(This article was originally featured in The Weekly Simplifier #11.)

by Shawn Tuttle

The Ideal Planning System

Every Sunday evening you take a half an hour to identify your goals, assess priorities, review your schedule, determine the next steps towards your goals, and develop your prioritized ToDo list. You create your weekly roadmap. Then, over the course of the week you review your plan each night, preparing for the next day. During the day, you complete a task, check it off your list, see what’s next, do it, check it off, etc.

Does this describe your weekly planning system? If it sounds great in theory, but doesn’t get practiced too often, know you are not alone. It’s like many good habits: even with the best intentions, practice seems to ebb and flow. Or perhaps you are inspired to do this for a few weeks and then it just fades off into memory. Sticking with this system seems especially tough (and is proportionately more useful!) if you have an irregular schedule.

It’s a powerful tool, when you use it. Understanding some of the principles that make this practice powerful, you can put together a system that works for you.

Which brings us back to Planning Time and Doing Time. Separating the two is key, and doing Planning Time right is key to accomplishing that. (In the article “Planning Time vs. Doing Time“, I referred to Planning Time as “Peak Brain Time” that is ideal for higher-brain activities.) I want to add a more experiential understanding of Planning Time for you to relate to.

The Planning Time Mindset

Rather than referring to planning per se, I’m referring to a mind that is calm, even if very active with ideas. I actually feel a more expansive sensation in the back of my head that lets me know I’m ready. Ideas tend to be of the “big picture” variety. Other characteristics include creativity, intuition, objective perspective, observation (vs. analyzing), aesthetic sensitivity. It’s the right brain being given space to express.

In contrast, the Doing Time mindset is primarily analytical, logical, and practical—the left brain keeping things on track.

Shedding Right vs. Left Stereotypes

The artist often lives in the right brain, shuns the left, and can be overwhelmed trying to function in the world. The left-brained person, the stereotypical businessperson, functions well in the world—though often sacrificing their peace of mind and sense of well-being. The two see each other as coming from different planets.

Rather than seeing these two ways of thinking as mutually exclusive, you can find the right balance, and with it, some peace of mind.

Herein lies the power of the Sunday night planning session and the nightly next-day review—they are dedicated to planning (right brain). Then the daily activities are dedicated to doing (left brain).

One of the primary culprits of an overwhelmed, stressed-out mind is jumping back and forth between Planning and Doing, i.e. right and left brain functions. With this understanding you can get creative. It doesn’t really matter when you do your Planning Time, the important thing is that you do it. While the night before or first thing in the morning are the most “logical” times to plan, maybe you can make a habit of arriving early to a daily appointment (like picking up the kids from school) and do it then.

The solution for one client when she felt herself feeling frantic was to remove herself from her home office, take her schedule book, go downtown to a café, have a latte, and get into Planning Mode. She’d do a modified daily plan and by the end of the latte she’s ready to return to her office with ToDo list in hand. (Notice the geographic separation of Planning and Doing.)

Going back and forth between the two modes is an almost guaranteed fast track to the Land of Overwhelm. Your planning system doesn’t need to be ideal, as long as it’s ideal for you–and as long as you do it!

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Shawn Tuttle is founder of Project Simplify.