Productivity: Plan at Night and Get More Done Each Day

Nighttime can feel so magical. We all seem so wise at night.

We can plan out our perfect day the night before, but our plans don’t always go, well as planned. What happens to make these plans fly out the window? Usually, we are trying to make too many decisions on the fly, we stray from our “plan,” and we are more guided by how we feel rather than what needs to get done.

Here are some ideas for productive planning at night and how to actually follow your genius plan the next day:

1. Know what you want

What do you actually want to accomplish? What are your goals? You can’t make yourself effective plans until you know what you’re trying to accomplish. If you aren’t clear on what your goals are both in the short and long term, now is the time to set them.

Ask yourself, what are my goals for this month?  What are my goals for this week?  What are my goals for tomorrow? Make sure your daily goals and tasks are supporting your weekly goals, and then your weekly goals supporting your monthly goals and so on.

2. Take time each night to plan the next day

Every evening, at a specific time, plan what you’re going to do the next following day. Make this a habit, one you won’t forget. Make it non-negotiable.

3.  Be ruthless with prioritization

Not all to-do items are created equally, so it’s imperative to prioritize your activities and tasks. Your time is limited, so it’s essential to maximize it. There’s going to be a limit to how much you can do each day.

Make sure that you’re getting the most important things accomplished and not just lots of things accomplished. You can figure out the priority of each task based upon your goals for the day or week.

Ideally, your to-do list will be short. If you have ten things on your list, you most likely have minimally important items. Try to stick to the most important items and give them top priority.

You don’t have to ditch everything that is not a top priority. Keep them on their own list that you can work on after the important stuff gets done.

You are better off to get one important task done that is bringing you closer to your big goals than a dozen meaningless, busywork tasks.  The small stuff can wait.

4. Make your evening decisions matter

At night, it’s easy to say you’re going to the gym the next day. It’s easy to say you’re going to eat healthy. When the day actually comes, that is where things can get messy.

It’s obvious that you should get to the gym, read a chapter of a particular book, or meditate for 20 minutes tomorrow. It’s also obvious what you should eat tomorrow to be at your best. It’s much more challenging to follow through on each of these when the time comes. 

Make your plans at night and then during the day, focus on executing it. Don’t allow yourself to make decisions about any of those items during the day. You already thought about them, and you already made your decisions. There’s no reason to renegotiate them.

To get more done each day, sit down, and make your plan each night for the next day. Then fight like mad to be disciplined and stick to the plan the next day.

You’ll love the results!

Here’s to creating the business + life you LOVE!