How To Plan Your Life Without Losing Your Soul

Planning is the best way to build a life without stress. Start small with sustainable goals and regain control of your days.

Maybe it is because in Brazil summer is at the end of the year, but I associate the season with restarts.

The cold weather from December does not give me the same awesome feeling that I have when temperatures are higher. It makes me want to do new things and improve.

This year even more than before since I am home and life is taking another shape for me.

Even though I am far and away from “business-as-usual”, I back to planning according to my possibilities and I love it!

Planning is the best way to build a life without stress. #coaching #MindfulPlanning Click To Tweet

What is planning?

The definition of planning is “the process of making plans for something“.

Maybe the word “process” is what catches my attention and raises my curiosity. I simply love planning.

What I love most about it is taking into consideration all different possibilities to an event or project. I like working on solutions for most common and known issues.

Of course that you can never say that something will go perfectly. But good planning decreases the chances of failure.

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For some, planning is only related to vacation and retirement.

But to live a life without stress, you need planning.

You don’t have to (and shouldn’t) become a slave to your schedule. We cannot control everything.

Still, it cannot be used as an excuse to live in chaos.

What is there to plan?

The whole idea of planning can go as far as you want.

Some things are obvious and some you may not even call planning. However, anything that needs to fit a schedule has to be planned.

For example: setting the alarm clock. Deciding what time you should get out of bed requires planning if you want to succeed with your activities timely.

Let’s say you need to leave home at 7 AM to take the kids to school.

Or at least, they need to be ready at 7 AM because that is the time when they are picked up.

Maybe you will go to work afterwards, or you will stay home to fulfill your endless to-do list.

Those who don’t have kids might need to leave home at the same time to go to class, work or other activity.

Anyways, you need to make sure certain tasks are performed before 7 AM to start your day right.

Listing and Measuring

The first step you’ll have to do is listing everything that needs to be done before 7 AM.

From the moment you wake up until 6:59 AM, what do you normally do? And even more important: how much time do you need to do all these things?

If you are the kind of person who says that everything lasts 5 minutes, I’d start using a stopwatch if I were you.

Not only you’re underestimating your responsibilities, but you probably need to work yourself, as well.

Chances are you have a lot of stress on your day just because your schedule is not realistic.

So, if you aren’t sure about the duration of a task, set a stopwatch (most mobiles have this option) and measure it.

If you feel you need help, you can join a support group or hire a coach.

Based on your list:

At what time do you need to wake up to finish everything on time?
Is 6 AM more than enough?
Or would 5 AM be better?

List, measure, reassess, prepare and plan your life. #coaching #MindfulPlanning Click To Tweet

Reassessing

Morning people might even consider waking up before 5 AM to fulfill their list. If 4:30 AM is not an option for you (as it is not for me either), maybe you need to re-evaluate your priorities.

Do you really need to do everything before 7 AM? From your list, what are the things that you can do the day before, for example?

One habit I learned from my mom was picking my clothes the evening before.

It has always saved me a lot of time and avoided stress.

I check the weather forecast for the following day, try all outfits I have in mind, choose shoes, Bijoux, everything.

My bag is organized the day before too.

I also check the coffee machine and make sure the ingredients for breakfast are at hand.

The amount of time it saves is priceless.

Read also these posts about planning:

Preparation

Now that you revised your priorities and cleaned up your list a little bit, it is time to get things done.

At about an hour before going to bed, go through your list.

What are the things marked as to be done the day before? If you need extra time to unwind, maybe you should think about doing this exercise right after you get home instead.

When I arrive home from work/training, I start not only to put away the things from the day, but also organized my bags for the day after.

It is much faster this way. I am still active when I get home. Once I have the chance to sit down and relax (behind my computer), I do not have to worry about organization anymore.

I understand that those with kids have different priorities since the little ones need to be taken care of first.

But try to get them involved as well. Girls love to choose their own clothes.

Build the habit of getting things organized in advance and they will be the best allies you can ever imagine.