Procrastination might not seem like a significant problem; we ignore it. Still, procrastination is very dangerous; it distracts us from our tasks and projects, lowers productivity, and the repercussions include failure to achieve progress. All you need to beat procrastination is a focus planner.
A focus planner is an ultimate tool that can help you retain constant focus on your tasks, limit distraction, and help you avoid procrastination. Millions of people worldwide use focus planners to achieve better results in less time.
Let us discover the fundamentals of focus planners that you should be aware of.
1. Set Up Priorities
When we talk about focus planners, we are not talking about a daily diary or journal; we mean an application-based focus planner that has quite a number of features. The prioritization feature is very valuable and can help you in multiple ways.
When we are onto our daily tasks and projects, there are several tasks that we have to accomplish, daily or weekly. Although all the tasks need to be completed, there is a bifurcation in the importance of the tasks, so some tasks are more critical than others. For this reason, we need the feature of prioritization.
The feature of setting up priorities helps you align your tasks according to their importance. Simply, this feature helps you allocate your time to the most important tasks so that these are finished off early, and the ones that are comparatively less important can be completed after it.
This feature provides you with the functionality of the Eisenhower matrix; now, if you don’t know what it is, don’t worry. The Eisenhower matrix helps you divide your tasks into four categories based on their importance and how urgent they need to be completed. Let’s have a look at the four categories.
- Do It Now: Any task that needs to be completed immediately; and is an equally important set in this category. To simplify it with an example, for instance, the installation of the new machinery so that production can get started; if this task is among the list of tasks, then it would come into the category of “Do It Now.”
- Schedule It: Any task that needs to be completed but does not immediately come into the category of schedule it. So, for instance, sales meetings, this sales meeting is essential, but there isn’t an immediate need to conduct this meeting, so what we will do is schedule it for later, like upcoming Monday.
- Delegate It: in this category, those tasks are placed that are needed to be completed urgently but are not necessary. This quadrant of the Eisenhower matrix is especially useful for managers. For example, managers might delegate tasks like updating sales data sheets to subordinates.
- Don’t Do It: These tasks are not urgent and also not necessary. These tasks could be time-wasters and reap no reward. These tasks are better to be avoided; for instance, these tasks could include binge-watching.
The Eisenhower matrix is one one the most interactive charts that allows the bifurcation of the tasks in the easiest way. The division allows you to understand each task comprehensively and prioritize them accordingly.
2. Time Tracking
One of the essential features of a focus planner is time tracking. Digital focus planners can track time; this is very helpful for managers. There are several benefits of focus planner’s time tracking, and we are going to have a look at these.
The first and most important benefit of time tracking is that it optimizes the focus on the task. As the time is being tracked, the assignees would focus solely on that task. This would block distractions and enhance performance.
Secondly, time tracking can help in the performance evaluation of both employees and the project. As the time on the project is tracked, it becomes easy to evaluate how productive the assignee is. The performance evaluation raises the bar of transparency. Employees would try their projects and tasks.
Thirdly, time tracking helps you to minimize the project cast; how? Well, as long as the project is delayed, the cost would rise; for instance, the daily operations costs of the project must be incurred. But, as mentioned earlier, time tracking helps promptly complete tasks and projects; this ensures that projects are not delayed and that no extra time and, more importantly, money is incurred.
Lastly, time tracking provides information that can help managers to make data-driven decisions. As the data is available from the time tracked on the project, it becomes easy for the manager to analyze the critical information like bottlenecks of the project, best performers, and much more.
3. Task Management
The overall task management optimizes with a focus planner. The focus planner helps you to understand every aspect of the project. Efficient and effective focus planner’s task management is necessary for the timely completion of projects and tasks, and this is ensured by focus planning.
As mentioned earlier, the features of a focus planner are designed to help you understand the most integral tasks; one such feature is HITs (High Impact Tasks). These could come into the category of Do It Now. These tasks directly impact the project’s completion or success as they are identified with a focus planner so they can be worked on.
As the HITs are identified and worked over, this helps you and your team to get over the most critical segments of the projects and tasks. As the HITs are completed, the chances of the project’s success considerably increase.
4. Goal Attainment
One of the best things about a focus planner is that it helps you and your team in focus planning, which leads to goal attainment. Goal attainment is the most important thing for the team and organization. If the goal is not achieved, all the time, money, and other resources are just wasted.
The focus planner helps align the core organizational goals with the operational activities; this means that activities are designed so that completion leads to goal achievement.
5. Getting Organized
The focus planner helps you get organized in your routine management. Using the focus planner, you will align your projects and tasks with dates and deadlines. So there wouldn’t be confusion about which activities and tasks to do first. As the task organization enhances, you can benefit from it.
When the task organization is inch-perfect, the operational activities can be executed quickly. Therefore, the first and foremost priority for any team should be the immediate execution of the project, which can be done using a focus planner.
As the project and daily activities get organized, it reduces stress and mess. For example, suppose a project is well-organized and planned using a focus planner. In that case, this means all the roles, responsibilities, and tasks would be adequately communicated to the team members. As a result, the managers would be more relaxed as every team member knows what to do.
The project organization has another added advantage: as the team roles and responsibilities are coherently communicated, the communication among the team members would be excellent. As a result, the communication barriers between the team members would reduce, and everyone would be better aware of the developments.
6. Weekly Review
The digital focus planner provides all the information on your weekly performances. This is a graphical view of all your daily activities within a week.
Firstly, as you have all the information about your daily activities and tasks, you can see where you have allocated your time, you can know how many vital tasks and HITs you have done. Moreover, you can evaluate whether all the weekly tasks planned are accomplished, and how close you are in achieving your goals.
The weekly review feature also helps you know how focused and dedicated your team has been throughout the week. In addition, this feature lets you know which team projects have been completed and which are pending.
7. Daily Summary
The daily summary feature of the focus planner helps you know how many daily tasks have been completed. This feature shows you the tasks you and your team members have completed.
Daily summary gives you a thorough outlook on the daily operations; managers can have quick overviews of which tasks were completed tomorrow and which tasks the team will be working on.
The feature of a daily summary is essential for knowing whether you are following your schedule or not; this feature has a list of daily tasks, and as the tasks are completed, they can be ticked to mark as done.
8. Pomodoro Timer
If you want a magical way to enhance your focus on your task so that these are accomplished as early as possible without encountering any burnout, then we know a way for you. The Pomodoro Timer is an essential tool especially for reputable business owners that can help to achieve better productivity.
If you haven’t heard what the Pomodoro timer is, then don’t worry. We will tell you. The Pomodoro timer is a timer that helps you to maintain focus on your tasks while also taking short breaks.
For instance, you are working on a task, so using the Pomodoro timer, you can work with a deep focus for 25 minutes, take a break for 5 minutes to regain your energy, and then continue this cycle onwards.
The Pomodoro timer, mostly known as the Pomodoro technique, is a critical way to boost your focus on tasks. Regular intervals as you take breaks for a short period avoid burnout during work.
The Pomodoro technique is an essential aspect of a focus planner. This tool is used by many reputable business owners worldwide and is becoming increasingly prevalent.
9. Journal
The digitized journal of the focus planners helps you to jot down notes. These notes could be related to the tasks you are performing or are going to perform. A journal is an effective tool for countless reasons.
The best part about using the journal of focus planner is that it helps you remember the crux of the important tasks of your online business that tend to be lengthy and complicated. Adding to this, as the crux of these tasks is jotted down, these tasks become easy to understand for everyone.
A piece of advice is to use journals to add notes on the relevance of the task. However, these notes can also be jotted down in accordance with the timelines and dates. This lets you have the hold of every project and task.
10. Time Management
Focus planning is essential for time management. If you have an online business and you use a focus planner, your task scheduling is streamlined, and all the projects you set are to be completed in an orderly manner.
As there is a proper order of each project of your online business with respect to time and the importance of the tasks, this stresses the importance of completion within deadlines; this enhances time management. Since time management is optimized with the focus planner, it helps in perforce elevation of the team, time-saving, enhancement in both effectiveness and efficiency, and many other added benefits.
FAQs
By now, we know that the focus planner app is a great tool and better than its alternatives like a paper planner. If there is some sort of confusion in your head regarding the focus planner, here are some FAQs that can provide satisfactory answers.
1. How can I avail the services of a focus planner?
The focus planner is a built-in feature of a digital planner; as you avail subscribe to digital planners, you can easily avail the feature of a focus planner. Digital planners are affordable planners with several other features like goal planners, daily planning tools, to-do lists, and many more.
2. Do focus planners guarantee all the benefits mentioned above?
Well, here is the thing if the focus planners and quarterly planners are used sincerely and with utmost willingness, then only you can reap the benefits. You have to be committed to yourself, and then the rest is on a focus planner that will help you navigate your daily, weekly, quarterly, and annual goals.
3. Why should I choose a focus planner over a paper planner?
For various reasons, focus planners are better than paper planners. The focus planner helps you in gathering and storing information. As the focus planner is a service provided on a digital platform, the data can be stored and can be used for future planning and other purposes.
Comparatively, paper planners are prone to loss, the diaries and paper journals are often lost, and this causes the loss of important data and notes. The paper planners also don’t provide the level of interactives the focus planners provide.
4. How relevant are focus planners?
Focus planners have become increasingly relevant because we live in a fast-paced world. It is important for everyone to elevate their performance and productivity so that they can achieve more success. Focus planning helps you achieve meaningful success and drives positive life changes.
5. Is a focus planner easy to use?
Yes, a focus planner is not just a great tool but a very easy one. Most focus planners’ user experience is excellent, and the interface is awesome. Most focus planners are intuitive and easy to use. These are designed while keeping customers’ convenience in mind.
Even if you are new and a beginner while using the focus planner, don’t worry; you can learn how to make the best of it, its features, and its functionalities in no time.
The TakeAway
We have thoroughly understood what a focus planner is, its benefits, and its important aspects. We have also gone through how most asked questions on focus planners. By now, you would have only one question: which digital planner provides the best feature of a focus planner? The answer to this is a Week Plan.
Week Plan is the best digital planner, and the feature of the focus planner it provides is just stunning. The focus planner provides every list of features and benefits stated above. So don’t go elsewhere. A piece of advice is to avail our services at the most affordable rates, improve your focus, and make your task planning better with Week Plan.
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