Professional Health: Daily Planning

Want to improve your work life? Make a daily plan.

(This is my secret sauce.)

As I’ve said before, it’s no secret that I’m a planner. I like goals, I like processes, I like lists. From a mental perspective, writing things down helps tremendously to clear my brain and maximize the usable space for tasks at hand. On a more real note, lists help me to not forget things.

I was great at daily planning when I was running my own business, but stepping back into the traditional workforce put that particular habit into park. Somehow, the fact that I was no longer in the driver’s seat for the big picture flipped the big ol’ OFF switch on my drive to manage my days.

Then I became a recruiter.

Oh, boy. My goodness.

If you’ve not lived in this particular sector of the world, recruitment is a time-sensitive game, with to-do lists that stretch for miles and never enough time or resource (me) to get it all done.

What’s a girl to do? Plan.

Each evening, I try to leave my day with the “Good gracious this has to happen tomorrow” list of items written down. WRITTEN DOWN, folks. And then? Here’s where the magic happens. Each morning, I come in to the office with a little love note from yours truly, guiding the first parts of my day. I take this epistle from self to self, and use it as my guiding point as I plan my steps for the day ahead. All today’s fires are mixed in with the  fragments of yesterday. It’s chaos and order all at once.

Do I get it all finished every day? Nope.

Do I make my end of day list every day? Dear me, no. I’m human. (Just ask my people)

BUT, the more often that I can take the moment in the evening to remember what’s priority for tomorrow, and the moment in the morning to review those items and fold them into the new things popping up like mushrooms?

That’s when it becomes amazing.

~Me