Planning is one of the most important project management and time management

techniques. Planning is preparing a sequence of action steps to achieve some specific goal.
If you do it effectively, you can reduce much the necessary time and effort of achieving the
goal.

A plan is like a map. When following a plan, you can always see how much you have
progressed towards your project goal and how far you are from your destination. Knowing
where you are is essential for making good decisions on where to go or what to do next.

One more reason why you need planning is again the 80/20 Rule. It is well established that
for unstructured activities 80 percent of the effort give less than 20 percent of the valuable
outcome. You either spend much time on deciding what to do next, or you are taking many
unnecessary, unfocused, and inefficient steps.

Planning is also crucial for meeting your needs during each action step with your time,
money, or other resources. With careful planning you often can see if at some point you are
likely to face a problem. It is much easier to adjust your plan to avoid or smoothen a
coming crisis, rather than to deal with the crisis when it comes unexpected.

How to write an action plan

When writing an action plan to achieve a particular goal or outcome, you can get much help
from the following steps.
 Clarify your goal. Can you get a visual picture of the expected outcome? How can
you see if you have reached your destination? What does make your goal
measurable? What constraints do you have, like the limits on time, money, or other
resources.
 Write a list of actions. Write down all actions you may need to take to achieve
your goal. At this step focus on generating and writing as many different options
and ideas as possible. Take a sheet of paper and write more and more ideas, just as
they come to your mind. While you are doing this, try not to judge or analyze.
 Analyze, prioritize, and prune. Look at your list of actions. What are the
absolutely necessary and effective steps to achieve your goal? Mark them somehow.
After that, what action items can be dropped from in the plan without significant
consequences for the outcome. Cross them out.
 Organize your list into a plan. Decide on the order of your action steps. Start from
looking at your marked key actions. For each action, what other steps should be
completed before that action? Rearrange your actions and ideas into a sequence of
ordered action steps. Finally, look at your plan once again. Are there any ways to
simplify it even more?
 Monitor the execution of your plan and review the plan regularly. How much
have you progressed towards your goal by now? What new information you have
got? Use this information to further adjust and optimize your plan.

Personal Time Management Guide

Have you been trying to improve your time management skills or overall personal
effectiveness? Do you feel like you are still missing some key details? If so, we've got
something for you.
This personal time management guide is dedicated to building a stronger foundation for
your success. One skill at a time.
Each article or section below is an important building block you can put into your
foundation right now. Take one of the pages and read it: you will gain the key insights and
practical tips for one of the core areas of higher personal effectiveness. Take another page

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and do the same. Each article will move you one step forward in something that could be
undermining your performance today.
That something could be your skills and abilities to
 set priorities and manage your time to meet deadlines,
 set and achieve goals,
 effectively organize your daily actions,
 make smarter decisions faster,
 uncover better options,
 work in a team or build one,
 prevent burnout,

or some of the many other aspects of personal time management, with their related
problems and solutions. If you don't see directly what you are looking for, you can also
search through all our pages.
Below you can go through short summaries of the key sections of this site. Of course, you
may want to start from the time management topic that feels most pressing to you today.
Yet, do not narrow your vision too much: pay attention to other related subjects and
resources here as well. Your main source of problems or your major breakthrough may still
be hiding in your blind spot.
Thank you for stopping by.
Are you struggling to find time to learn time management?
Just using your driving or exercising time smarter may be enough to learn all the
time management principles and techniques you ever need.
Personal goal setting and time management. What is your definition of success?
A solid personal goal setting system is the key to effective time management and
life planning. Setting personal goals wisely, you get a sense of achievement, sustain
motivation, and reduce stress.
Personal time management skills and techniques
Time management lessons with an in-depth discussion of the important time
management skills, techniques, and activities.
Decision making skills and techniques guide
Good decision making skills is the foundation for life and time management skills.
Information on decision making skills and techniques with links to related decision
making tips and articles.
How to eliminate procrastination and laziness
Ability to eliminate procrastination and laziness is among the most important time
management skills to learn. Identify your causes and reasons for procrastination and
start overcoming it now.
Inspirational and motivational quotes on time management and goal setting
Famous inspirational and motivational quotes related to personal time management
and goal setting.
A personal digital assistant ( PDA ) versus other time management tools
Advantages of a portable hand held personal digital assistant, or PDA, compared to
paper notes or other personal time management tools.
Practical time management tips
Time management tips give bite size chunks of practical advice on how to make
your personal time management system work. Tips on prioritizing, planning,
scheduling, time logs, productivity, and so on.
Team work and team building essentials
Good understanding of team work and team building are critical for your business
success or corporate office career. Tips and insights into team work and team
building principles and activities.
Effective meeting basics
 More effective meetings waste less time and bring better results for you and your
organization. Here are the key aspects in improving your meetings.
Stress management essentials
Introduction to stress management. Critical connections between stress management
and time management.
Are you at risk of burnout syndrome?
Recognize the risks and causes of burnout syndrome. You are much better off
preventing burnout now than putting your life back together later.
Build coping skills for overcoming life's challenges
Well-developed coping skills help you maintain control and do the best that could
be done when faced with outstanding challenges.