The power of planning, organization, and efficient use of time

I know you’ve seen many articles out there with similarly promising titles, but give this one a chance. It might change your life the way it has mine. If it doesn't, you'll be no worse off.

Whatever your role or industry, as a professional, a student, or a stay-at-home parent (the most important job on the planet), you don’t have to be the most skilled at what you do to be highly successful at it, if you can master these three habits:

1. Plan ahead

2. Stay organized

3. Use time wisely

Individually, these habits are underwhelming and may seem obvious. However, when you follow them collectively and consistently, what used to be your accomplishments before become routine for you, and your new normal separates you from the pack, even among those who are far more skilled than you are in your craft. More importantly, you start working and living deliberately.

I was never an exceptionally intelligent person by the world’s standards, so in order to do well as a student, professional, and parent, I relied on these three habits just to survive. As these habits became second nature to me, I noticed that I was growing intellectually, emotionally, and spiritually, and I started thriving instead of just surviving in fast-paced, hectic environments at work, at school, and even at home. The personal growth and achievements that I always sought were happening as a byproduct of these three consistent habits.

Best of all, these three habits have helped me spend more time with my family. As I adopted these habits from high school to undergraduate to PhD to professional, while working part-time to full-time to self-fund my life, not once in those 12 years of grueling studies and career building, later with kids and all, did I ever need to do school or work tasks on a weekend or pull an overnighter. A few times I chose to work a Saturday shift as a student, but it was a conscious choice for extra money and not a question of better planning.

Of course, this pattern of following these habits to become your best self is not new; I see it in the lives of most high achievers historically and today. (Start looking, if you haven’t already.) However, what I find are less well known are the reasons why these habits are so beneficial and some specific activities that are highly effective for each.

Planning ahead

Think of the hackneyed ax-sharpening adage: “If I had 4 hours to chop down a tree, I’d spend the first 2 sharpening my ax.” (The debate continues whether Lincoln actually said this and how exactly it was said.)

When you begin with the end in mind, you can optimize your resources (tools, energy, time), track your progress (stay organized), and adjust along the way (use time wisely). Note that the best planning activities are ongoing and naturally employ the other two habits. If you disregard the other two habits as you plan, you’re left with a sharp ax and 2 fewer hours. And I wouldn’t recommend using 50% of your time for planning anyway.

Effective planning activities:

• Try not to start without a plan at least in your head.
• Record your plan as a checklist or a calendar or both somewhere. Use an online planner or task tracker, mobile device, pad of paper, whatever. If you rely on memory, you’ll greatly hamper the other two habits and regret it.
• Start with the goal or end, work backwards to the start, and then timebox the plan.
• Set incremental goals as part of your plan: daily, weekly, monthly, quarterly, yearly. Make your goals as focused or as encompassing as needed (but see the next point). Ensure that your goals fulfill one another, so that your daily goals get you to weekly goals that get you to quarterly goals that get you to yearly goals. If you want to be promoted by the end of the year, figure out what you need for advancement and set quarterly goals to get you there.
• Make your goals SMART: Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Relevant, Time-bound. Make sure that your goals are check-off-able within the increment where you assigned them and that they get you to your next SMART goals.
• Prioritize tasks by both importance and time. We want to get to the most important things, but we also want to address low-hanging fruit to clear our head. If you can knock out several little things quickly without jeopardizing bigger tasks, then do it. That way, if you get stuck on a bigger task that you couldn’t have completed in time anyway, only that bigger task is at stake instead of that task plus a whole lot of little tasks that are now overwhelming you. (See the third habit, using time wisely.)

Results of effective planning activities:

• You have much less stress. When you know what to do and when, you turn worries and anxiety into motivation and energy. You direct your energy instead of block or spill it.
• You can see and prepare for obstacles before they come. This is critical. By knowing probable issues before they arise, you can act with information instead of react with emotion, and resolve issues more effectively. When unexpected issues do arise, you can prioritize and address them rationally.
• You start working and living deliberately. Your time is spent before it arrives, so you have greater control over your own success. Life isn’t just happening to you anymore, and that naturally enables the other two habits.

Examples of effective planning:

• Professional: Review all upcoming deadlines or milestones for the next several months or years (depending) and note all critical dates in your planner. Then every Friday, plan out your daily tasks and goals for the next two weeks, or for the rest of the sprint if you work in Agile development. If you do this every Friday, your plan is always a week or more ahead and you have heightened visibility. You can give more attention to the tasks you struggle with or are worried about. You know you can quickly resolve four out of five pending tasks that are low-hanging fruit, so you schedule those first to later focus on the fifth larger task with greater ease and bandwidth. As a result, you’ve chosen to allot your time to increase your success across all tasks, rather than being forced to allot your time haphazardly in a moment of panic.
• Student: Review each course syllabus for the semester and note due dates of all assignments in your planner. Then every Friday, plan out your daily tasks and goals for the next two weeks. If you do this every Friday, your plan is always a week ahead and you have heightened visibility. You can give more attention to the subjects you struggle with or are worried about. You know that you’ll need to do your history assignments twice as fast (because they’re easier for you) so that you can spend some time with a math tutor. As a result, you’ve chosen to allot your time to increase your success across all courses, rather than being forced to allot your time haphazardly in a moment of panic.
• Parent: Review all upcoming activities or commitments for the next several months or years (depending) and note all critical dates in your planner. Then every Friday, plan out your daily tasks and goals for the next two weeks. If you do this every Friday, your plan is always a week or more ahead and you have heightened visibility. You can give more attention to the activities or commitments you struggle with or are worried about. You know that you’ll need to reduce your going-out budget for the next three months to compensate for your family trip in the summer. Or that you’ll need to help your kids clean their rooms a bit each day for friends coming this weekend, rather than assuming spare time will arise and ultimately having an insane cleaning spree the night before. As a result, you’ve chosen to allot your time to increase your success across all activities and commitments, rather than being forced to allot your time haphazardly in a moment of panic.

Staying organized

Think of the motto, “A place for everything, everything in its place.” (Benjamin Franklin) This is the key to staying organized. To be organized is one thing, but to stay that way as things change is quite another, and makes all the difference. If you’ve ever had children in your home, you know exactly what that means: The home you've tidied up can unravel in a day’s time. The same applies to your work schedule, which can quickly be undone by unexpectables left unaddressed.

When you make a place for everything within reason and stay organized, you can more easily track your progress, see gaps in your plan (planning ahead), and adjust along the way (use time wisely). Note again that the best organizational activities are ongoing (staying that way) and naturally employ the other two habits.

Effective organizational activities:

• Put every new or modified task in a concrete place in your plan soon. Unattended tasks will find a crack faster than you think.
• Start and end each day with a personal 30-second briefing and debriefing. Literally 30 seconds at the start to review where you left off yesterday and what you will do today, then again at the end what you did today and what you’ll do tomorrow. The overlap is intentional and valuable, and everything is driven by your plan.
• End each week with a 5-minute debriefing. Same as your daily debriefing, but for the previous week. Then the weekly briefing is the two-week planning session that you then do as part of your planning. (See the first habit, planning ahead.)
• Mark completed tasks in your checklist and calendar daily. This probably seems obvious or trivial, but the act of marking off the items exposes both your progress and gaps, and gives you a sense of accomplishment. You will be amazed at how few things fall through cracks and how many gaps you fill simply by updating your task list daily.
• Avoid shortcuts or laziness in tracking your progress. As you hustle through your work, you'll be tempted to skip progress-tracking efforts, like updating your task list, to create more work time. Although this may seem like you’re using time wisely (the third habit), you’re not. Almost always, trading organizational time for more work time is a poor investment, and an illusion. Whatever organizational time you forgo now you will likely have to make up later. You can pay a dollar today or two dollars tomorrow. If that's what you need to do, do it. But be sure to make up difference soon.

Results of effective organizational activities:

• You have much less stress. When you see your progress toward your end and fill gaps along the way, you turn worries and anxiety into motivation and energy. You direct your energy instead of block or spill it.
• You can measure and demonstrate your results for role advancement. Typically, you, your manager, and your company (now or in the future) want you to succeed, because your success means success for everyone. When you organize and track your effort and success, you can show that success in a concrete way to yourself, your manager, and your company as you consider advancing in your role and as you build up your rock-solid resume.
• You can point to very specific things for future improvement. "Every system is perfectly designed to get the results it gets." (W. Edwards Deming) To improve results, improve the system. If you have an unorganized system, then you have no clear components that you can modify to improve results.

Examples of effective organization:

• Professional: Mark off tasks daily as you complete them, and add any new or unplanned tasks in the appropriately prioritized place in your plan. Try to minimize what you have to remember, and ensure that your daily and weekly plans are balanced and on track toward all deadlines. If a task is taking longer than you expected, quickly assess and modify the time you planned to spend on other smaller tasks. The idea is to continually maintain a well-organized and up-to-date daily and weekly schedule to avoid crunch time and over time.
• Student: Mark off assignments daily as you complete them, and add any new or unplanned assignments in the appropriately prioritized place in your plan. Try to minimize what you have to remember, and ensure that your daily and weekly plans are balanced and on track toward all deadlines. If an assignment is taking longer than you expected, quickly assess and modify the time you planned to spend on other smaller tasks. The idea is to continually maintain a well-organized and up-to-date daily and weekly schedule to avoid crunch time and over time.
• Parent: Mark off tasks daily as you complete them, and add any new or unplanned tasks in the appropriately prioritized place in your plan. Try to use physical (non-virtual) lists, calendars, or spreadsheets for your family activities, goals, and budget where everyone at home can see them. Try to minimize what you and your family members have to remember, and ensure that your family’s daily and weekly plans are balanced and on track toward all deadlines. If a task is taking longer than you expected, quickly assess and modify the time you planned to spend on other smaller tasks. The idea is to continually maintain a well-organized and up-to-date daily and weekly schedule to avoid crunch time, over time, and family scheduling conflicts.

Using time wisely

Think of the rocks-in-a-jar metaphor, but slightly modified: You have a jar, some small rocks, and some sand, and you are told that all fit together in the jar. If you put all of the sand in first and then the rocks, not all rocks fit no matter how you shake or stir things. If you put all of the rocks in first and then the sand, which the metaphor usually says is the solution, not all of the sand fits in most cases either. Instead, if you put some rocks in first and then some sand, shake and stir a bit, then a few more rocks and some more sand with a little more shaking, and so on, eventually everything fits snugly.

When you use time wisely, you work through tasks that you previously prioritized by both importance and time (during your planning ahead), while tracking your progress (staying organized) and adjusting along the way. Although we want to get to the most important things (rocks), we also want to address low-hanging fruit (sand) to clear the to-do list. A few rocks, then a little sand, and repeat. However, if in your jar you can knock out several little things quickly without jeopardizing bigger tasks, then do it. That way, if you get stuck on a bigger task that you couldn’t have completed in time anyway, only that bigger task is at stake instead of that task plus a whole lot of little tasks that are now overwhelming you.

Note once again that the best time-use activities are ongoing and naturally employ the other two habits.

Effective time-use activities:

• Stick to the plan, but not at all costs. You made your plan without all the realities in place, so be flexible in how you ultimately carry it out, but be careful not to rationalize too much deviation. Remember, within the word rationalize are rational lies.
• Set a time when you want to finish your day and work accordingly. This seems obvious, but the amount of time we spend on each task must be a conscious effort and hinges on our day's end. If you don’t complete your day’s work, assess to see if you need to work a little longer or move to tomorrow. If you complete your work for the day early, move on to the next day’s work with your remaining time. Don’t let yourself off the hook because you're ahead of schedule. Just as you can overestimate time for certain tasks and finish early, so too can you underestimate time for other tasks and end up in a bind. You will thank yourself for moving on to those tasks with a little extra time to complete them. I know I have.
• Meditate in some form for five minutes (or more) once or twice every day. This may be during your commute, before bed, after waking up, whenever. If you are a spiritual person, this is a great time to pray. The objective is to clear your mind, get out of yourself and your day-to-day, and get centered on what matters most to you and where you’re going in your life. The end of the day is a great time to reflect on today’s and tomorrow’s events, and then set everything aside and walk away.
• If possible, take at least one day completely off each week. Different jobs, industries, and seasons of life have different demands, and not all can enjoy two-day weekends (or two other days off). However, circling back to the ax-sharpening metaphor and the habit of planning ahead, when you take one day off to rest, to be with friends and family, and to re-assess your life, your time spent during six days can be more fruitful than that spent across all seven days. If you are a spiritual person, I recommend taking at least what you consider your Sabbath day off, often Sunday. Your spiritual well-being can directly impact your energy, motivation, productivity, and overall happiness throughout the week.

Results of effective time-use activities:

• You have much less stress. (By now you see a pattern.) When you budget your time efficiently, the things you can do and can feel turn worries and anxiety into motivation and energy. You direct your energy instead of block or spill it.
• You have or can make more time for other work, for yourself, and for your family. No more spinning wheels, just action and progress. Working long hours is no longer the norm, but truly a rare exception for only genuine unexpectables.
• You start noticing yourself grow intellectually, emotionally, and perhaps spiritually. The additional time that you’ve gained and spent where it really counts has resulted in personal improvements that you value most. You’ve started thriving instead of just surviving in your fast-paced, hectic environments at work, at school, or at home.

Examples of effective time use:

• Professional: As you work through tasks, maintain a consistent pace while taking breaks as needed. Step away for a moment to think (or to not think) every half hour or hour to refresh yourself. Use every reasonable window of time between meetings, while in public transit (if applicable), or whenever, in addition to your regularly scheduled work time, to make progress on tasks. If you have 15 minutes here, 10 minutes there, 30 minutes there, be sure to use that time productively to complete tasks. Don’t think that you need a solid block of time to “really get things done”. Those blocks are limited and can pass quickly. Pennies make dollars and minutes make hours. If you make the time, you’ll find it. Set a time when you want to finish for the day and do your work accordingly. If you finish your work for the day early, move on to tomorrow’s work. If you don’t finish your work for the day, figure out why and assess whether a late day is needed to stay on track or if you can push to tomorrow without affecting your weekly schedule. Make sure you’re telling your time what to do, and not the other way around.
• Student: As you work through assignments, maintain a consistent pace while taking breaks as needed. Step away for a moment to think (or to not think) every half hour or hour to refresh yourself. Use every reasonable window of time between classes, while in public transit (if applicable), between work shifts, or whenever, in addition to your regularly scheduled schoolwork time, to make progress on assignments. If you have 15 minutes here, 10 minutes there, 30 minutes there, be sure to use that time productively to complete tasks. Don’t think that you need a solid block of time to “really get things done”. Those blocks are limited and can pass quickly. Pennies make dollars and minutes make hours. If you make the time, you’ll find it. Set a time when you want to finish for the day and do your work accordingly. If you finish your work for the day, move on to tomorrow’s work. If you don’t finish your work for the day, figure out why and assess whether a late day is needed to stay on track or if you can push to tomorrow without affecting your weekly schedule. Make sure you’re telling your time what to do, and not the other way around.
• Parent: As you work through tasks, maintain a consistent pace while taking breaks as needed. Be sure to schedule down time in the day just for you. It’s not selfish, it’s necessary. Taking care of yourself enables you to take care of others, so do it guilt free. When you’re not resting, use every reasonable window of time between tasks and activities, in addition to your regularly scheduled task time, to make progress on tasks. If you have 15 minutes here, 10 minutes there, 30 minutes there, be sure to use that time productively to complete tasks. Don’t think that you need a solid block of time to “really get things done”. Those blocks are limited and can pass quickly. Pennies make dollars and minutes make hours. If you make the time, you’ll find it. Set a time when you want to finish for the day and complete your tasks accordingly. If you finish your work for the day early, move on to tomorrow’s tasks. If you don’t finish your work for the day, figure out why and assess whether a late day is needed to stay on track or if you can push to tomorrow without affecting your weekly schedule. The same applies to your family budget: Money saved or lost in one category is money saved or lost in another. Make sure you’re telling your time and money what to do, and not the other way around.

A fourth habit, for those interested

For me, there are actually four habits for thriving in today’s hectic world. I’ve excluded the fourth habit from my main message to be sensitive to my audience, but it binds everything together for me personally, so I should mention it:

4. Pray always

If you consider yourself a spiritual or religious person and believe in communication with your God in some form, then as a fourth habit, involve your God in everything you do. Before planning or organizing or using your time for a task, and in your heart continuously along the way, ask for the energy, clear mind, and direction to complete everything in an optimal and timely way that will help you bless your life and the lives of those around you. Consecrate your efforts to your God and give all thanks and credit to Him/Her/It for absolutely everything you have and do.

Putting it all together, consistently

As a result of consistently following these three (really four) habits, you can be your best self. But the key is consistency. Like any set of exercises, the payoff doesn’t come unless you put them all together and do them consistently as a routine.

Almost all stories I’ve heard about working excessively long hours for extended periods or about feeling insolvent in life could be traced back to insufficient planning, organization, and/or use of time. Granted, this is not true for everyone and in many cases extensive work is an inevitable reality, or is a deliberate choice with a specific end goal in mind. However, before you assume that your circumstances are exceptional or that I’ve just had it easier than you did or do (and you might be right), I challenge you to try the habits anyway and see if you see any portion of the results that I have.

Everyone has the same 24 hours in a day and 7 days in a week, and I believe that you need not work so many of those hours and days for so long with so little payoff if you adopt these habits and be honest with yourself about how the specifics and exceptions apply to you.