Think about a week that you really brought your “A” game to the office. 

You were on time, fully present and prepared for all your meetings.  You closed the deals you were working on.  You executed with excellence.  Not only this, but you had time to think, to plan, to exercise, and you were home in time for dinner!  Did I mention email?  Yes, you were even caught up on all email correspondence.  Not just your work email, but your Linkedin, Facebook, and personal email accounts.

Even as I type this, I am thinking “Yeah, right!”  I was tracking with my own exercise, until I got to that email part.  It’s time for a coaches’ confessional:  I am really struggling to keep up with my email inboxes.  I have to admit that email communication is one of my weaker disciplines.

So if I were coaching me, what questions would I ask?  What direction would I take myself in this situation? 

The first place I would start is with my Perfect Week.  The Perfect Week is an exercise we coach clients through to help them visualize what a week filled with High Payoff Activities from their Life Plans and Business Plans would look like.  We then have them add the Low Payoff Activities which cannot at this time be delegated or dropped.  We also coach them to schedule no more than 70% of their time, leaving room for the unplanned opportunities and challenges that creep into all of our days.

This is just what my assistant Lynne and I did last week.  We went back to my Perfect Week to make sure it is synchronizing with my real schedule. 

In years past I had two times blocked out each day for emails and returning phone calls.  Somehow, I had lost that discipline.  The good news is that, by doing this exercise, we recaptured that discipline, and Lynne is already scheduling these times back into my days.  I am confident this will help me to keep my inboxes managed and my stress level down.

I know this has worked for me, and I believe it could help you as well.  Please feel free to contact us at info@buildingchampions.com if you want a Perfect Week Time Blocking template.

Cheers,

But what I could miss is that I was scheduled to be at my daughter’s ballet performance on the evening of the 10^th, and that the following week, I am to make two major presentations.  Not to mention, this all comes after three very full weeks of meetings. 

The old me would have made a commitment to that date without assessing how it would impact me and those around me during that larger period of time.  Outlook was not good enough.

The solution was to go back to a paper tool. 

About 12 years ago, I found the Franklin Covey Yearly Fold Out Calendar.  This tool allows you to put all of the major events for the year onto one sheet of paper.  You can see your vacations, business trips, important meetings, birthdays, anniversaries, project due dates and any other key commitments that you are to make.  You can use your Life Plan and your Business Plan to help you fill it in.

The calendar can then be color-coded to show you at a glance how you are spending your days.  For example, on my calendar we use yellow for coaching days, pink for business travel, blue for ON-Time, orange for business development, and green for vacation time.  This helps me to make better decisions as I can see how I am investing my time over longer periods.

When you see the whole picture — the weeks before and after the date in question — you are better equipped to count the cost and make an informed decision. 

A few years back, I was coaching my friend Mike Hyatt through this tool.  As Mike will often do, he took a great idea and made it even better.  He created an Excel Yearly Calendar, an electronic version which we now use here at Building Champions.  Mike and I gave it away to our Experience attendees earlier this year and we want to offer it to you now.

Send us an email if you’d like a copy of the calendar.

I hope this helps you to make better decisions in the year ahead!

What my team and I get to do each and every day is to help business professionals improve their thinking, their abilities and their actions.  We walk our clientele through a model we call the Core Four, which is comprised of four critical elements:  Life Planning, Vision, Business Planning and Priority Management.

When we begin our journey with a new client, the Life Plan comes first.

I believe Life Planning is not just a strategy for life, but also for business.  Think about it for a moment.  What causes a huge percentage of professionals to crash and burn, or to just perform at mediocre levels?

Our team has coached thousands of professionals from a variety of industries over the years.  In that time, we have observed that often the things in life are what take us out professionally.  Illness, broken marriages, parenting challenges, financial crises, spiritual dilemmas, and other types of hurts cause us to lose our passion or our ability to focus.  Ultimately, this will hinder our career performance.

If you agree with me on this, then you can see how Life Planning — a process that starts with you dedicating an entire day to planning your life — can actually aid you professionally.

I believe that there is an even greater reason to build a Life Plan.  If reviewed regularly, it will change the big and little decisions you make each and every day.  If you make better decisions every day, you will have better days, better weeks, better months, better years….and that makes for a better life.  I am not saying that you will avoid the pain or struggles in life if you have a Life Plan.  I am saying that you will be able to make better, more proactive and intentional decisions in your days which will enable you to be more proactive and intentional in life.

We have so many things coming at us, both good and bad…..email, television, the news, sports, charity requests, blogs, Facebook, and now Tweets.  I could go on and on.  My point is that very few people have an abundance of time or energy to think each day about where their lives are going, who they or their kids are becoming, how they are impacting those around them or how they are growing.

A day devoted to building a plan for your life will equip you with what is needed to start living a more proactive and intentional life.  As we head into the final weeks of the year, my challenge to you is to consider more than just production goals or profit margins for the next year.  Years go by too fast to stop there.  Build your Life Plan.

Here are your two Action Plans:

1. Click here to request your Life Planning Tool
2. Schedule a full day before the end of this year to go somewhere special and build your own Life Plan.  If you already have a Life Plan, schedule a day to update and review it.

I’ll provide more insight into the HOW of Life Planning in the coming weeks.

I cannot tell you how many testimonials we’ve received at Building Champions about how this one day has radically changed people’s lives.  Not only have I seen it changes the lives of others, I have seen it change my own.

I thought about calling this entry “A Day That CAN Change Your Life,” but I am convinced that a day spent on Life Planning is a day that WILL change your life!

Stop the reactive and unintentional,

Need more help creating your Life Plan?  Visit our website for additional tools and resources.