Here's how Planning and Organization Affect Your Daily Professional Productivity

Still breathing? I stuck to my word…except for a few routine jobs, I did no other work – no writing or blogging or networking – nada! Feels good though and somewhere along all the New Year cleaning, feel like my mind is refreshed as well.

1. Let’s get started with planning your work week. Do you use a print or online calendar or diary to schedule your dates and appointments? I use Google calendar on phone, laptop and iPad but also use the American Express Appointment Book (leather bound standard paper sized book) as my back-up calendar so if ever any confusion about appointments arises then I have two sources to check up on. Pencil in important dates, events, etc. that you need to remember.

2. Now take a look at the month. Have you marked in monthly chores? This includes a term I recently learned called a PFD – Personal Finance Day. Make sure you have once a month to review finances and know where you stand with income and expenses. When you allot specific time to the activity you tend to focus on it more than when you just try to fit it in with everything else. Give yourself the time you need to figure out your finances.

3. Of course you must consider planning your day. You may not stick to the plan and some say they feel restricted by such a thing but at least it gives you a framework of what your day looks like, what you need to work on, who you need to meet, where you need to go, what must be accomplished for the day before you call it a day. I do more writing and editing during the day and marketing and pitching in the afternoon.

4. Important things to include in your plan are exercise – whichever form of it suits you best, and food – that thing you tend to overlook when you are typing away endlessly. These are two very simple elements of the whole that most of us don’t give much thought to but once you decide what it is and when it will be, it takes so very little time and effort but contributes to your health and your wellness - that cannot be denied!

5. Lastly, do you have everything you need to be professionally productive? You don’t need an office cubicle set up at your home to be productive but you do need some sense of a professional home office, even if it is just a desk but do you have reliable systems in place – phone, computer, internet connection, copier, scanner, fax, supplies, recorder, etc for you to be 100% happy that you are working from home and good at it!

Taking the time to plan, however little (or much) will help you be more organized and efficient in everything you do. A game plan is always good-it’s a sure sign you plan to be in the game! Get yourself ready to get set and go next week!