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Finding the Balance in Our Busy Lives

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This Can Be Hard to Do

I was asked to write an article for the July edition of Niccie Kliegl’s As For Me and My House Magazine. This online magazine features articles focused on House, Marriage, Parenting, Finances, Health, and Community. I’ve written three previous articles—one on finance and two on houses—which fit well with my construction-focused business.

But this time, I was asked to write about marriage…

That felt a little scary.

As I thought about the topic—and about some of the mistakes I’ve made in my own marriage—I realized that most of those mistakes came down to one common problem: being out of balance. Spending too much time and energy on the business, and not enough on my marriage.

My life was out of balance.

But what does a balanced life really mean?

Often the word balance creates the picture of weighing two separate things and trying to get the weight to match. But in life, there’s a lot more than two things fighting for our attention.

Life balance is a lot more complex than a 50/50 split.

So how do we find that balance?

We tend to be binary thinkers. We assume things have to be one way or the other, ignoring the nuances and complexities of life. But that kind of thinking  doesn’t work well in balancing your life.

Sure, sometimes there are only two choices. When choosing between right and wrong or good and evil, I believe this is the case. But most of life? It’s lived in the middle. And if we only see two options, we’ll stop trying to find balance altogether.

For example: one spouse is upset because the other is working too much. The one working sees that time as necessary to pay the bills and take care of the family. But they also know they can’t spend as much time at home as they do at work. So they throw up their hands and say, “There’s no way to make this work, so why even try?” And the imbalance stays.

Merriam-Webster has an extensive definition of balance that covers people, weight, stability, accounting, mental and emotional wellbeing. But the image I go back to is this:

A large platform, centered and balanced on top of a single, small point.

When nothing is on the platform, it stays level. If you place one thing near the center, it stays relatively level. But as more and more things are piled onto the platform—and things begin to move away from the center—the imbalance starts. The load gets heavier in different areas, and the platform begins to lean. One heavy thing (or too many smaller things) can cause the whole platform to tip in that direction. If it leans too far, things will fall off. So, keeping things on the platform is all about weight and location.

Our lives are like that platform. God sets it perfectly on the point and gives us the responsibility of keeping it there. The hard part? The sheer number of things we could pile on our platform. The choices are endless. Whether it’s spiritual, family, work, friends, fun, community, and so on. Some things carry more weight than others. And as we go through life, the things we have on our platform will and should change.

Finding and maintaining balance is our responsibility.

Will we be perfect at it?

No.

Can we learn and get better?

YES!

Balancing your life is one of the foundational blocks in BUILDing the life of your dreams:

  • BE AWARE of when you’re out of balance.
  • UNDERSTAND what imbalance looks like and that you can do something about it.
  • Take INTENTIONAL ACTON to restore balance in your life. You have to do something if you want things to change.
  • LEARN new and different ways to keep your life centered.
  • Find balance and it will put you on the path to your DREAM life.

And I can tell you this:

My marriage is much better now because my life is balanced!

What Should Be Done First?

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An Example of a To Do List Triage

We’ve been discussing how crazy busy life can be, especially when running a business. We talked through the importance of routines and getting the day started off right. Breaking big things down into small pieces and the process for doing that. Last week’s post was on knowing what to do first from a triage perspective.

This all sounds great, but how do we implement it?

I thought an example might help with that.

Everything in life comes down to decisions.

The decisions we make affect the outcome. This past Sunday morning I was running behind schedule and needed to make some adjustments to my morning routine. Being behind was due to decisions made Saturday evening which were the results of something that happened Friday evening.

Friday night, while watching the NASCAR truck race, the electricity went off around 10:30. This meant I couldn’t watch the race until it came back on. I called the power company and went to bed.

Having not seen the completion of the truck race I decided to watch it ahead of the Xfinity race on Saturday evening. I had a plan, and it was scheduled on the calendar. But things on Saturday took longer than expected. So, I didn’t get started watching the races until later. This meant I was up later than planned. All decisions made by me.

While recovering from my accident in 2012 I found that I’m more productive when I get at least 7 ½ hours of sleep each night. This is why I was running behind Sunday morning. I chose the 7 ½ hours.

All of these were decisions I made.

Back to Sunday morning. My morning routine consists of showering, daily Bible reading, journaling, getting ready and daily planning. To be at church on time I need to leave the house by 9:00. I can’t go back and change the past, so this gives me a fixed time to get things done.

How do I decide what to do and what not to do?

It comes down to prioritizing. Of the things on the list what is the most important? This order is determined by having figured out who I am and what things are the most important to me. Shower and get dressed. After all, I don’t want to go to church in my pajamas. Next, Bible reading a prayer. Next, Journaling. Next, daily planning.

If there’s not enough time to go through the daily planning before going to church, I can do it after. The same is true for journaling. Both things are important, but not as time sensitive as the others. To Bible reading and prayer. These are more important, but I can use the YouVersion Bible app on my computer and listen to the daily reading as I drive to church.

I got everything done Sunday morning, except the daily planning. I made it to church on time and did the daily planning after I got back home.

Decisions are a combination of a list, a calendar, and a clock.

A list is just that, a way to keep track of all the things to be done. This can be handwritten on a piece of paper, a digital list on a computer, or smart phone. I prefer digital. I have it with me all the time and can move things around or check them off easily. I use OneNote for this.

A calendar is a visual way to schedule blocks of time. Again, this can be paper or digital. Like the list, I like the digital better because of always having it and the flexibility to move things around. Some things, like church, are fixed and I can’t change them. Some are like the daily planning and can be moved.

The one thing that we can’t change is time. We have a fixed amount. All we can do is to be aware of it and spend it wisely.

Everyone’s priorities are different. To be the most productive you need to be clear on what is most important to you. Once you’re clear on this you can work through your list, schedule things on your calendar, and spend your time wisely. This will help you to be more productive.

If you would like to know more about how I use these tools to be productive, schedule a free 30-minute consultation.

The Key to Getting More Done 

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How to Know What to Do First 

It is easy to get consumed by all the things that need to be done. But we have more control over this than we think. It’s like BUILDing anything, it comes down to Being aware, Understanding, taking Intentional action and continued Learning.  

The past few weeks we have discussed how to take control of the big, overwhelming things. Last week we focused on breaking big things down into smaller, more manageable pieces.  

I used an example of a project that needs to be done by a deadline and the actions needed to make that happen. This gets more difficult when there are multiple projects with deadlines. Then, of course, there are things outside of business.  

How are we supposed to get everything done?  

It’s amazing how much can be accomplished when there’s a deadline.  

Have you ever noticed how productive you can be when getting ready to leave on a trip? You can get things done faster than normal. Or, how productivity ramps up when coming down to the deadline of a project. Why is that? 

High productivity results from a mix of factors: motivation, personality, natural talent, training or education, environment, support from others, and time management.

A finite amount of time helps us decide what’s most important. 

There are so many things on the “to do” list and each one is competing for the top position. Deciding which one gets that spot is tough. There are so many important things that need to be done or things that we want to do. It’s easy to say that we have limited time, but hard to actually schedule things that way.  

How do we decide what to say yes to?

Emergency situations often require triage. This is the process of prioritizing a patient’s treatments based on the severity of their condition and the resources available. In these situations, victims are divided into three categories. 

  • Those who are likely to live, regardless of what care they receive. 
  • Those who are unlikely to live, regardless of what care they receive. 
  • Those for whom immediate care might make a positive difference in outcome. 

These choices aren’t easy and often require a quick, “gut decision”. A pre-determined system, training, and experience aid in the process and provide for the greatest number of survivors.  

Another life and death choice is deciding who gets a transplant when there are a limited number of organ donations available. Take for example a set of twins who both need a liver transplant, and their father has only one liver to give. Which one gets it? The early thoughts of a father would be to give half to each. The problem with this, half wouldn’t help either. The final decision will be determined by which one needs it most or which one is most likely to survive. 

Most of the choices that we make in business aren’t this critical … or are they? 

The decisions we make every day can mean life or death for our business. 

In medical life or death situations, there is a system and plan in place beforehand. This same type of system should be implemented in our business. We should predetermine how we are going to choose the most important things for the life of our business. 

What makes one thing more important than another?  

What should be the highest priority? Should it be this job or that, production or proposals, record keeping or customer service, marketing or staff? We’re faced with tough decisions in business every day.  

This can come down to a decision like: is it better to install the board this way or that? Or use multiple pieces of new metal wrap or one piece of used? The time spent making these seemingly small decisions can become big when it causes the project to not be completed on time. 

Being Aware of deadlines and the limited time available can help us Understand how important these decisions are to the life of our business. But this won’t matter if we don’t take Intentional Action and do something. Then we can continue Learning going forward on the way to having the business we Dreamed of. 

Having a “business triage” system will give your business the highest chance for survival. 

Our 5-step BUILD process helps us prioritize and manage all the hundreds of decisions we’re faced with every day in our business. If you would like to learn more about making good decisions, schedule a free 30-minute consultation.  

The Process for Breaking Big Things Down

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You Can Only Lay One Brick at a Time

Nothing gets done without taking action. But when there are so many big, scary things ahead of us, it can be hard to get started. Overwhelm can slam the brakes on progress. We get stuck in neutral, and nothing moves forward.

Nothing will get done if you don’t do something.

Over the past several weeks, we talked about routines, planning, and the tool for breaking big things down. Now, let’s go through the process I use to get things done.

In business, we wear a lot of hats: company organization, marketing, sales, production, operations, administration, and finance. All of these hats include their own to-do lists. No wonder we get overwhelmed and put things off.  

In a previous post, I shared how to break big things down. I explained how things start with a dream. Then they need to be taken to the next step of vision. This brings us to setting goals.

Goals are never accomplished without ACTION.

This is where we are going to focus today. And to show you how this works, I’m going to use a real example of a current remodeling project I’m working on.

This project is finishing 1,200 square feet of attic space. The customer wants it completed this year due to the house turning 100 years old this year. She plans to have a celebration of this 100th year in early December. This means the project needs to be finished by early November to be finished before the holidays. That leaves a little less than six months to have the project done.

Sounds like plenty of time, right? But we all know how fast time goes by. It’s easy to think we have plenty of time, but creating a sense of urgency now will prevent disappointment later. This is why it’s important to work backwards from the deadline, breaking it down into smaller, bite-sized pieces.

Using our Proposal System worksheet, I can see that the project will take about 14 – 15 weeks once the construction is started. That means we need to have construction started by July 1st.

Okay, that’s 6 weeks away. But wait … we still have some design issues to finalize. What kinds of doors, light fixtures, accent walls, cabinets, etc.?

So, what’s the first next thing?

The customer is concerned about price increases on the light fixtures, switch plates, and receptacle covers and wants to get them ordered as soon as possible. This makes this more important than the other questions.

Getting electrical fixtures and covers ordered is the focus.

This means we need to determine: what style of fixtures she wants and in what rooms? Are the sizes going to work? Will they work with the wiring and switching that’s there? How many different cover configurations are needed? I want to have these things done this week.

She picked the fixtures. Next step, sharing these choices with the electrician.

I did a walkthrough and list review with him, and he confirmed the customer’s choices will work. Now onto determining cover configuration and quantity.

Since the week is almost over, I need to get the electrical covers counted today. It’s now added to today’s action list, ranked in order of importance, but there are a couple of other things on today’s list that are higher priority tasks—like getting this weekly solution written. That makes this the first next thing.

It’s easy to feel stuck and overwhelmed when you don’t know what to do next.

Constructing a new building is a big project, so is running a business, or living life. Too many times, this is where we get hung up. The size of the task can paralyze us. There’s so much to do, we don’t know what to do next and then nothing gets done.

When that happens, break the big things down into smaller pieces and do the first next thing.

(Weekly solution: written ✔️ ) On to the first next thing … counting the electrical covers.

Need help breaking your own big things down into manageable steps? You can schedule a free 30-minute consultation. Let’s figure out your first next thing, together.

How Do I Get From Here to There?

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Understanding Your Life’s GPS and Finding Direction

A friend and I were recently discussing the sense of overwhelm and out-of-control feeling that we were both experiencing. There are so many worthwhile, valuable  things pulling at our attention. How will I ever get them all done?

My to-do list is so long there’s not enough time to read it…let alone do it.

I’m tired of being stuck in this rut. I want a way out.

Some of the things on our lists, like classes and training, should be helpful. But too often, they just end up feeling like more things to check off.

Most of us want a clearer direction, but we’re not sure what that even looks like.

Since our discussion, I’ve been thinking and studying about how we can achieve our goals. It became clear that almost every approach to goal setting is essentially the same. Sure, there are small, nuanced differences, but they’re really all the same at their core.

Funny thing is, sometimes we need to hear the same thing several times before it resonates with us. Who knows why? Maybe it’s the speaker, or the form of presentation, or maybe it’s just timing, who knows? But suddenly, it lands.

This happened to me recently when I was going through Mark Shinnerer’s, Vision Building course. He compares creating a life plan to using a GPS. There really are a lot of similarities between the two.

One thing that’s critical to achieving goals is prioritization.

This is one of the things I struggle with most. When I’m staring at that mountain of important, worthwhile tasks…where do I even start? This indecision is where momentum gets lost.

Think about it like this: when going from here to there, using a GPS (Global Positioning System) we start by entering a destination. From there, it gives us some optional routes. In life, we need something similar. We need to use a Goal Prioritization System. This system will help us determine the path we will take to reach our purpose destination.

Here are some GPS similarities:

  • Determine where you want to go before you start. – Knowing where you want to go will make the trip more productive. That doesn’t mean that you can’t change the destination later, but frequent detours will slow your progress.
  • Choose which of the routes you’re going to take. – There are options: fast and direct, scenic and slow? There’s no right or wrong answer, just choose a path and get started. As you are on your way you can change your mind, and the GPS will reroute you.
  • Unexpected things out of your control will happen. – You may encounter road work, traffic, or a flat tire. These things require some adjustment to your schedule and/or possibly your route. Remember, some things are out of your control, but how you respond to them isn’t.
  • Unplanned things that will be in your control. – When en route, you may encounter scenic stops. Or you might come across someone else who’s in trouble on their journey. Stopping or not is a choice you get to make, just be intentional.

Once you have a clear vision of your destination, it’s up to you to get in gear and step on the gas. Otherwise, you will just sit in neutral, stuck in place, thinking about what might have been.

Because one thing is for sure:

If you don’t move forward, you will never reach your destination.

Jesus is the Bread of Life

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Bread is Important to Sustaining Life

The Guinness World Record for the longest loaf of bread is 3,975 feet long and was baked for 59:30 hours. Starting on July 7th, 2005 at 8:00 PM and finishing on July 10th at 7:30 AM. It takes 9 minutes for a combine to harvest enough wheat to make 70 loaves of bread. France bakes around 6,000 baguettes per year. There are a lot of different kinds of bread. On average, each American consumes approximately 53 pounds of bread annually. Germany consumes the most bread per capita.

Bread is an important part of almost every culture. Breaking bread together and sharing a meal is one of the best ways for fellowship. We are all so busy, but we need to slow down periodically to eat. Sharing a meal is a great opportunity to connect with others.

In John 6:1-15, a large crowd of people was following Jesus because they had previously witnessed Him miraculously healing the sick. He then fed thousands of people with 5 loaves and 2 fish with 12 baskets left over. Another miracle.

This was at the time of the Passover, which involved unleavened bread to commemorate when the Jews left Egypt and didn’t have time to wait for bread to rise. This included removing all yeast from their homes.

Yeast is a microorganism used to make bread rise. A small amount will spread throughout the dough.

Like yeast, sin can spread through our lives.

While the Jews were in the wilderness they received manna daily. This was their daily allotment of bread. They were told to only collect what they needed for each day, but some gathered more than they needed. When they did this, it would spoil and go bad. This was to teach them to depend on God and not be greedy.

We need to trust God to provide and not be greedy.

After Jesus fed the thousands, He could tell that the people wanted Him to be their king and rescue them from their Roman oppression. So, he went away from the crowd, to be alone. (John 6:16-21)

While He was gone his disciples got in boats to cross the lake to Capernaum. He hadn’t shown up yet and the wind came up and blew the boats out into the lake. Then Jesus appeared, walking on the water as they reached the other shore. (John 6:16-21)

The next day the crowd realized that the disciples were gone, and Jesus hadn’t been in the boat when they left. When they couldn’t find Jesus or His disciples they went across to Capernaum looking for them. (John 6:22-24)

When they found Jesus on the other side they had some questions for Him.

“When did You get here?”

He answered them, “I assure you that you are looking for me not because you saw miraculous signs but because you ate all the food you wanted. Don’t work for the food that doesn’t last but for the food that endures for eternal life, which the Human One will give you. God the Father has confirmed him as his agent to give life.” (John 6:25-27)

“What must we do to accomplish what God requires?”

“This is what God requires, that you believe in him whom God sent.” (John 6:29)

“What miracles are You going to perform? What will You do next? Our ancestors were given manna in the wilderness. It is written; He gave them bread from heaven to eat.”

“I assure you, it wasn’t Moses who gave the bread from heaven to you, but my Father gives you the true bread from heaven. The bread of God is the one who comes down from heaven and gives life to the world.” (John 6:32-33)

“How can we have this bread always?”

“I am the bread of life. Whoever comes to me will never go hungry, and whoever believes in me will never be thirsty.” (John 6:35)

The people wanted Jesus to solve all their problems. They were impatient and didn’t like Jesus’ answers. They were looking for worldly fulfillment.

Belief is more than explanation. It requires faith.

Like yeast can permeate dough, sin can take over our lives.

Don’t let it.

We are given what we need every day if we just look up and pay attention. We need to be careful not to become overly expectant and greedy in our expectations.

Jesus is the bread of life every day.

The Tool for Breaking Big Things Down 

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Taking the First Next Step 

Building and running a successful business is a big undertaking. It can be overwhelming, but it doesn’t have to be. Last week we talked about breaking big things down into small pieces. We discussed the process of accomplishing big dreams by starting with the first, next thing.  

Nothing gets done if you don’t do something.  

A construction project is a big thing made up of a lot of different smaller things. Things need to be done in the right order, or the project will fall apart, or won’t be what it was intended to be.  

Building a business is no different. The question is…  

How do you manage all the little things?  

It can be hard to know where to start or what to do first. Having a system helps. My process may not work for everyone, but how’s what you’re doing now working? 

I’m going to give you an example of how I prioritize and manage my day. 

Previously, I shared how I use my computer to remind me of things on the “To-Do” list and calendar that need to be done. This list can be rather long, and I can’t do it all at once. I can choose which thing I’m going to do and when. The question is determining what gets done first and why. 

Let’s use today as an example.  

When I opened the computer this morning there were twenty or thirty reminders that came up. Before I dug into the list I did the first thing first. I read my Bible and prayed. Next, I journaled and got ready to go. Then I remind myself of who I am and what my mission is. I checked these things off the list.  

Now it’s time to start planning the day. This is where things can get overwhelming, when there are so many things to do. There’s production, administration, finances, proposals, and marketing. These are just business things and don’t include church, family, community, hobbies, etc. In all these different areas, there are several hundred things.  

I can’t do them all today. 

What makes one thing more important than another? 

Sometimes it involves honoring other people’s time or meetings that have been scheduled. Maybe it is something that has a deadline. It could be that it is critical to reaching an important goal. 

Back to the reminder list. 

Looking through the list, there are some reminders that are things two weeks in the future. I don’t need to do anything about those today. I will cut the reminders in half and reset it to a week before. This reduces the list by four or five. 

Now there are reminders for a week. I cut those to four days and reduced the list by a couple more. Reminders for four days get cut to two days. Reminders for two days get cut to one. Now the list is half as long and things that need to be dealt with today. 

These ten or fifteen things can be things that are small and can be dealt with quickly or maybe bigger things that are going to require more time. The bigger things will get reminders accordingly, maybe two or four hours. The small things may have a reminder for five minutes. 

As the five-minute reminders come up, those things get checked off the list.  

Okay, as I’m trying to finish this post my list of reminders just came up with sixteen reminders. They include daily reviews that need to be checked to see if they got done, a reminder that it’s time to go home, a couple of reminders for an event tomorrow that needs to be followed up on.  

I better go deal with these reminders. 

If you would like to know more about how I use the reminders to get things done schedule a free 30-minute consultation. 

Breaking Big Things Down into Small Pieces

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What’s the First Next Step?

We’ve been talking a lot about routines over the past several weeks. Like most things, it sounds great, but where to start? There’s already too much to do and not enough time. There’s no room on the list to add anything else.

No one ever said building a successful business would be easy. If they did … they lied.

Operating a business requires a lot. With so much to do, it’s common to get overwhelmed. My intent with today’s post is to help you manage that stress.

You’ve probably heard the saying, eat the elephant one bite at a time. This is a common idiom for breaking a large, daunting project down into smaller, more manageable pieces. By focusing on one small step at a time, you can avoid feeling overwhelmed.

I have a couple of sayings that I use to represent the elephant idiom from more of a construction perspective. One is to build the wall one brick at a time. Another is to move the mountain one shovel full at a time. Construction projects require a lot of pieces and actions to complete. They need to be broken down into smaller pieces.

Breaking big things down sounds easy enough, but it takes intentional action.

The other thing that can be discouraging is when big dreams don’t happen. When they don’t become reality, we give up. This is what happened to me. After working for years to accomplish my dream and it didn’t happen … I gave up. I concluded that I must have been wrong about this dream.

Then God got my attention with a board upside the head. Since then, I have been reading and learning. Continuing to build my business and my life one piece at a time. Don’t be afraid to dream big (Mark 11:23-24) because nothing is impossible for God (Luke 1:37).

Last week in the list of my daily planning, one of the things was Breaking Big Things Down into Smaller Pieces. Building a business or a life is like constructing a building.

Building starts by DREAMING – Dreams are big, vague things. We can see them in our head. This is where great things start. It is important to align these dreams with God, the Architect of our lives.

VISION is the next step – This is where the big picture of the dream begins to take shape. It’s like a blueprint. It’s where things can be tested to see if the dream is possible and how the pieces will fit together.

Now we need to set some GOALS – It’s been determined that the dream can be built. Now we need to set some goals. When do we want to have it completed? Based on this, when do we need to start? What is the budget? What’s it going to cost?

Nothing gets done without ACTION – This is where the rubber meets the road. Dreams are not accomplished without taking action. If anything is going to get done … we have to DO SOMETHING.

RESULTS are the dream becoming reality – This is where the hard work and planning come together. This doesn’t mean that the result is exactly what the original dream was. What it does mean is that if we had nothing, nothing is what we would have.

Start with DREAMS, turn those dreams into VISIONS, turn those visions into GOALS. A goal is a bite-sized vision. And a vision that is ready to go to work is a goal.

Big dreams can be overwhelming. Daily operations of a business can be overwhelming.

It’s important to do something. Take action.

It helps me if I focus on the FIRST NEXT THING. What is the one thing that I need to do first? I have a list that I go through as part of my routine:

  1. Start with prayer
  2. Get off my “BUT”, stop making excuses
  3. Put it on the calendar
  4. Don’t be afraid to ask for help (delegation / accountability / education)
  5. Take goals seriously (create a sense of urgency early)
  6. Maintain positive forward momentum
  7. Celebrate wins
  8. Don’t overthink it
  9. Break the goals down into brick size pieces
  10. Make goals about giving and not about getting
  11. Review progress regularly, and be accountable

This list helps keep me motivated. It reminds me to prioritize things and to focus on the first next thing that needs done.

Your list can be different. The important thing is to have a process or system to help you to break big things down into smaller pieces.

Focusing on one brick at a time is the way a big wall gets built.

What Does Daily Life Planning Look Like?

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And How It Fits in My Morning Routine

We’ve been discussing routines and how they help us get more done. How reading and learning is a big part of developing a good routine. And how I use journaling. Last week it was daily planning.

The first thing on Daily Planning is reviewing my Weekly Life Plan. That’s what we’ll go over this week.

What is a Life Plan?

A life plan is pretty much what it sounds like … it’s a plan for your life. This plan is going to look different for everyone, because we are all different after all.

My life plan is made up of the dreams and goals I want to accomplish in my life. Each year I review them and put together a plan of what needs to be done this year to keep me on track. I then break those annual goals down into quarterly, monthly, and weekly actions to achieve my goals.

The Weekly Life Plan is then reviewed daily.

Reviewing this helps me to get my day started off focused on who I am and what my mission is. It breaks the big goals down into small pieces that need done today.

Last week, I talked about how I do this by opening a scheduled event on my computer calendar. In the note section of that event, there is a list of things to do. Some of those have links to a OneNote page.

Here’s what Daily Life Planning includes –

  • Word of the Year – Reminder of what my word of the year is and its accompanying theme.
  • Current Decision of the Seven Decisions – This a one-line reminder of the current decision that I’m reading through.
  • My Why or Purpose – This is what I’ve been put here to do.
  • My Mission – This is what I’m supposed to do with my life, based on my purpose.
  • My Vision – This is the larger picture: seven years in the future.
  • My Core Values – These are the twelve values that are the foundation my life is built on. I read through the list to remind myself what they are.
  • Life Principles – These are overviews of the Seven Decisions from Andy Andrews book, The Traveler’s Gift. And the twelve principles from the book, The Legend of the Monk and the Merchant by Terry Felber.
  • Breaking Big Things Down into Smaller Pieces – This is to once again to remind me that big things can be accomplished, but not all at once.
  • First Next Step – This helps me to focus on the next thing that needs done.
  • Weekly Results – A checklist of the things that need to be done this week in the different areas of life.
  • Someday Goals – These are the big dreams I have for the future. This is a list of things that can be done to keep me moving forward toward these big goals. Some are really, really big.

These are the big things on the daily planning list. It is more of a perspective and direction for the day. The rest of the things are more specific to the actions that need to be done today to stay on track for the week.

If you would like to see what my daily life plan looks like or would like a template to you can create your own, click on the download links below. If you have questions about life planning and how to incorporate it into your routine schedule a free 30-minute consultation.

Mark’s Daily Life PlanDownload
Daily Life Plan TemplateDownload

The Next Step of the Morning Routine

by

Reminders Are a Big Part of This

Taking control of your life requires intentional action. Having a routine is a big part of that control.

The past several weeks we discussed routines and their importance in being productive. Last week we focused on my morning journaling. My routine includes reminders …. lots and lots of reminders. People that have seen my calendar and lists think I may be going a little overboard, and maybe I am. But it helps me be more productive.

It’s too easy for me to get sidetracked and forget things without reminders.

These reminders are on both my phone and computer and begin to remind me as soon as they are turned on or activated. These events are all recurring and are scheduled for every day with no end date.

The calendar reminders start with my Bible reading and prayer time which is scheduled for 6:00 AM, the reminder is set for 15 minutes before. Second is journaling at 6:30 AM with a reminder 15 minutes before. Third is getting ready at 7:00 AM with a 15-minute reminder. This includes getting dressed, packing lunch, and other miscellaneous things that need to be done before leaving home. Then comes my daily planning at 7:30 AM, also a 15-minute reminder.

Daily planning is where review and planning begin. Up to this point, the day-to-day routine doesn’t change much.

Daily planning is on my Outlook calendar and after I finish getting ready I open the event. In that event, there is a place for notes where I have a written plan with links (denoted below as link) to different OneNote pages that are action lists.

Here is how that plan looks:

Review Life Plan – Take a few minutes to review the 2025 Weekly Action Plan (link) and get a perspective on scheduling.

Open, review, and process emails – Go through and decide what to do with them.

If it doesn’t require action, I can:

  • Trash it
  • File it for future reference

If it requires action, I can:

  • Respond if it takes less than a few minutes or add it to my task list to do later
  • Defer it by scheduling a time on my calendar to deal with it
  • Delegate it to someone else for action

Review to do lists – Both my Outlook task list (due today) and personal Action List (link) in One Note. Ask the question:

  • What do I really need to accomplish today? If it’s a really important task, move it to my calendar and schedule it.

Review calendar – Note appointments and review preparation that needs done. Look at today on the calendar and review items that need to have preparation done or scheduling revisions.

Review action lists – Review my major projects and categories, consider the next actions required in each to keep things moving.

  • Business Planning Action List (link)
  • Admin Action List (link)
  • Financial Action List (link)
  • Production Action List (link)
  • Sales Action List (link)
  • Marketing Action List (link)
  • Coaching & Consulting Action List (link)

Review delegated items – This is a list of items I have delegated to others and are important enough to track.

  • If something is overdue, or if I need a progress report, I send an e-mail and nudge the person responsible.
  • Put a note in the task itself that I sent a reminder.

I open this up and go down the list. Normally I can go through this process in 30 minutes if there aren’t too many things that deviate from the norm. Just like the journal that we looked at last week, I know that this seems like a lot. And it can be. But for me, it’s worth the time and effort if it helps me be more productive.

The most important thing is that you figure out what works for you to help you be more productive.

Next week, we’ll look at the Weekly Action Plan in more detail.

If you would like to know more about daily planning or building a routine to help you be more productive let us know in the comments or schedule a free 30-minute consultation.