Law 5 Daily planning leverages time through increased focus.

Main Idea
If you will just take 10- to 15-minutes every day to plan your day,
everyone you know will be amazed at how much you are able to
achieve with your life.

Supporting Ideas
Common excuses for failing to plan time include:
1. I don’t have time to plan.
2. I already know what I need to do.
3. Planning doesn’t work. I have too many interruptions.
4. I feel tied down with long "To Do" lists.
5. I don’t know how to plan effectively.

In reality, there is not one person on earth who cannot find
15-minutes a day to sit down and plan out their next day. To do
this:
1. Find a place where you can be uninterrupted.
2. Review your long-range objectives.
3. Be realistic in the amount of free time you’ll have available.
4. Set specific daily goals for tasks.
5. Tray and anticipate any obstacles that will come up.
6. Prioritize your daily tasks.

That’s all you need to do to plan your day and increase your total
effectiveness by a large and measurable degree. You can later
add refinements such as using planning diaries or whatever suits
your personal style, but the essence of the daily planning session
is summed up above.

Your daily planning should also include time for reflecting on two questions:
1. What are your highest priorities in life?
2. Of those priorities, what do you value the most?

You can further refine and improve your daily planning session
by creating a meaningful prioritized daily task list by:
1. Making a list of everything you would like to accomplish that
day, including tasks that are not urgent.
2. Assign a value to each item on the list, with an "A" for
something vital, a "B" for something important and a "C" for
something relatively trivial.
3. Give a numerical value to each item on your A-list. Then do
the same for your B-list and your C-list.

You now have a prioritized list that specifies which tasks are
worth finishing first. You can the focus on your A-1 until that’s
achieved, and then move on to your A-2 and so on.

You can further refine your planning system by using integrated
planning tools which include space for all categories, by adding
financial record storage and so on. However, these
embellishments are simply enhancers, and the greatest single
gain in productivity will come from starting to plan your day each
day regardless of the exact accessories used.


- Hyrum Smith The 10 Natural Laws of Successful Time and Life Management

Key Thoughts
‘‘The more time we spend on planning a project, the less total
time is required for it. Don’t let today’s busy work crowd planning
time out of your schedule.’’
-- Edwin Bliss