Secret OWL Society: How I plan a busy, run-around day

My schedule bounces around between being a nanny, building my network marketing business, running my cleaning company, and keeping up with multiple blogs and projects - including the Secret OWL Society. And it's not hard. How so? Because I don't try to keep anything in my head. The diagram above is a prettified, simplified picture of how I plan my day when I have MANY PLACES TO BE and MANY THINGS TO DO. Sometimes a regular planner just doesn't cut it in the visualizing arena - and our brains work better in this kind of mind-mapping way.
How you can do it:
1. Write down all the places you need to be for the day in consecutive circles: "First I'll be at home, then work, then the bank..."
2. Next to each circle, write down the times that you are planning to be at each location.
3. Then, next to each relevant circle/location, write down what you are going to do.
Why this works:

You've pinned down everything in your schedule to a time and and place. Research shows that when we link an activity to a time that we are going to get it done and a place that we are going to do it, we dramatically increase the likelihood of getting that thing done. Example: At 9am, I am going to sit down at Java Coffee Shop and call 5 of my customers.

You get your whole day out of your head and onto paper so that when you are sitting down in a coffee shop meeting with Jane or John at 8am in the morning until 8:45am, you KNOW that that is exactly what you need to be doing at that time and place.

You pin down your To Do List. When you write a "to do list" the traditional way, you are actually choosing a time and location for each task, but you are doing so on the fly - forcing your brain to go through this energy-draining scenario: "Ok, what's next on the list?...uh...I can't do that now, I gotta wait till I get home to my computer...ok, I can mail my stuff...oh wait, I won't get to the post office in time because first I gotta be at so-and-so's house at 4...shoot I forgot the folder for her...why didn't I take care of that this morning?!" Now you know why writing your to do list the old fashioned way doesn't always work out too well. ;)

I hope you try this technique and give your brain and yourself a break as well as a productivity boost at the same time. :)

Coming soon to my Etsy Store:

How I plan a busy, run-around day

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