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Planning your week ahead of time means that you will be able to get all of your work done in an orderly fashion. No more running out of time or being stressed out. If you schedule your days and stick to that schedule, you can overcome many of your problems. If you find yourself wasting your days away sitting in front of the TV or getting hooked on video games, plan those activities right out of your life! Don’t plan to watch TV, don’t plan on playing video games, and most importantly; don’t plan on procrastinating! I am not saying planning is going to take care of all of your problems. But with strong determination and the willpower to stick to your schedule, you will become a more efficient person.
 Take a look at the snippet of my planner on the right. Every day I plan to do two hours of homework. Even if you don’t think you need to do homework that often, it is always good to get in a couple of hours each day. When planning, education should be your number one priority. If you can, choose one time and use that time every day to do your homework. I have found that I usually get my work done well ahead of time when I plan. I can then take the extra days to study and make sure I know the material. Remember, it is better to plan too much homework/study time than not enough.
What day do you learn your new work schedule? Most workplaces release next week’s schedule on the preceding Friday. This is a great time to schedule your next week. Sunday is the first day of the new schedule at my work place so I start my planner on a Sunday. But if your workplace starts on Monday, you should consider making the first day of your planner Monday. Take 10-20 minutes every Friday night to plan out your next week. If you don’t know all of your plans yet, than at least put your work schedule on your planner. Some things that you can always plan on are breakfast, lunch, and dinner. Plan out your two hours of homework/study time for each day. Plan anything that you do on a regular basis. To aid in your planning process, type up a Word document that lists daily tasks, weekly tasks, and monthly tasks. Always refer to this document when you are planning so that you don’t forget to plan anything. I keep my planner and task sheet on a clipboard so that I can keep them together and quickly make changes or additions when I need to.  Color it up! Grab some highlighters and color-coordinate your planner. I run a computer repair business so my yellow highlights tell me that it is okay for me to start a PC repair job in that time slot. The pink highlights are spontaneous time where I know I can easily add in another random activity if I needed to. Try taking some highlighters to your planner and see what you can come up with.
I believe that if you want to be successful, you need a plan. When you are done reading, download a copy of my planner at the bottom of the page, print it out, and start organizing your life. Planning increases your efficiency and reduces wasted hours. Planning also helps you get rid of all of those great excuses for procrastinating in your life.  Daily Planner.xlsx (Excel 2007)
Daily Planner.xls (Excel 97-2003)
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