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Planning & Prioritizing

The 3P’s: Plan. Protect. Practice

Weekly Planning - Identifying the “When & Where”. Are you looking ahead and proactively block-
ing off time for strategic priorities in your calendar? (or are you “seeing how the week plays out”?)
Scheduling strategic priority time sooner in the day usually works better than leaving it until later in the day.

Small chunks (30-60 minutes) usually work best (for staying focused and resisting distractions). And identify the 1 or 2 spe-
cific next steps you want to get done during this blocked off time. Make sure you’ve done this before you actually sit down
to start this time.

Planning for Energy. Are you working with your mental energy or against it? (Where possible, put the higher mental focus
tasks ahead of the less demanding tasks. Take breaks to recharge, etc.)

Daily Planning - PM (before you close the working day). PM Planning is about balancing the im-
mediate things you need to take care of tomorrow with at least one or two strategic tasks.
Review & re-commit to the Strategic Priority time you blocked of as part of your weekly planning (key projects, coaching,
etc.). Make sure that you’ve identified the 1 or 2 specific, realistic, next steps that you want to get done within this time peri-
od. “What’s one thing I want to do tomorrow to further my ability to delegate?, What’s one thing I want to do tomorrow
that will contribute to Team engagement, ? Etc.”

Review meetings that are scheduled for tomorrow. Make sure you know where you need to be and that you’re prepared.

Make sure you’ve left some buffer room for the inevitable surprises/ immediate requests that you know will come up. (and
to take a little re-charge time)

“Out of everything, my Top 3 for the day are: ” is a great exercise to bring focus to your day. Strive to have at least one of
these be strategic/ developmental.

Daily Planning - AM. AM Planning is about reviewing and recommitting to the plan you made the
day before while adjusting for changes that may have occurred since then. It’s also about managing the
“mental game” - forming intentions about how you want to “show up” today.
Planning behaviours. Are you going beyond planning “what you want to do” to planning “how you want to be” ?

Accentuating the positive, reducing the negative. (best practices in the toolkit page 7). Question “What are 3 things I am
grateful for?” (write them down)

Practicing Mindfulness meditation? (best practices in toolkit page 8)

Developed by Doug Heidebrecht, [email protected], www.managingme.com

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Planning & Prioritizing

The 3P’s: Plan. Protect. Pracce

Decontaminate priority me. Are you “de-contaminang” your strategic priority me as much as pos-
sible from lower priority distracons? Best pracces:

Pay a'enon to your current defaults around reacng to email/text.

Turn off your phone, email and instant messenger during your Strategic Priority me.

For the 30-60 minutes that you want to spend on that strategic priority, go work in another room. (or work from home).

Don’t default to “yes”. Are you protecng your strategic priority me from lower priority requests? Best
pracces:

Increase awareness of your default se6ngs as various requests come at you. Do you have M.A.S. - Mindless Accept Syndrome -
as requests come at you? (term coined by David Brady).

Don’t assume the incoming request/ interrupon is non-negoable or mission crical.

Ask quesons to determine the true importance & urgency of the request.

Ancipate surprises, incorporate buffer me into your schedule. Rule of thumb: Keep 25% of your me unscheduled.

Alignment. Are you confident about being on the same page as your leader (and team) around what is, and
what is not a priority for this month and this week? Best pracces:

Iniate a Priority Map Conversaon with your leader. Use the priority map tool to align with top priories and discuss what
might be de-priorized. (pages 10-12 in the toolkit).

Discuss, with your team “What can we do to help each other protect strategic priority me and sll deliver on customer ser-
vice and support?”.

Employ the “Team

Team Power Hour”
Hour strategy. Team members commit, publicly, to when they’re going to work on their strategic
priorities. The rest of the team respects this time and supports each other in sticking to it, interrupting only for genuine
emergencies. (see pages 6-7 in the Leader’s Toolkit for tips and best practices)

Developed by Doug Heidebrecht, [email protected], www.managingme.com

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Planning & Prioritizing

The 3P’s: Plan. Protect. Pracce.

Praccing: Consistency. Are you planning consistently? Do you have good disciplines in place for stop-
ping, thinking and paying your priories first?

Planning the “When and where” usually requires consistent monthly, weekly and daily planning.:

i. Monthly: To revisit your yearly goals and bigger picture priories so that you stay clear on which strategic priories you
most need to block off me for.

ii. Weekly: Look ahead 1-2 weeks to find me in your calendar to block off for your strategic priories. If you wait unl
the night before to block off the “when & where”, you’ll find that the next day is already full.

iii. Daily: Idenfy specific tasks for this me, before you sit down to start working on it.

To help ingrain the habit, plan me to plan.

Do your planning before the week/day starts. (15 minutes Friday aDernoon, 10 minutes at the end of the day and 10 minutes
in the morning)

Make it “automac” by building a roune/ritual. Blocking off planning me at the same me and place (daily, weekly, or
monthly) will condion you to take the me and others to respect it.

Use recurring calendar items to help build the roune.

Some people find it helpful to find a quiet, “thinking” place to do their planning.

Praccing: Movaon. Are you connected to the “What’s in it for you”? Do you see the link between
spending me on planning/ strategic priories in the short term and what ma'ers most to you in the long-term?

Out of everything (Planning, Protecting, Practicing), what are 2 or 3 things you want to do differ-
ently or more consistently?
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A Weekly Planning exercise

Assess last week.

week Identify and write down 2 “wins” from last week:

Block off time.

time On page 1, you identified one or two specific next steps, re-

B lated to one of your strategic priorities, that could realistically be accom-

plished in a 20-60 minute window.
Looking at your calendar, when (and where) over the next 5-10 working
days might you block these 20-60 minute chunks of time in?

Are there other priorities/ projects

that it makes sense to block off
some time for? Stay realistic.

Build in buffer time.

time Are you setting aside (blocking off ) some “meeting

C free” buffer time to handle the inevitable surprises and daily issues?
• Rule of Thumb: keep 25% of your calendar meeting free.
• This could mean setting aside a set time every day, or several chunks
at various times through the week.
• It might make sense to look 2 or 3 weeks ahead to find and hold on to
this buffer time.
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A Daily Planning exercise

Identify and write down your “Top 3” for tomorrow. (no matter what else
A happens, what 3 things do you most want to have accomplished by the end
of tomorrow?)

My Top 3:
B
When (and where) during the day are
1
you going to try to work on these top
2 3? Even though things may change, try
to estimate this.
3

The Next 3:
C
What strategies might help you stay
focused and “resist the noise”? (closing
email, working in another location,
etc.)

Other?:

The Next 3/ Other: What else do you want to get done?

D
A double-
double-check: Are you staying realistic and leaving some buffer room for
changes, support issues and surprises?
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The Next 30 Days…

Out of everything, what are two things you want to do differently, or more con-
sistently ?
Best Practice/ behaviour: Best Practice/ behaviour:

Progress points. What might you measure, observe, Progress points. What might you measure, observe,
hear or feel - over the next 30 days - that would tell hear or feel - over the next 30 days - that would tell
you that you’re making progress? you that you’re making progress?

Specific next steps: (and where are you tracking Specific next steps: (and where are you tracking
these so you don’t forget? Your calendar, task list ?) these so you don’t forget? Your calendar, task list ?)

When and where will you be doing a short, weekly check-in to stay on-track
with this action plan? (Put this in your calendar)