Planning and Writing it Down

I have completed many executive coaching assignments with business owners, managers and supervisors and one of the predominant challenges they have is balancing reactive and demanding workloads with being planned and forward-thinking. The observed behaviour follows similar patterns:

• Not responding to calls and emails in a timely manner;
• Forgetting critical tasks that delay projects, cause cost blow-outs and create dissatisfied clients;
• Neglecting their team members;
• Not delegating effectively;
• Internally rushed and bouncing from one urgent item to another.

I could go on... Two foundational habits that require changing are those of taking time to plan and writing stuff down. I have found, (and what I coach others in) is that the time invested in planning my day and week comes back at least fourfold, i.e., if I invest 15 minutes at the start of the day to plan it I generally get at least an hour back. Then, if I write everything down and don't rely on my memory, I avoid all manner of negative outcomes—also saving time in the process. Remember: whatever time you invest in being better organised always comes back in a manner greater than the initial investment.