4136: How to Create a Plan Today to Maximize Tomorrow by Michael Mehlberg on Productivity Habits

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[00:01:04] [SPEAKER_01] This is Optimal Living Daily. How to create a plan today to maximize tomorrow by Michael Mehlberg of MichaelMellberg.com. And I'm your narrator Justin Malik, the guy that reads blogs or articles to you every single day of the year, including weekends and holidays. I appreciate you listening every single day. It really means a lot. We're going to get right to our next post as we optimize your life.

[00:01:27] [SPEAKER_01] How to create a plan today to maximize tomorrow by Michael Mehlberg of MichaelMellberg.com. This post is for anyone who wants to get ahead. It's for anyone who wants to stop reacting to and floating through life day by day, hoping for the best. It's for anyone with much to accomplish and little time to do it.

[00:01:51] [SPEAKER_01] This post is for anyone who wants to focus and thrive, yet finds themselves distracted and unsure of what to do next. What I'm about to outline is a method for planning that will give you an edge on your day, helping you prioritize that which is most important. Like Benjamin Franklin, who intentionally designed his day with a daily schedule, we can build ourselves a successful life one day at a time.

[00:02:15] [SPEAKER_01] Taking 10 minutes today to create a plan for tomorrow will give you a head start, keep you on task, boost your productivity, make the most of your meetings, even those useless recurring unavoidable ones, and help you accomplish more. Planning for tomorrow, today. Many of us have tried different tools for getting more out of our day. Waking early, installing apps to track time wasters, setting focus timers, and taking frequent breaks, etc.

[00:02:41] [SPEAKER_01] While useful, and despite using them religiously, most mornings start slow. We sip coffee in a groggy state, unsure of where to begin our day, gravitating towards brain-dead tasks like email or web surfing. Distracted by the dozens of unexpected emails and phone calls and never finding quite enough time to start those important long-term projects, we close up shop feeling unproductive and unsure of what was accomplished. The source of these problems is usually the lack of a plan.

[00:03:07] [SPEAKER_01] We plan projects, weddings, vacations, and trips to the grocery store, but for some reason, never feel the need to plan our day. Sure, we schedule meetings and have a thought or two regarding what we might do, but mostly we freestyle, like a DJ playing a set of unfamiliar records. If we had a basic plan for those times, if we had a high-level understanding of how we would use each hour in our day, we would go to bed having accomplished so much more. The most successful people in the world have a plan.

[00:03:37] [SPEAKER_01] Not just a plan for big projects, but a plan for the little periods of time that they know will add up in the long run. When you are done hearing this post, you will know how to develop a plan tonight that will guide you tomorrow. You'll be able to extract maximum value out of each and every hour of your day. Your plan will guide you when distracted and in the early hours of the morning when your willpower is low and it's difficult to think. It will provide you with a goal to kickstart your day and accomplish something while the rest of the world is still waking up.

[00:04:06] [SPEAKER_01] Creating your plan is not complicated. It is as simple as filling out an index card. The planning card. At the end of each day, we will create a plan for tomorrow. Filling out a small, index-sized paper card with our appointments, free time, to-do list, what we are going to accomplish first, and things we should keep in mind throughout the day. Planning each day may sound time-consuming, but using our format is dead simple and takes no more than 10 minutes.

[00:04:32] [SPEAKER_01] This card and these 10 minutes are the key to our productivity. It's a simple, extremely effective way to get a jumpstart, to accomplish more, and to stay focused throughout your day. The format is simple. Grab an index card and write tomorrow's date at the top. From top to bottom, list the hours of the day. I like to start with early morning, then 9 a.m., 10 a.m., and so on, ending at 7 p.m., and then finally evening. Below that, write tomorrow's to-dos and leave a few blank lines.

[00:05:01] [SPEAKER_01] Filling the time slots on your card is the first important exercise. While doing this, think in advance about how your day will flow and find ways to make your downtime productive. I like to start by looking at my digital calendar and transferring those meetings over to the card. Doing so may seem wastefully duplicative, but this is a chance to jot down any notes about the meeting that come to mind. Going into a meeting without understanding what you want to get out of it is a recipe for failure, and this simple step can do wonders to making your meetings more successful.

[00:05:31] [SPEAKER_01] Benjamin Franklin himself once said, By failing to prepare, you are preparing to fail. Once your meetings are written down, unfilled hours will stare at you with contempt. Do not let them. Those are the hours you have been filling with meaningless labor, unnecessarily checking email, surfing the web, etc. These are the hours you are going to stuff with useful tasks. Leave no hour untouched. Once your plan is crammed from morning to evening, you will sleep easy knowing that,

[00:06:00] [SPEAKER_01] even if you do not accomplish everything, what you have done will have far exceeded your output on any given day prior. With a full day ahead, you may have some actions that do not properly fit on the calendar. Note those in the To Do Tomorrow section of your planning card at the bottom. Many days, you will find those to-dos are unfinished actions from your previous day. On other days, they are simply random tasks that come to mind, great for filling in free periods of time should they arise. Keep in mind, first things first.

[00:06:30] [SPEAKER_01] Finally, flip your planning card over. We will use the back for two very important sections. First things first, and keep in mind. First things first is where you list the very first task you will work on. You do not have to finish, you just have to spend some time on it. This is perhaps the most important way to kick off your day. Having already thought about how your day will start and what you will do, it will give you a huge head start. Once you get through this first task, the rest of the day will come easy.

[00:06:57] [SPEAKER_01] Keep in mind is where you will list a few important reminders. These can be personal goals, affirmations, meditations, prayers, birthdays for friends and family, or anything else you want to remind yourself of throughout the day. Glancing at this every so often can help keep you grounded, be inspiring, or simply remind you to do something important. Tips. One, leave the card on your desk first things first, side up, staring at you first thing in the morning. You'll want to start this task immediately.

[00:07:26] [SPEAKER_01] Leaving in plain sight the night before keeps you accountable to your plan. Two, keep the plan on you at all times. It's a small card, so it should fit nicely in your pocket and in between your cell phone and wallet. At the very least, leave the card on your desk in plain sight. You'll find yourself looking to it when you lose focus, cannot figure out what to do next, or just need to glance at your next appointment. Planning for success. The most successful people in the world have a plan.

[00:07:54] [SPEAKER_01] A plan for the little periods of time that they know will add up in the long run. Developing a plan tonight to guide you tomorrow will jumpstart your day. You'll be able to extract maximum value out of each and every hour. Your plan will guide you when distracted and in the early hours of the morning when your willpower is low, it'll provide you with a goal to kickstart your day and accomplish something while the rest of the world is still waking up. You just listened to the post titled,

[00:08:24] [SPEAKER_01] How to Create a Plan Today to Maximize Tomorrow, by Michael Mehlberg of michaelmelberg.com. And I'll be right back with my commentary. Support for today's episode comes from Square, the business platform that helps sellers become neighborhood favorites. Payments, point of sale, online orders, inventory, staff, all in one place so you can focus on your customers instead of your to-do list. One thing about my favorite gelato place, besides the flavors,

[00:08:52] [SPEAKER_01] is that I'm always done paying in seconds. Tap to pay, receipt in my inbox, and the person behind the counter is actually talking to me instead of messing with a machine. That's Square. When the tools aren't the focus, the human part of the business gets to come forward. Square helps you run your business more smoothly, bringing payments, operations, and insights together in one place so you're ready for whatever's next.

[00:09:18] [SPEAKER_01] Right now, listeners can get up to $200 off Square hardware when you sign up at square.com slash go slash old. That's S-Q-U-A-R-E dot com slash go slash O-L-D. Get started with Square and build a setup that works the way you do. Back to school starts now. Get long-lasting battery life on the Dell XPS laptop powered by Series 3 Intel Core so you can work from anywhere.

[00:09:47] [SPEAKER_01] Now starting at $699 with exclusive student pricing starting at $599. Complete your setup with savings on select monitors and must-have electronics and accessories. Limited time deals and free shipping on PCs and more await you at dell.com slash deals. That's dell.com slash deals. Thank you to Michael.

[00:10:13] [SPEAKER_01] One of the more rare tactical articles that we hear on this show with an actual tool you can try today if you like. One thing I like about it is that it really should only take 10 minutes. And I'd argue that many of us spend the first 10 minutes of our day just sitting in bed anyway. I'm guilty of that myself many days of the week. So why not set this or something like this? It doesn't have to exactly be this.

[00:10:38] [SPEAKER_01] But any kind of planner or schedule next to your bed and try it out. Now he did say to do it the day before, but there are definitely people who do it in the morning as well. And one thing you can do, if this all sounds like a bit too much, is just focus on one aspect of what he talked about. So for example, maybe first thing in the morning or right before bed, think about the very first task you will work on the next day. And write that down. Just that, nothing else.

[00:11:08] [SPEAKER_01] You take your planning from 10 minutes down to less than one minute. So it becomes really difficult to ignore it or get out of it. Then after doing that for a while, you can increase it to thinking about the keep in mind list and writing those down as well. Maybe increasing the time spent on this from less than one minute to maybe just a couple of minutes. But either way, I really do think that a small amount of planning goes a really long way,

[00:11:36] [SPEAKER_01] even if you aren't much of the planner type, like me. If you try it, let me know how it goes. Have a great rest of your day. Thank you for being here. And I'll see you tomorrow where your optimal life awaits. and if you're not willing to write.

[00:11:47] Good night. Good night. Good night.