Think of a time when you were younger. Your only worries were to eat, sleep, play, do homework and repeat.
Now you’re an adult. No one warned you that your life will become a terrible mess – and that taxes were only gonna be the tip of that iceberg. You suddenly realise that that Brochure to Adulthood was full of lies. You suddenly have too many commitments and you feel like the more you try to accomplish, the less you actually get done.
Now, imagine the above – coupled with the fact that you are a business owner too. What do you think happens then? Well you guessed it – all hell breaks loose.
I’m guessing the daily planner notepad comes in here then?
Precisely.
It’s actually ironic that as a freelance copywriter, I only started carrying a daily planner at the end of June 2021. But this was also due to an increase in the number of projects that came my way, which made me realise I could not escape my destiny any longer. So I got a planner.
I assume any business owner with good sense knows it’s common sense to have a planner (except me). That aside, keeping a daily planner to help plan my days and weeks in advance is the BEST thing that has happened to me in recent months.
And here’s why:
1. Guidance & Organisation.
As you would imagine already, you can jot down plans/tasks in your planner days and weeks in advance. But I quickly realised that writing them down did not necessarily mean I had to carry those activities out on that day. But creating a habit of writing in and checking my daily planner notepad everyday made me ‘aware’ of these tasks.
Strangely enough, what this means is that this did not make it easy for me remember tasks. Instead, it made it difficult for me to forget tasks. I realised that at any one time, I instantly remember roughly 10 out of 12 tasks I had written down for that week. Even the upcoming birthdays and social media SEO tasks I would normally forget. And all of this is simply because I wrote them down.
When you write down a task, it takes on a life of its own – and proceeds to live in your head rent-free. This daily ‘awareness’ of upcoming tasks allows you time to think, prioritize and/or procrastinate in a healthy way.
2. Strong Sense of Accomplishment.
I had completely forgotten the sense of accomplishment that comes with striking through a list of accomplished tasks one after the other. This was a routine task back when I used to work in restaurant kitchens. And I simply never took it on – until 2 years later.
Believe me when I say this: completing a task well is its own reward. It does not matter how trivial this task is. For me, the momentum and satisfaction from completing one task carry on to the next task, and the next. This may seem like common sense, but it took a daily planner notepad for me to understand this.
3. Improved Mental Health.
This is last, but definitely not the least. The strange thing is that I actually have a lot more to do these days, but in terms of my work and my personal life. But having a daily planner notepad provides a certain level of guidance and structure I could never have imagined. I do a LOT more, yet I feel a lot LESS stressed.
My motivation to meet my personal goals is actually a lot higher, and this is a complete turnaround from 3 months ago. I believe the mental structure my daily planner provides plays an important role in this – amongst other things. Even when I do procrastinate, I still complete the outstanding tasks with more than enough time to spare, thereby allowing me to enjoy my leisure activities and recharge as a reward.
And that’s it. 3 key benefits of keeping a daily planner notepad.
Do you use a planner? If so, why? If, not, why? Do share your views in the comments. And feel free to check out my other blog posts here for quality content.
Thank you.
