Do you take the time to plan your day, your week, your month, your life?  Do you have clearly stated personal core values and purpose statement?  Do you have a map that guides you to the places you want to go and a plan for becoming the person God’s called you to be?

If you answer to these questions is a “no” or “not to often” – here’s the harsh reality – someone else, by default, will create answers to these questions for you.  They’ll plan your time, set your priorities, fill up your calendar and make sure their priorities and goals are being achieved before yours.  Not because people are manipulative or malicious but simply because they can, because you let them, because you’re not doing it yourself.

You see our days and weeks, represented by our calendars, have their own magnetic pull. They will draw in the nearest activities, tasks, projects, and appointments into every available time slot of your life.  And trust me, if you’re a leader, there’s always somebody’s priorities close by.  The question is which priorities will be closest and fill up your calendar? Yours or others?

So what can you do to assure that your life is filled with your plans, goals, priorities, and the people you want and need to see?  It’s simple, with discipline, diligence and tenacity, fill in your calendar before others do so for you.  And this starts by having a planning rhythm for your life. This rhythm should include five separate personal planning sessions, or as my friend Jack McQueeney calls them – meetings with yourself.   These meetings are:

Annual Planning – where you set you goals  and priorities for the year, then schedule these, along with other major events, into your calendar for the year. I do this in November or December of each year with my wife Denise. Typically it takes an afternoon to accomplish.

Seasonal or Quarterly Meeting – check your progress on your annual plan, map out in more detail your calendar, and move things around that have unintentionally crept into your life.  This meeting should only be a couple hours at the most.

Monthly Review – adjust your Seasonal/Quarterly plan and fill in open times with your priorities.  At this step be much more detailed in filling in your calendar. I spend about an hour during the last week of each month planning the next month.

Weekly Meeting – the most important meeting of your life.  This is where you set weekly goals then build time into your calendar to accomplish them. You do this by doggedly moving the less important things out and making time for the most important work to be done  Though it’s the most important meeting, once you’ve done it a number of times it doesn’t take long – 30 minutes is my typical time needed.  I usually do it on Sunday morning.

Daily Plan – everyday it’s important to look at your weekly plan and calendar and make sure you’re on track to accomplish your goals and key work. Early every morning I identify my top 1 to 3 priorities for that day.  This takes about 5 or 10 minutes.

Now if this all seems to require to much time, let me ask you one final question – if you don’t have time to plan,  how do you have time to do everyone’s else’s priorities and yours as well?  So make 2017 your best, most fruitful year yet by filling your calendar up before someone does it for you.