In the last newsletter, I said you’d get the first newsletter of 2024 on January 6. That date came and went.
Where have I been? Here’s my LinkedIn post from early January that explains it:
And that is where I want to focus the time today: Planning.
Specifically, I want to talk about the pitfalls that come from rigid planning.
My mother likes to say, “Uno pone y Dios dispone;” One plans and God arranges.
Your beliefs are your beliefs. This is all to say that you can plan all you want but in the end, certain things will happen in life that will force your plans to change.
Everyone Says Planning Is Crucial
It seems everywhere you look, society is asking you to plan every aspect of your life.
This is especially true in the business world, where companies function by goals, strategies, performance indicators, objectives, and tasks.
That’s why there are countless apps for scheduling, project management, and project conversations.
Even I’m guilty of touting project management tools because I use them all the time. I have a growing list of projects for clients, my own business, as well as personal projects.
I also write a weekly plan every Sunday and a daily one each night. So believe me, I’m just as tied to planning as the next person.
Stone and Chisel Is for The Flintstones
Planning may be a necessity to prioritize and get things done.
What you don’t want to do is get stuck in your own plans to the point where they prevent you from seeing new opportunities, stop progress, or damage your mental health.
We don’t plan in stone, we plan in pencil.
Let’s go into the three major dangers I just listed.
Failing to See or Act on Opportunities
Have you ever looked at someone’s calendar to find their entire day is completely blocked off with meetings, classes, or calls, with no gaps for taking even a short breather?
While this person is busy and moving projects forward or keeping everybody on task, how can they act if a new opportunity comes along?
The same goes for task lists that run a full page or more.
Let’s say you have ten hours in your day to be productive and most tasks take you an average of an hour to complete. How do you benefit from writing out 20 tasks?
Stuck in Place
Over-planning tends to have the opposite effect you originally intended. Instead of giving you direction, it overwhelms you and stops you from moving at all.
When you look at a short list of tasks, it’s easy to determine which task is the most important. As you add tasks, differentiating becomes tougher.
Even if you manage to prioritize, you can’t help but think of how long it will take for you to reach those lower priorities.
If your mind races to negative outcomes, you’ll start believing you won’t reach those tasks until they are so backed up they come up to the top of your list whether you want them to or not.
You may try to adjust for these feelings. You may try dedicating less time to each task or worse, you’ll try to multitask.
In the end, you’ll find yourself stuck in the same place you began.
Mental Health
This is the big one to look out for with businesses of all sizes. Over-planning can easily lead to employee burnout and turnover.
As a leader, it’s easy to focus your conversations on goals and progress. But don’t forget that whether it’s sales, marketing, or operations we’re talking about, you are ultimately working with human beings.
What To Do
Remember the goal is not to eliminate planning but to make it manageable and fluid. Here are a few suggestions.
Give your calendar gaps
Lots of experts tell you the key to getting things done is to wring out every bit of your day. You feel like you have to work from the minute you get up until you go to bed at night. Forget that!
Humans need breaks. Rest is just as vital as water.
When it comes to your calendar, allow room in between meetings.
You can use this space to write a follow-up message or delegate tasks that came out of the meeting. More importantly, you can use it to eat a snack, decompress, and mentally prepare for the next one.
Even better, these breaks will give you the opportunity to act when (not if) something unexpected, good or bad, occurs.
Think short
My daily task list consists of three priorities. That’s it.
The top priority gets the most time dedicated to it, usually about 2 to 3 hours depending on the task itself. The remaining two get roughly half that time.
When I’m not working on these priorities, I could be in a meeting, answering email, or picking up my daughter at school.
This is the balance that allows me to keep projects moving while still paying attention to other things going on around me.
Like with cleaning up your calendar, shortening your task list will help you flow like water, as Bruce Lee would say.
Cut back on those pesky acronyms
KPIs, OKRs, ROI, RGR, they all matter to you. But you can easily get yourself in so much trouble staring at a computer dashboard loaded with data.
Determine a few meaningful metrics and focus on those. if you have a team that you want to align with your goals, make it easy for them to understand those goals and buy in.
Care for your crew
Take the time to talk to employees about their workload. Ensure they have a manageable schedule and list of tasks or projects.
If you’re in a service business, pay attention to employees that overbook or fall behind on their appointments. You want to make sure their last customer of the day feels as appreciated as their first customer.
Plans Should Remain Fluid
Bruce Lee liked to say the key to life was to “be like water.” Think of planning this way.
You don’t want planning to get in your way. Give your day some breaks, keep lists short, data simple, and watch out for burnout.
If you need additional content marketing help, contact me today to set up an introductory call.
Your friend,
Jose
