Failure to plan is plan to fail

Folks we thank God for according us all another chance to see another year. By this time of the year, many of us have already set very big hairy audacious 2020 goals and filled them all out in our journals. Some of us go-getters I know have even gone the extra mile and collaged our goals in some fancy vision boards in our bedroom closets and fridge doors as a daily nagging reminder of our declarations of our intentions for what we have set to achieve in this year of growth 2020.
There is a very popular adage that is often attributed to Benjamin Franklin-the father of time management that he supposedly once said, “Failing to plan is planning to fail.” I know this sounds like music to our ears but planning for life, business, work is a key area of great importance which is often overlooked due to the hustles and bustles of life. By a show of hands, how many of us have fully achieved what we set out to do in January? But we are already in week 5 of 2020 and the way I see it this year is slipping away like Mr Tyrese Gibson in one of my all-time favorite movie “The Fast and Furious 9” But hey folks don’t beat yourself up or write yourself off yet. There is hope to change the course of your destiny if you are super-duper honest with yourself to take corrective measures now.
Trying to achieve your goals without planning is similar to getting into your posh car that has no steering wheel and expecting to magically reach your expected destination. Unfortunately, too many people on this side of Sahara do not embrace planning and its many benefits. Instead, they free flow relying upon chance, others and just mere luck. If you have no sense of directions literally any road will take you wherever. To truly maximize your God given potential and accomplish your purpose on planet earth through set goals, organization is a mission critical necessity. Organizing your life requires that you adopt a structured process that you can embrace in every facet of your every day and adhering to it to nurture good habits that will encourage order. The reason many of us fail to plan is that we comfortably assume that organization process is complicated and a waste of time. Allow me to demystify and simplify this for us all in three A’s which are analysis, allotment and action. Which will help us work smart by structuring our day better to increase our productivity & efficiency

1. Analysis: First understand what your responsibilities are (home, life, work) and priorities as well as their urgency in the order they must be done. Part of a successful organizational plan is applying it universally to everything that you do. Structuring only one part of your life and leaving the rest a chaotic jumble will not enable you to maximize your full potential. Start by writing down everything that you must do on a daily, monthly and yearly basis. While it may seem counterintuitive to look at something that you only have to do once a year such as your tax return, it helps by making the task easier and saves plenty of time that you spend doing it. Breaking a task into a series of smaller actions that are completed as they occur, such as storing tax financial documents and legal receipts in a designated file, is the key to efficiently completing large projects i.e. saves you time when you are compiling your tax returns. Instead of you hustling last minute to locate all necessary disorganized documents, they will be ready waiting for you. As you write your list, it is helpful to think about how you might be able to accomplish several tasks all at once. For example, combining a trip to the grocery store with your daily commute, or using time spent waiting for a delayed meeting to start to answer emails.
2. Allotment: Using your analysis, determine what needs to be done and how long it will take you. Be realistic about deciding how much time to devote to each activity or various tasks as well when you will do it in order of priority. This gives you a “big picture” approach that enables you to decide how important each task is. This helps avoid spending too much time on the “little picture” activities which you can easily delegate, allowing you to concentrate all your efforts to mission critical actions. For instance, answering every single email instantly can waste a large portion of your productive day. It is also important to allow yourself scheduled breaks. No one is a robot or a machine, and we all need some down time to rejuvenate. Your time allotment needs to be very realistic. If you schedule fifteen minute blocks of time for projects that require an hour, you will not be able to finish what you have started and your plan will not help you to accomplish anything either. Be disciplined in a firm way, but without harsh judgment and pressure. Supervise yourself, watch out for the obvious procrastination tendencies, and gently bring yourself back to the task if you find yourself losing focus or digressing altogether
3. Action: This is the most important of the three A’s. Even the sexiest plans are worthless if it is not put into actual motion. Execution is more important than planning itself. A perfect plan, poorly executed will most definitely fail. A lousy plan well executed is often successful. It may seem obvious, but way to fix a failure is often simple, work harder. That is why it is important to get into the habit of following your plans and learning to say “no” when others make requests of you for non-essential items. Staying committed to your plans needs to be your top priority. This is very hard to do at first but of course with time, it will become second nature as you have heard that popular catchphrase “it takes 21 days to form a new habit” Action also requires that you get into the habit of writing a lists either hard copy or digital, to help to keep track details and tasks that you need to be accomplish in the short term. Decide the format you are most comfortable with and begin to make a list at the very beginning of each day. Check off tasks as you complete them to mark your progress and enjoy that beautiful sense of satisfaction and fulfilment that comes from working smart, efficiently and more productive. Organizational tools, storage and other tools are invaluable in accomplishing your goals. If your closet is cluttered, look for storage systems that will help you to keep it clean. If you have difficulty keeping track of documents, incorporate a new filing system. Get in the habit of diminishing clutter by recycling or giving away things that you do not need or use i.e. magazines or documents you are done with.

By devising a deliberate plan to organize your life, you not only become more efficient but improve your work life balance by spending more time on the things that matters most to you such as extra quality fun-filled family time, travel, some quite time, reading or going to the sports gym or to the spa for some pampering. Applying this strategy to every area of your life will help you find more time to spend on the activities that make you tick which you enjoy as well as helping you to accomplish more with less. By using the three A’s above you will be able to realize many benefits of a more organized purpose driven life. Remember, without the willingness to be brutally honest with yourself, success in any way, shape, or form will not be possible.
So my dear friends I urge you to stop, take account of how wisely you have spent your time this far, reset, refocus, readjust as many times you need now than be sorry months to come. Even more dangerous is that when we to learn from the past we are doomed to repeat the same mistakes and fail again over and over again. Where possible keep an accountability partner who will propel you to meet your set goals. Here is to a more organized more productive 2020, shall we folks?