Expect the unexpected

Good Monday morning to all!

I have to go out to see a client today and before I leave, I need to finish revising my To Do list.  I had made my list on Friday afternoon before leaving the office and then at 4:30pm, the unexpected happened!  A call from a client needing me to come in to their office and help them out.

Which made me remember one of the most important things about having a To Do List - always anticipate those unexpected events which will throw your carefully laid plans into turmoil.  Because no matter how well you plan your day something always seems to happen to change the shape of it.  In fact, if I ever plan a day out and it goes the way I planned, then I'm usually completely thrown.  The unexpected for me is when things go according to plan!

A great way to plan for the unexpected is to realise that things will happen which you couldn't predict and allow extra time in your day for that.  So for example, if you have an 8 hour working day and you have 8 x 1 hour tasks to do (just to make it simple), then whatever you do, DONT put all them on your task list for today!  Because as sure as you do, the phone will ring, someone will send an urgent email, that easy task will require extra research and before you know it, you've only ticked off five things.

So plan carefully, be REALISTIC in what you can achieve in a day and you will save yourself a headache... and you'll tick off everything on your list.  And when things do change, don't beat yourself up about it, just have a look at your next few days and make new plans.

I must dash - have a great Monday and see you next time.