Two most pressing issues with PLANNING

The following post is in response to a very thought-provoking post on planning titled Fail to PLAN.

Question: Even to this day I have tens of to do lists, resolution plans, goal planning documents that I end up creating after some or other self-introspection session. But none of them seem to ever strike a done deal. In fact, more of such lists keep on adding every few days and somewhere in the middle I lose track of them.

Response: You pinpointed the problem yourself – that just brought you closer to the solution. This is the problem with most of us – we tend to write to-do things at multiple places and then lose track of them. If you really want to get rid of this – here are the two steps. First, have a single TO-DO list and keep it handy. Whenever you recall any pending task – just write down on it. Don’t worry if the list grows upto 50 items. Second, keep a PLANNER. To-do list tells what to do and a planner tells when to do. Planners and to-do lists should be closely intertwined. I had the opportunity of looking at the planner/to-do combos of some really successful people and here are 2 ways both involving an off-the-shelf paper planner marked with date/day/time etc. One way is to write the to-do list at the last page(one of the extra pages) of the planner, and when you plan your day, just have a look at the list and map the most pressing items to the day’s portion of the planner. Another way is to use post-it notes to create to-do lists and stick them on the current page of the planner and do whichever is important on that particular day. In sum, I think creating an integrated system is the first step towards clearing your head and moving on to some real action.

Question: Does the problem lie in the way I plan or is implementation the tricky part? Or am I lacking determination or enthusiasm or motivation? What is it that will provide me the satisfaction of at least one all green to do list. I have some great planner friends and they have bestowed me with their best planning tips now and then. I have tried to follow most of them and yet what is constant is incompletion. How do you "just do it" after all?

Response: Once you have an integrated planning system in place, then comes the question of – how to actually do it. It is extremely difficult to answer this question, in fact I consider this to be a philosophical question. I think if you map something on your planner, e.g., I am going to sew a button (that I have been procrastinating for 6 months now) tomorrow, you have already taken the first step. The key to make the next and final step is - to take your planner very seriously. Mapping a task on the planner is like making a promise to yourself, and this is the most effective way of assessing one’s reliability. I heard a beautiful saying somewhere which suits the context very well– “the first person you should learn to collaborate with is yourself.” Only if you can collaborate with yourself, you can collaborate with the world. This is how success is defined in this era of connectedness – its all about collaboration and keeping the minor-most promises.