New Year’s Resolution: Daily Planning

photo courtesy of Visit Milwaukee

The New Year is at the same time a bit of a mystery and an enticing possibility.  We have completed the old year even if there are a few things still hanging on from that period.  We are gearing up for the exciting next twelve months.  There is an aura of excitement over the unknown.

If you are like most people, you are making, or have made, your high level plans for 2016.  Those plans would be for the big things you see or hope for in your 2016.  Maybe they include the next vacation location or seeing a child off to a particular college.  Maybe you feel you are due for a different/newer vehicle in 2016.  Maybe you are even thinking of searching out a ‘better job’ which might mean simply a different boss, or better pay or even a position in a different city.

It is easier for most of us to make these high level plans than it is to make the detailed plans that week-by-week will get you to the place your high level plan calls for, and you are not alone.   Too often it is easier to dream the big dream than it is to deal with the realities that each day and each week bring with them.

We create problems for ourselves if we only do the big dreaming and never quite get down to the plan for today and tomorrow and next week.  We too often fall victim to the excitement and joy of the big plans instead of dealing with the day-to-day.

It is wonderful to have the big plan…but it is essential to have that daily plan, that plan that gets you from Monday to Friday with the accomplishments of each day upon which to build.   We need both the dream of the future as well as the plan for today and for this week and for this month.  And, we need for those to be properly aligned with one and other.  Today comes before next month.  And next month comes before the vacation you have planned.

Plans are important so long as they are workable.  Planning has to include a decided dose of reality if it is to be a successful plan.  We put twelve months into last year; each of the days came in the order they were shown on the calendar.  In order to be successful for the year, we need to string a lot of successful days together.  That sounds like a tough task but it is much easier since we can deal with today without worrying about next week or next month.

If we have a bad today, we can plan for a better tomorrow.  We have a whole New Year ahead of us, but we are in much better shape if we take that New Year one day at a time and get the most possible from each day.

Tom Krist, CEO