15 Minutes at the End of the Day

Planning.

15 Minutes at the End of the Day.

Finish your workday with taking 15 minutes to make a to do list for the next day. You will sleep so much better if you make this list instead of going to bed worried "What do I have to do tomorrow?".

I just make a list of everything I would like to do or everything that I didn't get done during the day. I don't worry about limiting it; I feel better if I get everything out and know that it is written down somewhere.

I may peruse the list when I am done and highlight a couple biggies that have to be done that next day no matter what. And those top items are a bid a promised a client, sending out an invoice, making a bank deposit. I try to make sure that I do a money based task each day to keep the money rolling in. It is soo easy to get bogged down by busy tasks like answering e-mails - which are important - but not more important than running a charge, depositing a check in the bank or sending out an invoice.

As I write this to do list each night, I find that some items are moved to a "future" list and taken off of my "daily" list. I put this future list at the back of my monthly planner (I use the Franklin Covey Planner - wire bound - one notebook for each month with 2 pages per day - more on this on a future blog). I keep this in the monthly planner so I don't loose site of them and make sure I review them monthly and they get moved to the next month or in a project binder.

Bottom Line: Spend the last 15 minutes of your business day writing down your "tomorrow list" so it's out of your head and written down - you will sleep better !