Productive Planner Tips

Productive Planner Tips: Use a Planner with Intention

Do you need some productive planner tips? Using a planner with intention can make a huge difference in what you accomplish. It’s not about checking things off the list. It’s a tool and visual reminder of what happens next, a place marker in the line of events that need to occur in order to implement something new or complete any given task.

After leaving the corporate world I entered entrepreneurship with an arsenal of knowledge, things I still use to this day. One of the most valuable nuggets was learning to use a planner. Write things down on a regular basis and watch what happens.

Productive Planner Tips: Scheduling Leads to Completion

For me, what gets scheduled, gets done. Write it down, make things happen is a premise (also the title of a book by Henriette Anne Klauser) that can help you get more things done.

“The way to get started is to quit talking and begin doing,” said Walt Disney. The thing is you need to know what do, where to start, so let’s break this down.

Productive Planner Tips: Get Rid of the Angst of the Never-ending List

Part of the reason the list goes on and on is because the task is on the list rather than an action step that helps you to make progress. By listing actionable steps for each task rather than the task itself breaks it down into small bite size pieces. This is how you eat an elephant!

Productive Planner Tips: Big Tasks Can Cause Overwhelm

If you already know what overwhelms you, you also need to know how you best deal with it. For example, when I am overwhelmed, I eat and procrastinate. Not always in that order but these are my warning signs.

If I catch myself mindlessly wanting to eat, I stop, pour myself a glass of water and drink it. Then I wait to see if the urge to eat is still there. Many times I am no longer hungry and by removing the distraction of eating I can then move on to an action step that needs to be done.

Procrastination is the real thief! If I look up and find I have wasted an hour or more surfing the web, doing online quizzes or playing games, this calls for a mindset shift. Am I avoiding doing what needs to be done because I don’t know what to do next or because I’ve bitten off too much to chew? It varies. But you too can start to recognize your own tell-tale signs with practice and self observation. Be honest with yourself and answer the hard question—“What’s holding me back?”

Productive Planner Tips: Break the Task Down

When you learn to break your task down into actionable steps, you will get more done. Writing blogs used to be a task that caused me overwhelm. The words would not come. I could stare at the blank screen fixated on the blinking cursor waiting for me to fire away forever. Part of my overwhelm came from not knowing what to write first, next, and so on. What helped me was creating a cheat sheet with steps. This helps me put my thoughts and words into order and keeps me from wandering off the path.

Productive Planner Tips: Grab Your Planner

If you want to get more things done, grab your planner and start breaking out your action steps by writing them down. It’s your planner, write in it, color, use pretty tape, whatever tickles your fancy.

Join the National Association of Christian Women Entrepreneurs soon (in the 3^rd quarter of 2018) and receive our 2018 Planner free!

Kim S. Hawkins, NACWE Team Member, Planner Creator/Designer