It’s the end of summer, a weekend, or vacation, and you feel like you didn’t really enjoy it, or you missed it. Don’t you hate that feeling? There is a way around it and its taken me years to figure out a trick. We now use it for everything from summer to trips to weekends. I even use it everyday to plan my days. Plan for success to get the most out of anything by starting with the end in mind. That applies to how you spend time as well as cleaning or organizing.
When this is over, What made it good?
Simple question- great idea. You may have heard of the exercise of thinking about your obituary or deathbed and thinking what you want to be remembered for, or what you want to have accomplished. This is the same principle. Whether its a vacation, a weekend, or even a regular day, think about the end of it and review what you want to have accomplished in that time. Think about how you will feel if each thing doesn’t happen. Will you feel bad that you didn’t get to movie, or clean a closet, or pay your bills? List the things that you will feel bad about if they don’t happen. Plan for success by ordering them by what is most important to you to get done.
Plan for Success – Create a list
If the things you want to get done are for a short period of time, a checklist will probably work. Checklists help me feel good about what I have accomplished and remind me what is left to do. Remember the trick of “eating the frog first”. If the worst thing you have to do in a day is eat a frog, eat the frog first, then everything else will be easier. This holds true for size of tasks too. Do the harder tasks first, so if you start running out of energy, you don’t need to muster a lot to get the next job done. Also, let’s be honest, it easier to come up with an excuse not to do something if it’s time consuming or difficult, so get those done first.
Plan for Success – List Action Steps
If it’s a big time period, or a project with steps, get them listed. For example, if you really want to go on vacation next summer, there are several steps in the process like making reservations for travel, lodging and events, asking for time off, buying a new swimsuit or other clothes, planning pet-sitting, etc. Make a list of the sites you want to see and plan when you want to do them on the trip. Will you need to make reservations? Do you have a back-up plan for weather?
Say you are going home for the holidays. Who do you most want to see? When will they be available? Have last minute gifts to purchase? Make a plan.
Plan for Success – Get Steps on the Calendar
Planning and dreaming are fine, but for any good plan to work, get it on the calendar. Making last minute decisions tend to be expensive, in time, money, and energy. If you want to paint a room, its a good idea to get the paint and equipment before your room painting day. Plan to get the good seats for the concert by finding out when they go on sale and putting that on the calendar.
LifeSkill Secrets recommends trying this plan with a day or weekend. Then build up to bigger things. But hey, there’s still a lot of summer left so what do you want to have done before summer is over? Plan for success- When summer is over, what made it good?
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