Top 4 Reasons Why We All Need Personal Planners

We want it all. We want the latest flat screen TV and fashions. We want to be the Super Mom, Dad, Spouse, CEO and tri-athlete all at the same time. Oh Yeah, we want a clean house as well. We want so much we try to fit it into one schedule. There is more pressure in the workplace to get more done with less. Work is already a huge part of the week and yet companies need their employees to put the extra effort (and hours) in more than ever. In the schools, curriculums are more demanding and class sizes have increased putting more pressure on the parents to help out with home work. We want 26 hours in our Day Planner because 24 hours just is not enough. Can we really have it all and find a balance? Many cannot and struggle with the juggling act. Forget planning, there is simply too much to do. Living a normal life each day has become too much for many. Our Plan: we look for short cuts; Plan A; Turn to restaurants, fast food and pre-processed meals in a box. Plan B: Sleep less and skip more workouts. Did our parent’s generation, the Baby Boomers, simply have less to do or did they struggle just as much and simply made it look easy? What ever the reason, people today simply need help to get it all done. So what to do to be more successful?

1-We Need To Be Better Planners

We are not Planners. We are ‘Do-ers” and Schedulers maybe even Over-Schedulers. When you are this busy you need to plan well in advance. Those of us who plan well will have a better chance of executing their day or week well. No guarantees but at least you have planned for success. If we all had Personal Assistants sure they could do a lot of ’stuff’ but in the end would we be ahead or would we just find more ’stuff ‘ for the Assistant and ourselves to do and be just as busy. What we really need are Personal Planners. A Personal Planner that would ’sweat the small stuff’ (errands etc) but more importantly actually would plan out our day or week. In fact we need a Personal Planner every day the same way a bride may need a Wedding Planner for the big day, we need a trainer at the Gym or a financial planner for our retirement. Many people are simply not good at planning and need support. Why? – Many do not feel that they have the time to plan. Some feel that it won’t make a difference, something will happen and it will all change anyway. In many cases, our tendency is to ‘cram’ too much into our tight schedule and /or set everything as a high priority. This is usually the result or deep rooted fears; ‘I’m afraid if I do not get all this done something will happen’ or ‘I’m afraid that I am a failure if I can’t ‘do it all’, like the Jones’. Many procrastinate as a result of feeling overwhelmed and as result their schedule becomes chaotic feeding the overwhelmed feelings even more.

2 – We Need a Master Plan

Poor planning or the absence of a meal plan impacts our diet and nutrition. Lack of an exercise plan, we fail to improve physically and eventually lose our motivation. Lack of a financial plan we will struggle to save a dollar and fail to reach our financial goals. Many need the support of a Personal Planner to plan their week, day and month objectively without fear. Without a plan we may always struggle to find the time. We will scramble from activity to activity never planning the next move but simply over scheduling the day in our electronic Planner or Day Planner. Everybody should have; A financial plan, an exercise plan, A meal plan, A weekly plan and finally at work; A business plan. A good Personal Planner would set SMART Goals, time limits on certain activities and finally priorities. A good Planner would objectively lay out a plan based what I need not just what I want. All together this would give us our best shot at finding a healthy balance.

3 – No Planner, Electronic Planner or Planner System Can Work if There is Simply Too Much to Do.

Planners have their limitations although some can use them very well. Many too well and wind up over-scheduling. All the technologies that were invented to make our lives easier have simply been used to allow us to do more at the same time. Multitasking is a huge problem today. We have exceeded the limits of traditional Planning tools. I am a big believer in Planners, Day-Timers and Project Management. All these tools are needed to maintain some degree of organization and should be used. However, if there is simply too much to do, planning helps but in the end you simply have to eliminate the volume of chores. Little things add up and many people under estimate (wishful thinking?) how long something will take. To reference Stephen Covey’s analogy; you must place the ‘large rocks’ in the bucket first and then see how many’ little rocks’ will fit. If some overflow not a problem there were only ‘little rocks’. Planning will help you decide what is a’ large rock’ and what is a ‘pebble’. Often we are not objective and we feel that everything is important. Not the case, take a good hard look at it. The little rocks could easily be delegated to someone else or left for another day. An alternative to deal with the volume of tasks, the ultimate problem, is to address the root cause and off-load some of the on-line, phone based tasks to a Personal Planner or Concierge Service.

4 – We Never Record Wasted Time in our Planners

In addition to television, studies indicate that we are starting to spend too much time on the Internet. As more services and options become available and safer to use people are doing more ‘errands’ and as such spending more time on the Internet. This may save us some time over traditional errands running around town but more people are starting to spend several hours a day on the computer and Internet and not with their friends and family. Social isolation in the end has increased. Are ‘Social’ sites socially isolating or socially promoting? Time will tell. Once on-line it is easy to escape and drift off into blogs, chat rooms, on-line auctions and endless other sites. Before you know it you have wasted a few good hours that could have been spent exercising or relaxing with a good book. We never plan for wasted time and then we wonder why we do not have enough time. The internet has become an escape for many from the routine and our over scheduled lives.

We are terrible planners. We float through the day, week or even year with no plan and then wonder why our life may not be fulfilling. Why our goals have not been met. We make an attempt to use planners and day timers but in the end we have only done more things or scheduled more meetings. Ultimately when there is just too much to do we need a plan to simplify our life or a service to help plan and mange it for us. If we recorded all the time we waste in our planners we would likely do something to correct it but it is easier to mindlessly ignore it. Ultimately, we may all need support from a Personal Planner Service to get us back in balance.

Author: Liz Burcar
Article Source: EzineArticles.com
Provided by: Smart cooker

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