In this post in the “Working through the Productivity Field Guide” series, we will discuss how to follow your daily plans. It’s not enough to make a daily plan; for it to be effective, you must also follow it.
Often, that’s not as easy as it sounds. You’d think that you’d be primed to do the work after identifying your roles, writing your Arete statements, doing quarterly, monthly, and weekly planning sessions, and preparing a daily plan.
But instead, your mind betrays you, and when it’s time to do the work, you’re resistant. How do we overcome the resistance we all struggle with? That’s the theme of this post.
The Roles-Based System is About Intentional Living
The entire roles-based system is about living intentionally. When we identify our roles and write our Arete, the best version of ourselves for our roles, we define our intentions regarding how we want to live our lives.
Likewise, the system of quarterly, monthly, weekly, and daily reviews and planning helps us live out our intentions. They take the intentions that we define and implement them in our work. We review our roles to stay on top of them and keep them top of mind. We check our progress during our reviews to see if we’re implementing our Arete.
“So yes, spend some time-real, uninterrupted time-thinking about what’s important to you, what your priorities are. Then, work toward that and forsake all the others. It’s not enough to wish and hope. One must act—and act right.”
The Daily Stoic, by Ryan Holiday and Stephen Hanselman
People tend to get excited about identifying roles and writing Arete and are motivated to do a good job doing those. But there’s also a tendency to drop the ball regarding quarterly, monthly, weekly, and daily planning. It’s just not as exciting or fun. Or perhaps it’s exciting or fun for a week or two, but we neglect it afterward.
How can we keep up with our reviews to make sure we implement what our intentions are?
• Use task managers – Add tasks to your task manager to remind you to do your reviews. On Sundays, my task manager prompts me to do my weekly review.
• Develop habits – Develop good habits by doing your reviews at the same time and in the same manner each time. As I mentioned, my monthly and weekly planning is on Sunday afternoons. On Sundays, I know it’s planning day.
Daily planning is integral to my morning routine, guided by the apps and widgets on my iPad. My journaling template includes prompts to define my top three tasks, my priority task, and do my daily plan. It’s a habit to do my morning routine first thing every morning.
The same is true with quarterly planning. I know I’ll need to plan for a quarterly planning session at the end of every quarter. Sometimes, I’ll do an overnight at a local motel or a retreat center. Other times, I’ll do it at home. It just depends on how much planning I need to do.
The Importance of a Daily Plan
Whether or not I make a daily plan is key to whether or not I get the work done that furthers my Arete. When I take a few minutes in the morning to make a daily plan, I usually get a lot done that day. When I don’t make a daily plan, internal distractions take over, and I get very little done that I intended to get done.
During a recent weekly review, I reviewed the calendar for the last week and realized I didn’t get much work done. I realized I’d failed to draft a daily plan when I looked at my templates for those days.
When I don’t have a daily plan, I wander and waste time fiddling with this and that or chasing rabbits down holes. I do anything except what I need to work on and what I intend to do.
Even though I know this intellectually, I sometimes resist making a plan. When I make a plan, I’m glad I did because I did good work that day, and then I feel good about myself at the end of the day. When I don’t, I don’t.
Overcoming Resistance to Following Your Daily Plan
In the Productivity Field Guide, David Sparks discusses his practice of making his daily plan the afternoon before as part of his shutdown ritual. Several people expressed difficulty following their daily plans during one of the Productivity Field Guidewebinars. They made their plan the afternoon or evening before but resisted following it in the morning and abandoned it.
“It’s almost as if there’s some great cosmic force working against you, no? In a way, there is.” Steven Pressfield, The War of Art. Pressfield dubs this force “the Resistance” and calls it out as the chief opponent of creative productivity.” Todd Henry, Daily Creative. There is a force that wants to stop you from doing your important work. You can expect it to appear, and you must actively fight it.
In response to those who were having difficulty following through in doing the work, David Sparks explained that what people were experiencing was pretty typical because “morning you” is not the same person as “afternoon you.”
You must trust that afternoon you had a good reason to put these things on your calendar. You have to tell morning you to shut up and do what afternoon you planned for them to do.
He described a brain hack he sometimes uses when he resists following his plan. He says to himself, “I’ll do this for five minutes, and then I’ll decide if I want to do more or not. If I don’t, I’ll go do something else.” He often finds that he almost always continues working because the hard part is getting started on it. Once he gets started on it and starts working, he overcomes the resistance, and it’s not a problem for him.
Make Your Daily Plan at the Time That Works Best for You
My experience is that I have much less resistance when I make my daily plan in the morning instead of the day before.
I make the plan as part of my morning routine. I have a journaling template with spaces for defining my three main tasks for the day, my priority task, and my daily plan.
I make my daily plan, list the hours and what I will do during the time blocks, and immediately start following it. I don’t have to contend with a struggle between “yesterday me” versus “today me.” Today me makes the plan, and today me implements it.
David Sparks emphasizes that it doesn’t matter when you make your daily plan. You ought to do whatever works best for you.
If you do it the day before and don’t experience resistance the next day, it works for you, and you should continue doing the same thing. On the other hand, if you struggle with the conflict between evening and morning, you might want to try making your plans in the morning.
As David Sparks says in the Productivity Field Guide, “When you do your daily planning is not nearly as important as if you do your daily planning.”
What to Do When Your Plan is Interrupted
What do you do when you have to change your daily plan? You have intentions for your day; you list your intentions for your work for the day in a daily plan, and then something interferes.
Maybe it’s an unexpected priority. For instance, let’s say I’m working on a project, and my wife calls and tells me she’s having car trouble and can’t get the car started. Of course, I’m not going to say to her, ”I’m sorry, I’m in the middle of a two-hour time block, so I need to work on this project. I’ll come and help you when I’m done.”
That’s not going to happen. At that point, she is the priority. I will stop what I’m doing and help her deal with that problem.
Rescheduling and moving your time blocks to another time is okay. Instead of feeling bad about getting off your daily plan, you feel good because you realize you can move this time block to another time, maybe later that day, the next day, or the next week, and you will get it done.
As David Sparks says in the Productivity Field Guide, “You can move the blocks to accommodate changes. I frequently move blocks as the day develops… I want to spend two hours on a client project today at 10 o’clock, but later move it to tomorrow at 11 o’clock or next Tuesday at 3 o’clock. It doesn’t matter so long as the block remains on the calendar and I can trust myself to keep that appointment and do the work.”
Staying on Track: Following Through and Doing the Work—Implementing Your Daily Plan
Implementing a daily plan is crucial for staying on track with your intentions and achieving your goals. Whether you make your plan the day before or in the morning, the key is to stick to it and trust that you had good reasons for setting those tasks.
When interruptions occur, be flexible and move your time blocks as needed, but always follow through.
Remember, the daily plan is a tool to help you live intentionally and work towards your Arete. So, take action today and commit to following your daily plan to see real progress in your work and personal life. Take charge of your day and make it count!