Learn how to make plans correctly for the year, month, week and day

Keeping track of your to-do list or daily routine on a piece of paper is no longer very relevant, and especially not very convenient. A digital tool for tracking your tasks and plans may be the solution, but how can you find one that will fully meet your needs?

Luckily, many task scheduling apps offer comprehensive features that are often free and available for iOS and Android devices. We have selected 10 of the most optimal and convenient applications for planning your daily routine and tracking tasks, which are available for download in 2021.

Planning sequence

Daily plans and goals come from weekly plans and goals. Weekly plans and goals come from monthly plans and goals. And those, in turn, depend on plans and goals for the year. Therefore, the first thing you need to start with is making plans for the year.

Ps Sorry for such a tautology))

Read also:

Live with or without a plan | Pros and cons of both sides

Bonus: program for monitoring working time OfficeMETRika

A program designed to track working hours is perfect for managers of large corporations and companies with many branches. It will allow you to establish control over the employment of staff: statistics related to the activity of employees will quickly arrive on your PC automatically.

OfficeMETRICS features:

• Clear recording of the start/end of the working day, taking into account all breaks, smoke breaks, delays and other downtime
• Tracking all web resources that an employee visits, which gives an idea of ​​how much time is spent on entertainment and how much time is spent on work duties
• Information is provided in the form of tables and graphs that clearly demonstrate the activity of each person plus the entire team as a whole.

Monitoring the schedule will help establish discipline, identify unscrupulous performers, redistribute the workload between employees, calculate what losses the company incurs due to unauthorized downtime, and, based on the information received, carry out personnel reorganization. The program is easy to learn, has a menu in Russian and is fully implemented into the system in about a day.

Download time tracking software now

Works great on Windows 10, 8, 7, Vista, XP

How to make plans and goals for the Year

You need to take the preparation of an annual plan seriously. After all, the results of your efforts will determine every month, week and day.

Below I've outlined a series of steps that will help you identify your key objectives without leaving anything out.

Step #1. What didn't you achieve last year?

The first thing you need to do is strain your brain and identify what you could not achieve last year. It will be much easier for those who have summed up their results.

Example:

Last year my key goal was to move to another city. But since I didn’t do this, this goal is transferred to the next 356 days.

Step #2. Highlight the main areas of life

The main areas of life include: personal growth, career, family, health and finance.

So, let's go in order.

Personal growth

Personal growth is expressed in the constant improvement of a person. Therefore, here I advise you to focus on the following:

• Training in various skills. For example, learn to dance.
• Develop healthy habits such as reading daily.
• Eliminating bad habits. For me it's to stop biting my nails.
• Development of discipline.
• Expanding your general horizons.
• etc.

Career

It all depends on your field of activity.

If you are the head of a company, decide where you want to take it this year. How will you manage the company to bring your plans to life? When do you plan to start increasing market share and saving costs?

Read also:

How a beginner can make money on the Internet | 13 ways with and without attachments

Family

Yes, the top two areas are important in the life of every person, but because of this, one should not forget about the most valuable thing - family. In fact, many people are worried that they are spending too little time with their loved ones. By the way, this takes us back to step #1.

Schedule a long weekend with the kids, holidays, a surprise trip for your loved one, etc.

Health

Do not neglect such an important detail as maintaining your own health. Often the level of our success and happiness depends on it.

Finance

A common example is to outline a specific amount that you intend to earn in a year. You can also start investing, start donating to charity, increase your monthly income, and much more.

Step #3. Setting the goals themselves

After completing the previous steps, we proceed to the most important thing - setting specific tasks. Remember that this will set the direction for the entire year. Fix only the main and most significant tasks in the plan.

An example of my 10 goals for the year:

1. Move.
2. Organize my day so that I can devote time to work, sports, self-development and relaxation with my family.
3. Read 15 books on self-development.
4. Take at least 3 paid courses to develop in the field of internet marketing.
5. Write 50 quality articles yourself.
6. Reach 2000 visitors on the site per day.
7. Go on a trip outside of Russia with your family.
8. Switch to a healthy and balanced diet.
9. Build an athletic body.
10. Reach a monthly income of 50,000 rubles.

Please note that all these goals are related to the areas that I described above.

Step #4. Set deadlines for each goal

The deadline is the last step in planning, but it is a very valuable one. Deadlines stimulate acceleration and increased productivity. This will also help with future planning of the month, week and day.

Use the preposition "to" or a clear date:

• By June 1, 2021, I am buying a one-room apartment in Perm.
• On December 1, 2021, I reach 50,000 rubles in my monthly income.

Always visualize your dreams and vision for the future. Plan the year so that they manifest themselves as brightly as possible. It is worth looking at the plan for the year at least once a month - adding to it, making changes and remembering your goals.

Why is it important to make a plan?

If you, like I once did, believe that you don’t need a plan to work effectively, try, for the sake of experiment, writing down what you want to achieve and what you will do to achieve it. What did you get? Often these are scattered affairs, scraps of thoughts. Sometimes it’s complete confusion and inability to write even a few things. But even if you write a huge to-do list, will you be able to choose in a few seconds which things need to be done first, which ones can be postponed, and which ones can be crossed out altogether?

A plan allows you to bring order to your thoughts and is one of the ways to combat procrastination. One of the reasons why we put things off is a lack of understanding of what can be done now, including the difficulty of choosing tasks. When the thoughts “I need to do this, this, this and this” are spinning in your head, you can’t decide what to do and end your day sitting on the couch with a feeling of panic and that everything is getting out of control, that there is too much to do and you can’t cope.

How to Make Monthly Plans and Goals

Then it will be easier, since we have already completed the main task!

Splitting goals

In a few words, we will divide the annual goals into smaller ones.

“Even a journey of a thousand kilometers begins with one step”

Paraphrased quote from Lao Tzu

So, for example, moving to a new apartment can be divided into the following mini-goals:

• Earn money for moving.
• View advertisements and make your final choice.
• Assess your own budget
• Throw out all the trash and sell the excess furniture.
• Collect important documents.
• Select a moving date and place an order for a truck.
• Sort your things and start packing.
• Connect to the Internet at a new address.
• If you already have access to a new apartment, then go there and do the cleaning.
• Pack the rest: kitchen utensils, clothes, personal items.
• Disassemble the furniture in the new apartment, unpack things, interior items, household appliances, personal belongings.

Go through each of the 12 months

Each month has special days to focus on. These are various holidays, birthdays, anniversaries, etc.

January

January is the time when I personally take stock of the past year and plan a new one.

February

This month, except for February 23, there is nothing interesting. So throw yourself into your work.

March

The beginning of spring is always the time for subbotniks. Therefore, organize a general cleaning of your yard. Don't forget about March 8th.

April

Warm days come in April. Plan a hike in the forest or arrange a photo shoot.

May

May is the time to plan a vacation.

June

The weather allows, and therefore the time has come for street training and jogging.

July

The month when you can safely go on vacation and relax.

August

Time to do something new. Find a new hobby.

September

Autumn is the perfect time to start reading books.

October

A time of inspiration and creative revelation.

November

Dedicate this month to all areas at once. Do different things every week.

December

On the eve of the New Year, you need to buy gifts for loved ones.

Follow the same principles as when planning for the year, but add a few new details. Fix the main, most significant tasks in your monthly plan.

What are they for?

Planners are special programs that are installed on a digital device (smartphone, tablet, laptop, computer) and help organize your to-do list. They allow you to sort them into categories and set the execution time.

Any such service will become a personal pocket secretary that will intelligently organize your affairs and remind you of the meeting. It is especially convenient to have a common platform when working as a team. Everyone sees the range of their obligations and tasks in the overall system, so it is much easier to interact with the team within the project.

To successfully complete the planned application, the application alone will not be enough. You also need to have a clearly structured business management system and understand the principles of time management.

How to make plans and goals for the week

On Sunday evening or Monday morning, sit down at your desk to make plans for the coming week. Personally, I work better in the morning. To do this, I get up early and devote my free time to planning.

Some interesting things I can suggest are the following:

• Learn one new skill every week.
• Have a hell of a week.

If this interests you, here are two books worth reading: One Habit a Week and On the Edge. A week without self-pity."

When is the best time to plan your week?

Of course, you should focus on your schedule and feelings.

Some people prefer to plan on Friday afternoon, others choose one of the days off: Saturday or Sunday.

One thing I can say for sure: it’s better to plan your week before it starts. That is, not on Monday. This way you don’t have to waste time thinking when you can directly engage in completing tasks. And the feeling of being collected on Monday morning, if the plan is prepared in advance, can in itself increase your efficiency.

I’ve been planning on Sunday for a long time, but now I’ve postponed this process to Saturday. Now on Sunday you can give yourself a complete reboot, disconnecting from all work tasks.

How to make plans and goals for the day

People are divided into two types. Those who plan the night before. And those who prefer to do it in the morning. I belong to the second type. I advise you to experiment and see what suits you best.

Anyone can make a rough plan for the next year, everyone is able to plan it once a month, many are able to distribute time over the next week, but most fail in planning each day.

“Either you control the day, or the day controls you”

Jim Rohn

It sounds very “pop”, but it’s true.

If you can’t make plans for a year, month, or day, write to me at [email protected] I will be happy to give some recommendations and help you make plans absolutely free.

Basic rules for planning your day

• Make it a routine. Start each day by planning your next day.
• Set your priorities. This can be done in the letter ABC way, where A is the important tasks that need to be completed first; B – also significant goals, but they can be moved; C – unimportant tasks that can be started if there is free time left.
• Don't forget to take time to rest.
• Don't overwhelm yourself with so much work that you can't handle.
• Take stock at the end of each day. Analyze your successes and failures.
• Don't worry if things don't go according to plan.

A typical day for Dwayne Johnson

Do you want examples? Receive.

1. The Rock's day begins at 4:00. The first thing he does in the morning is half an hour of cardio. His goal is to burn 200 calories.
2. Then comes the first meal.
3. Next comes the second strength training.
4. Second meal.
5. If it's a shooting day, then he goes to shoot.
6. Meal No. 3.

Here's my day's plan:

Example of plans and goals for the day

Do you need to plan your day hour by hour?

I used to be a huge proponent of having my day planned down to the minute. I've been practicing this technique for about a year now, but recently I ran into a problem.

The fact is that when I set aside a certain amount of time for a task, be it writing an article - 2 hours, I feel like I’m pushing myself into limits. I set myself a goal: during this time I need to write ¼ of the article. And this makes it difficult to fully concentrate on the task.

I began to delve into myself and realized that creativity does not require a time frame. For creative people, productivity depends on their mood and motivation. And my work partly consists of creativity and routine tasks. Frameworks are needed precisely for these routine tasks, but not for creativity.

From this follows the conclusion:

If you are a creative person, don't waste time fighting the clock - it's a battle you can't win. However, if your activity is more related to performing routine tasks, then feel free to use the “hourly schedule of the day” technique.

Three ways to create a task list

If you just chaotically write down everything on a list, it will more likely confuse you than help you get more done. Therefore, we propose to approach the issue systematically.

Mind maps

Mind maps were invented by English psychologist Tony Buzan. This technique is described in detail in his book Super Thinking. Externally, the map is a branching diagram.

An example of a mind map with a plan of tasks for the day.

How to write daily tasks in a mind map:

1. Place the date in the center of the paper.
2. From it, draw branches with separate categories of cases. These can be work, personal, social and family matters. Or use a breakdown based on urgency and importance, as in the Eisenhower Matrix.
3. Indicate specific cases in each category, with sub-items if necessary. But you shouldn’t get too carried away with the details, otherwise you will get confused.

Tasks can be explained with notes, deadlines for their implementation can be indicated, and funny illustrations can be created. If you don't like to draw by hand, dozens of special services will come to the rescue, for example, Mind42, Coggle, MindMeister or iMindMap.

On such cards it is convenient to mark completed tasks and add new ones. They give a visual representation of the volume of tasks for the day and allow you to see the big picture.

However, this method has disadvantages: mind maps do not combine well with rigid planning and time sequence of events. In addition, they cannot indicate the priority of tasks, which means you always risk wasting time on not the most useful things. If prioritizing is important to you, try the following technique.

Performance-based planning

This technique is based on the classic to do list, only slightly supplemented and modified. The main feature of results-oriented planning is that the formulation of the task in the list should answer the question: “What to do?” and reflect the desired result.

For example, a new client needs to be sent a commercial proposal.
This task should be written down as “prepare and send the proposal to Ivan Ivanovich”, and not just “commercial proposal”, “prepare documents” or other vague wording. Example of a table with tasks.

Tasks are written down in random order, without regard to their urgency or importance. But different categories of tasks are highlighted in colors:

• especially important and urgent - red;
• less priority - green;
• those that can/should be delegated are yellow;
• those that in principle should be made, but not necessarily today, are blue.

This will allow you to immediately see what is most urgent and important, which means that this is where you should start. As soon as the job is done, a tick is placed in front of it on the sign. Or you can simply cross the task off the list.

The only disadvantage of this method is that tasks are not ranked by deadlines, and there is a risk of missing deadlines. Then it would be better for you to use the third method.

Rigid-flexible planning

As a rule, some tasks in the daily routine are time-bound (these are rigid tasks), while others are not. A rigid-flexible planning methodology helps to conveniently combine these two types of cases.

How to work with the table:

1. In the column on the left, write down your “hard” tasks with a time stamp.

2. On the right - record things that are not tied to an exact deadline.

3. For important and voluminous tasks in the second column, indicate how much time it will take to complete them.
An example of a table for rigid-flexible planning.

It is advisable that “hard” and “important flexible” tasks take up no more than 50-60% of the day. The remaining hours are a reserve for less important matters and unforeseen circumstances. As in the previous method, high-priority plan items can be highlighted in color for clarity, and completed ones can be crossed out.

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Target Sources

The main source of goals for the year is our personal meaning in life . If we have compiled it, it will be much easier for us in the future: to determine what is valuable to us in the year and what to discard. Or we will start from the idea of ​​what we want to achieve in 5 years. I give abbreviated examples.

My draft version of the personal meaning of life: to figure out “Who am I?” and where I am. Goals for the year: read books on psychology, philosophy, religion. Expand the “I” – unusual behavior, roles, habits, self-image, travel.

If we have determined our purpose, global goals, personal mission or values, we take them into account and plan goals that bring them closer or realize them. If the plan doesn’t work for them, then either the plan is bullshit or global goals.

My purpose: to help others achieve their goals. Goals for the year: creating a vision and implementing the project.

Global goal: to realize oneself as an entrepreneur in business. Diversified development. Goals for the year: work on website development, gathering a team, learning to write and edit articles.

Values: family, development, novelty, peace of mind, health. Goals for the year: try the unknown, step to the next level, improve yourself in relationships.

Sources of goals for planning your life.

The third source for life planning is our Wishlist :

1. Dreams: learn to draw, sing.
2. I have long wanted to: repeat a one-arm pull-up, weigh 63 kg, bend a spoon, visit Chile.
3. Vision of an ideal day 12/20/2025: successful company, Spanish language, sports, vocals, family and children.
4. List of 100 wishes: a bunch of goals for, family and future role in it.
5. Life balance wheel: I fill all sectors to 9-10. I've been using it for a long time, I've already cleaned out the main stuff.

The fourth geyser is “I don’t want” reformulated into “I want”:

I'm angry that I have little energy ⟶ Explore your energy. Close old mini-goals ⟶ Make cheesecake. Crafts from napkins.