantly increase, so don’t neglect planning.

For me, I like to do planning in the evening. Every evening, I find 15 minutes to plan the next day. I do it every day at the same time, so it’s a habit now, and I recommend you make this task a habit. Some people prefer doing this in the morning before starting the day, there are no rules.

Your Planning is Not Fixed

Often, I underestimate or overestimate the time I take to complete a task. It can shift my planning, but it’s not a problem.

You don’t have to see your planning as something fixed, or else it can be counterproductive.

For example, if I thought it would have taken 3 hours to code something but after 3 hours I’ve not finished, but it remains a few lines to code, I won’t stop completely this to switch to my next task. It would be dumb to stop doing something in which I’ve been focused for 3 hours just to respect my planning. Instead, I will finish and readjust my planning for the day, maybe moving some tasks to another day.

Write Down your Priorities

To avoid being overwhelmed, you should focus on the most important tasks first. Because obviously, it will be discouraging if you start your day with 30 tasks without giving weight to them.

Instead, you can focus on the 3 more important tasks for example. The next day, you will focus on 3 other tasks, maybe 4 depending on the time you think you will spend on them, etc…

Time Blocking

As I said earlier, it’s better to organize your day in sessions to allow more focus. Time blocking allows you to have a clear overview of everything you have to do in a day to optimize the way you plan your sessions.

So, when planning, try to group similar tasks in the same session, and avoid splitting a task into different time slots.

Also, don’t forget to plan breaks. We’re not robots, and we can’t be productive every time. To optimize your productivity, you need to find a balance point between focus and fatigue/burnout.

Over time, you will know your limits, and you will know when you have to plan breaks. But if you’re beginning with planning, it’s better to plan a lot of breaks, even if you think you lose time. Indeed, it allows you to avoid ruining your day because you’re tired and finally don’t complete any task which is completely not productive.

What to Plan

I like to plan everything, but I know some people don’t like that. You have to decide what you want to plan. I think, the more you plan, the better, but it’s not always convenient to plan everything.

For me, I even plan when I have to prepare dinner, or when I have to eat. Below you can find an example of the things I plan for my day:

When there is nothing, it’s because there is some travel or breaks between the tasks because I know when these things happen without planning them.

Earlier, I was talking about focusing on priorities. You can see how I’ve applied it for today. My main task is Medium writing. Then, I have to make some Anki flashcards, and finally, I have to take notes about the things I’ve read. The other things are habits or routines.

I don’t have time to add another task so I don’t because else it will infringe on my habits or my sleep, and I don’t want that. It’s useless trying to make too much in a day.

How to Plan

As you can see in the screenshot above, I use Google Agenda to plan. But you can’t really track tasks within Google Agenda (I don’t like the integrated feature), so I use Obsidian to track tasks.

You can use anything you want to plan. Whether you use Google Agenda, another software, a task manager, a paper calendar and a notebook, etc… The system is not important, what is important is to get things done.

So you have to try different things to see what is effective for you.

Final Note

I advise you to start planning today if you don’t do it already. I think there are only benefits to doing this. Maybe you think it’s a waste of time, but I think it’s not, it’s rather an investment. You invest time from your day to save time later.

If you don’t do things correctly, it can be a bad investment, and in this case, you’re wasting time. But if you do things correctly, your productivity will greatly increase.

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