Five Life-changing Benefits of Planning your Day

How would you like to free up an extra hour or more of time in your day? Planning can help you in many different ways and in many aspects of your life. It reduces stress, keeps you focused, helps you be prepared, increases productivity, and frees up time in your day! If you have a big project coming up for school, writing out a plan of attack can help you stay focused and on task. Are you often sidetracked and flustered? Well, planning can help you focus on your top priorities and then free up time for you to do the things you love. Here are the top five benefits of planning our day. 

Planning may help reduce Stress

The first benefit of planning your day out is that it has been shown to reduce stress and anxiety. Stress is so common now in our fast-paced world that we live in. With all of our time commitments, it is hard to slow down and take the time to breathe during the day.

By planning the night before or each morning, you would be setting yourself up for less stress! Now, who doesn’t want less stress! When you take the time to think about what you need to get done during the day and write it out, you won’t be as worried that you will forget something. You know you can always look back at your to-do list to remind yourself.

Planning will help you to focus on what is most important 

The second benefit of planning is that it will help you to prioritize and nail down those crucial tasks that you need to get done. So often I find myself losing focus and getting sidetracked by things that are not as important. When I sit and plan out my day I make sure to write down my top tasks for the day and then list any additional things I would like to work on. I can’t start working on those other tasks until my top priority tasks are complete.

One important thing to remember is that you must try not to over-plan your day. When you sit down to plan, you need to think long and hard about what you can actually get done in a day. Be realistic! Overplanning leads to being overwhelmed and discouraged. That is the opposite of what planning is supposed to be doing. In order to stay focused and positive, you must be sensible during your planning time. If there are a lot of things you need to get done, pick the top two or three to do on that day. The rest can be spread out throughout the week as you see fit. Remember, be realistic with your planning!

Planning will help you be prepared

Planning your day ahead of time helps you to be prepared for anything that might come at you. When you start your day with a plan you know what to expect and are less likely to be taken by surprise. Now, there are always those things that pop up out of nowhere, but when you already have a game-plan in place, those unexpected pop-ups are not so scary anymore.  

Planning Increases productivity and efficiency 

I personally find that planning increases my productivity and efficiency. When you lay out what you need to do and set aside time for it each day you are much more likely to get it done than if you went ahead with your day without any plan at all. Again, it is crucial that you are realistic when planning. Think about what you can really get done in the time that you have. At first this may seem challenging, but it does get easier with time. The more you do it, the more of a habit it will become, and the easier it will be.

Planning creates more time for leisure and recreational activities 

Last, but certainly not least, planning opens up more time for you to do the things you love. Doesn’t it always feel good when you finish everything on your to-do list? I know I feel a great sense of accomplishment when I finish checking off everything I had planned for the day. I find that because I take the time to plan my days I have much more free time to work on my hobbies… or to just sit and binge-watch my favorite TV shows!

After experimenting with many different ways of planning, I finally found what works best for me. I like to plan out my days hour by the hour where I account for all the time I am awake. By doing this, I get a more accurate account of what my day will look like. I will be able to see those little pockets of times where I can fit in some extra things or… I know I will schedule that time for relaxing and unwinding.