How will planning save you time?
- Every minute you spend planning saves you ten minutes when actually executing!
- You will have fewer urgent problems that arise.
- You will not have to purchase systems or software as a knee jerk reaction to a problem.
- You won’t be working on random things just to be busy, you will be making progress towards your goals.
- Knowing want and how you want it done makes your choices easier and therefore less procrastination happens.
- You won’t be overwhelmed by the choices you have to make which will save you from wasting time avoiding making the decision.
- The time you use to plan actually makes you much more effective so that you can get more done during the time you have.
Planning saves time!
It might be counter-intuitive, but taking the time to plan before you execute will save time. Every minute you spend planning saves you ten minutes when actually executing! I know, it is hard to say “Okay, I’m going to stop and plan now” when you have a ton of crap to do, but the thing is until you stop and take the time to plan and organize you will NEVER have any time. There is no time like the present!
Let’s be honest, we all want fewer urgent problems to arise. When you plan ahead of time you prevent tasks from getting lost and sneaking up on you when you least expect them. It will also prevent small things from being overlooked and turning into crises right when you are in the middle of something crazy, like a launch and it helps you focus on what is really important so that you can make progress towards your goals rather than never being able to hit your goals even though you are doing so much every single day.
You will not have to purchase systems or software as a knee jerk reaction to a problem. Let’s say you are getting ready to sail a boat across the Atlantic Ocean. You would want to make sure that you had enough resources on the boat to survive the trip right? What about spare parts for the boat? You would want to have all the tools and parts that you might need along the way. Now let’s say your boat hit some debris and you are in the middle of your journey and water is coming in and you didn’t pack anything to repair the hull. Now, you are bailing water, but it is getting hard to keep up. Let’s say that luckily a huge ship was passing by and they told you that they have a perfect solution to keep you from drowning but it would cost $50,000.00. You don’t have time to waste on asking too many questions, you just need to keep yourself from dying and losing everything. You pay the bill and they hoist your entire sailboat up out of the water and they keep going in a different direction than you need to go! I see this happen all the time when people buy “solutions” to fix immediate problems. The fix sounds good in the moment, but then it ends up taking their business in a direction they didn’t want to go.
Plan before you start
Begin with the end in mind. This is the 2nd habit from the Covey training. The idea behind it is that everything is created twice, first in the mind and then physically, and just like a building follows a blueprint, any physical creation follows a mental creation. If you start doing things without a clear idea of what you want to accomplish then you aren’t taking concrete steps towards a direction, you are just randomly doing things as you go. No wonder you aren’t getting very far.
Start with what you know. The feeling of “But how can I possibly know what is going to happen” can make planning seem really hard, but the thing is, once you start doing it things start falling into place. You will notice the gaps and you can then brainstorm or research solutions to fix it, butt you have to start somewhere or you won’t even know what to look for.
If it is a larger project, make sure you bring in everyone involved with the project so they can fill in the gaps between your knowledge and theirs. They will need to see what you envision the project looks like so they can help you build the outcome you are looking for. Keep in mind you don’t have to do everything alone, the more brains involve the greater the chances of coming up with amazing creative solutions, pointing out possible problems and collectively creating an awesome plan to get you where you want to go.
Decisiveness saves time
When you know what you want to do and how you want it done the choices get easier to make. Your choice is made based on what will accomplish the goal. When you look at it this way, it isn’t that hard to put down a list of the pros and cons and make a logical decision. This will also help you put your goals in focus so that you don’t get lost contemplating alternatives and wondering what is the right path.
It is easy to assess the options to find the right solution when you know where you are going and you have a clear set path to get there. It is also easy to recognize what problems are in your way. When you have a clear view of what the problems are it is much easier to find solutions that fit your plan and get right back on track quickly and without much stress.
When you attempt to make a choice without a plan, the options become overwhelming and you end up wanting to avoid the decision which then leads to a lot of procrastination. It is hard to make a choice just based on the pros and cons of two options, but t when you have a plan you can simply compare the options with your plan and see which one is the best fit.
Planning takes too much time
It does take time, that is for sure but think about it as an investment. Every minute that you spend planning helps you get rid of distractions during the day, prevents you from forgetting important things that need to be done and helps you reduce stress, take care of yourself and prioritize what is really important.
The time you use to plan actually makes you much more effective so that you can get more done during the time you have. When you try to do things without a plan everything is a distraction, you have to decide what to do next at the end of every task, things get forgotten and more emergencies pop up because you didn’t pay attention to what was happening.
If your to-do list is overwhelming, chances are that you are trying to tackle too much or you don’t have everything you need to accomplish the tasks and the more you stare at them the heavier they get. Planning allows you to get a hold of things and figure out a way to make it work, either by outsourcing or by adjusting things for the times that work the best for you or simply by getting organized and knowing where you are and where you are going next.
You can plan too much!
I love planning more than most people, but there is a VERY fine line between planning and overplanning! You want to plan just enough so that there is still room for changes, that might arise and so that you have a clear idea of what needs to happen when. This will leave you feeling light and inflow with the process.
You will know you have over planned when you are no longer paralyzed by the list, but now, you are unable to start on anything because “it isn’t the right time for that right now”. When you over plan the process ends up heavy and rigid, you turn down your creativity and it makes it exhausting. It is hard on you and on your team, and it takes away the ambition to go and do it amazingly because it is monotonous and controlling, there’s no place to move around.
Over planning is also a symptom of perfectionism. When you are spending too much time planning it feels good to be busy, but the problem is you aren’t getting anything done. You are so worried that everything needs to be a certain way and it all needs to be perfect, but the truth is we are all humans, and not everything can be perfect. And that is okay!! It is okay to vary the plan slightly, it is okay to do something a little different than you had in mind, as long as you follow the right direction and you get to the place you intended to get.
I’ve heard it a hundred times – “My coach pushed me to launch, and then I felt like I needed a vacation between the launch and starting.” Look, It isn’t your fault. You are not a fraud. You are not a con artist. You didn’t fail your clients. You just didn’t have the right automation & systems to make it easier on you. You had to manually message every person who was interested. You had to hustle and work for each and every sale. It doesn’t have to be that way. You CAN end a launch feeling excited, rejuvenated and READY to work with all the clients you just signed up for your program, coaching or other offers – AND not have fear and stress about launching again in the near future.
How?
- By having those automations, systems, checklist and a blueprint laid out in front of you, ready to walk you through every single step of that launch.
- By knowing exactly what to outsource in your launch.
- By having your to-do list so organized that you know exactly what to do.
- By letting tech do the most monotonous and soul-sucking bits of launching FOR you.
That’s EXACTLY what I’m going to be helping twenty of you to do over the next 3 months in The Rockstar Mastermind. You’re going to get support and hand-holding as you or your team build out the systems that make launch stress a thing of the past. You’re going to learn to make launching something you don’t have to panic about – so that you can make more money more often!! (And if the idea of doing it stresses you the hell out, don’t worry, I have a Done-With-You option available as well!)
If you’re ready to make your launches easier and get out of feast or famine mode shoot me a message.
