This is heading off the beaten path, just to warn you. It might be shocking; Lord, it might be an outrage, too. But just don’t knock it until you try it. It’s called “day planning.” Specifically for mothers with the task of planning the day out along with dinner planning and maintenance of kids and the house, day planning could literally replace a weight loss regimen! Only the unfortunate side effect of “working out” in this manner is the pigging out later on, gaining back all the weight.
All joking aside, the bottom line is this: it doesn’t matter how effective you might be with planning your day, something always goes awry, a wrench gets thrown into the workings, the itinerary can get switched around, and guess what–your day’s screwed. There’s no such thing as a “perfect” day. Nothing ever goes completely right.
And, brace yourself, here’s what you need to know: that’s the trick to effective day planning. It’s knowing that nothing will ever go completely right!
Think of it this way. Most of the stress you go through isn’t because some things go wrong; your stress occurs because you let it! Its that mindset that slows you down and causes you to lose more of your day, more of your plan, all for nothing but even more stress and more headaches. It’s a never-ending downward spiral of despair! Like demonic dominoes continually dropping like flies, and you can’t do anything to stop them from falling.
You can save all that despair, headache, and stress if you simply try not to make everything “perfect.” It never will be. Focus on your day plan being not simply a “plan” but more of a list of “goals” or “guidelines” to follow. The point is the effort, not the completion. The mission is focus, not result. You have an enormous amount of days in your life to get things done. Don’t worry about your “lists.” Focus on your efforts instead.
That’s how you ‘plan’ effectively! You’ll find you’ll get more things done if you’re not worrying about getting everything done.