Why It’s Important to Plan Your Day the Night Before

How often do you plan in advance?

Do you plan monthly?

Do you plan weekly?

Do you plan daily?

For all of my clients I always tell them that whatever way they plan, it is vital that they plan their day the night before?

This is something that we discussed in depth at our recent Discovery Day.

Planning your day the night before is one of the most underrated productivity techniques.

Most of us have probably heard this, but do we actually do it?

Before, I used to think that it’s better to plan your day ahead in the morning.

But, what I found out is that it’s more effective to do it the night before.

Here are the reasons why:

1. You will have the most clarity: When you plan the night before, you can look at your day and strategically calculate how it will turn out.

2. You will sleep soundly: One technique you can use is to jot down every single task you need to accomplish and when you don’t have anything in your mind, you’ll sleep much better. Strangely, my brain will try to resolve any problem overnight.

I don’t know how this happens, but I often have the solution in mind the next morning when I wake up.

Every time I plan my day the night before, I get a sense of purpose when I wake up.

Invariably, I know what to do and there’s no need to think about the next step, because I already have it planned out. I just simply get going and be productive after doing my morning routine.

For the most part, mornings can be very unpredictable and you can easily get distracted by one emergency after another.

Before you know it, you’re adding stuff to your list and not knowing what you were supposed to be focusing on because you didn’t plan it the night before.

This is why it’s important. When things are out of control, you can always circle back to your original plan and focus your energy to the next steps you need to do for the rest of the day.

I could go on all day discussing ways to become more productive.

The good news for you is that we will cover all of the above at our next Discovery Day.

If you’d like more information on our next Discovery Day drop me at dean@entrepreneursuccess.ie and I’ll give you all the information.

Places are filling up quickly so if you’re interested let me know ASAP!

All the best

Dean

How Do You Deal with Distractions?

I want to share something with you that we discussed at our recent Discovery Day.

It is something that faces business owners every single day.

As a Business Owner some of the key challenges that we struggle with everyday are productivity, time management, cashflow, strategy implementation and outsourcing to name but a few.

So today I want to talk about Productivity and Distractions.

The kryptonite of productivity is distractions.

In the modern world that we now live in, we are exposed to lots of daily distractions that can reduce our productivity.

I remember when I was reading an article that led me to watch a YouTube video, watched another video, and before I knew it, I lost 30 minutes of my working time.

Compared to some, it’s not that bad. I’ve seen people get distracted with text messages, push notifications, and phone calls that derail them.

Once you know about all of the distractions that we are faced it you can then meet them head on!

Now, the question is, how can you deal with distractions?

One thing I do is to set up logistics before distractions take place.

To simply put it, you can prevent distractions that grab your attention.

My top three ways of preventing distractions are:

1 – Set three main objectives every day.

2 – Plan your time in 30 minute increments to keep focus

3 – Increase Your Energy Levels

By setting three main objectives it will give you extreme focus throughout the day.

You can then break this down even further and plan these objectives into 30 minute increments in order to achieve them.

When it comes to energy, we are more vulnerable to distractions when we have low energy levels.

On the one hand, when we feel sub-optimal that’s when we easily get distracted. On the other hand, when you are energized, you are less likely to be distracted.

I could go on all day discussing how you can address distractions and increase productivity.

The good news for you is that we cover all of the above at our next Discovery Day.

If you’d like more information on our next Discovery Day drop me at dean@entrepreneursuccess.ie and I’ll give you all the information.

Places are filling up quickly so if you’re interested let me know ASAP!

All the best

Dean

Why You Need a Break to be More Productive!

​​Do you think that by working every hour under the sun you’ll be more productive?

If you answer yes to this then you are wrong!​​

It’s a common belief that if we work longer, we achieve more.

For years, I believed that breaks were a waste of time and if I didn’t work most of my waking hours then I wouldn’t be productive. But all of it was a myth.

In fact, taking a break is the key to productivity. Taking a break in-between work is a must to regain focus and to allow your body and brain to rest. The more often you take breaks, the more productive you get.

You start by thinking of your work as taking multiple sprints than a one big marathon. Work in sprints mean you work hard and give all you’ve got for short periods of time.

In between sprints, you can take recovery breaks to replenish your energy. Therefore, you are either fully engaged or not doing anything at all.

The best way to do this is to divide your time in 30-minute increments using the Productivity Planner.

I have incorporated this method into my workday and it has worked wonders.

By tracking my time in 30-minute increments using the Productivity Planner it has allowed me to see the areas:

– Where I am spending my time

– Where I am wasting my time

– Where I should be spending more time

By tracking and understanding my time using the Productivity Planner it has allowed me focus on areas that help grow my business.

If you want a copy of our new Q2 Productivity Planner, email me at dean@entrepreneursuccess.ie and i’ll send you a copy