Your evenings are magical. You get to relax and recharge. You can also plan your perfect day and have a better day tomorrow.
Consider these ideas for effective planning at night and following through with your plan:
1. Have clear goals.
What do you want to accomplish tomorrow? You can’t make effective plans until you know what you’re trying to do. If you don’t know what your goals are in the short and long term, set aside time and get clear on your goals.
2. Set aside time each night to plan the next day.
Get into the habit of each evening, around the same time, to plan out what you’re going to do the following day. Do this with the same regularity as brushing your teeth.
3. Prioritize.
To be successful is essential to prioritize your activities. Time is your most important resource, so it’s important to maximize how you use your time. There’s a limit to how much you can accomplish each day. Ensure that you’re getting the most important things accomplished.
You can determine the priority of a task based on your goals.
- Ideally, your list will be quite short. If you have 10 things on your list, what are the minimally important things? Work on completing your list by sticking to the most important things.
- You can make another list of things you want to accomplish later, your wish list. You can work on this list after the priority items on the first list are accomplished.
4. Make your decisions count
At night it’s easy to decide that you’re going to the gym tomorrow. It’s easy to decide that you’re going to eat healthier. It’s during the day that you struggle to make wise decisions.
- How many times have you planned on going to the gym at certain time, only to talk yourself out of it when the time came?
- The solution is to make as few decisions as possible during the day. Make your decisions at night and then just focus your energy on executing during the day. Avoid giving yourself the opportunity to change your mind. Just believe that you made the right choice the night before.
5. You can defeat procrastination.
You made good decisions last night. You can begin your day knowing what to do next. When you prioritize your activities, you can be confident that you’re spending your time well.
We have a limited amount of brain power every day for making decisions. We get decision fatigue. Help yourself by making decisions when you are at your best. When you are a night person, make your decisions when your decision-making powers are at their best, at night. You know what is best for you. You will know what you should eat tomorrow to be at your best. You will plan to the gym, read a chapter of a book you picked, or meditate for 20 minutes.
Make your plan at night and then focus on executing it. Since you already made your decisions the day before, you can avoid making last-minute decisions that will not serve you well. You already thought about them and made your decisions. There’s no reason to re-negotiate them.
Sit down and make a plan each night for the following day. Resolve to stick to the plan the next day. You’ll love the results!
To help you set an evening routine that helps you have better days, get my free Relax and Recharge Guide.