5 Things to Do When You’re Too Busy to Plan

Sometimes…life just gets in the way. (ME over the past month, ugh!) It is further complicated by the multiple roles we play in different life areas—family, work, our community, etc. Every day, we try our best to juggle many responsibilities while maintaining a balance that allows us to effectively meet all our commitments as well as pursue personal passions. But…there are times when one life area becomes overwhelmingly busy, monopolizing our time and focus, causing everything else to fall to the wayside. We switch from ‘proactive mode’ to ‘reactive mode’ because we’re too busy to plan. Yes, it can be stressful but it’s not the end of the world. Just take a breath and read on for 5 tips on how you can stay productive ‘thru the storm’ when you’re too busy to plan.

If you’re a new reader to my blog, ‘Welcome!’. For all my existing blog friends, let’s tackle the elephant in the room. No, I haven’t been on vacation (I wish!) or taken a break from my blog. I’ve actually been trying to write this blogpost for the past month and either kept getting pulled away or just didn’t have the mental energy to write. So where have I been and how is it related to this blogpost?

My Planning System

If you follow my blog or YouTube channel, you know I’m a multiple planner user who prefers to dedicate a separate planner to each main life areas (makes it easier to manage—you’ll soon see why!):

• Primary Planner (for personal, family, fitness, finances, and home; stays home)
• Work Planner (for my regular 9-to-5 job, managing multiple projects as an IT Professional; stays at the office)
• Content Planner (for my blog, YouTube, and social media; stays home)
• *Bonus* On-the-Go Planner (portable planner for taking quick notes and scheduling appointments while out and about town; not shown but the only one that leaves the house)

This has been my planning system for the past few years and its worked very well for me. Unfortunately, the pages in my primary and content planners have been mostly blank for the past few weeks—except for any important/urgent items—because work has completely taken over my time and attention. Currently, I have three software projects that are in the final stages of being released which requires A LOT of ‘final checks’, careful coordination with multiple teams, and lots of documentation while tackling any obstacles that come up along the way—and there have already been some doozies! Check out the pictures below to see what just ONE WEEK in my primary/content planner has looked like over the past month as opposed to just one week in my work planner:

To see how I usually plan in my primary planner, check out my Jibun Techo Functional Plan With Me. For work, I use the bullet journal method to manage not only my work load but also manage multiple projects. To learn more about my layouts as well as how I use color coding in the office, check out:  Work Bullet Journal Functional Plan With Me – Part 1, Work Bullet Journal Functional Plan With Me – Part 2, and Using Color Coding at the Office.

Too Busy to Plan

Over the past month, my work responsibilities have overshadowed and encroached on all my other life areas. It’s dominated my thoughts and focus—even during off hours—not leaving me with much energy to do much else. Its been very stressful and extremely draining but there are some techniques I’ve found to be helpful in making sure that my other life areas are not badly affected during this time.

First, I use the same techniques I previously wrote about in a blogpost titled 3 Tips to Help You Stay Productive When You’re Sick. When you’re distracted by one overwhelming life area, the effects from failing to plan are very similar to when you’re sick and ‘unavailable’ so these techniques are also effective in this situation.

5 Things To Do When You’re Too Busy to Plan

In addition to those 3 tips, below are 5 things you should do to help get you thru this stressful time:

#1 – Forgive Yourself

It’s very easy to beat yourself up for not doing enough, letting things fall thru the cracks, and not meeting any [unrealistic] expectations of perfection. Just stop all that negative self-talk and remind yourself that you’re doing the best you can with what you have and that there’s only so many hours in a day. It’s going to be OK.

#2 – Focus on the Job at Hand

If this life area has risen to a level of importance that warrants  all your focus and energy, then buckle down and try to complete it as soon as possible. The quicker you get the job done, the quicker you’ll be able to get back to your other life areas.

#3 – Get Support

Who is affected by your shift in focus? For example, if you’re a parent and work is taking up all your time, then your family will surely notice and be impacted by your physical or mental absence. Be proactive and let them know what’s going on, how it’s going to affect them, tell them what you need in terms of support, and decide together what they can do to help.

#4 – Daily Morning Check-In

I learned this one the hard way. Every Sunday night, I tried to do a ‘lightening fast’ planning session and quickly jot down any important/urgent appointments and tasks for the week. So what happened? I broke the golden rule: I forgot to look at my planner! I was so busy throughout the day then so exhausted at night that I didn’t look at my planner again until the end of the week and, yes, some things fell thru the cracks. To prevent this from happening, I’m using a 2-step approach: (1) I quickly look at my planner first thing in the morning BEFORE I start work and (2) I enter anything that is time-sensitive into my smartphone calendar and set an alarm to alert me.

#5 – Take Time For Yourself

This is another thing I had to remind myself to do. This guidance is two-fold:

1. Take time to take care of yourself whether it be to exercise, drink water, relax, or do something enjoyable (I haven’t watercolored in weeks!).
2. Take the time you need—specifically the ‘time away’—to get thru this phase. The most frustrating thing for me is that I haven’t had the time or energy to sit down and write any blogposts, interact on social media, or film more YouTube videos. Every week I would make a list of what I wanted to do and when I sat down at the end of the day, I just couldn’t—I could barely summon the energy to think. I just wanted to do something ‘mindless’ like listening to music, binge-watch shows on Netflix, or sleep! With every passing week, I felt more guilty and disappointed in my inability to produce content. I soon came to realize that I just had to accept my current reality and give myself this ‘time away’ to deal with this busy time at work. Forcing myself to blog before I was ready, would jeopardize my ability to put out quality content and be a huge disservice to my readers, a responsibility I take very seriously. Work is only going to dominate my time for another month or two then I’ll be back to my regular plannernerd self. In the meantime, I can use this opportunity to gather some ‘lessons learned’ and post when time allows.

I sincerely hope you found this blogpost helpful in some way. I finally finished this post the weekend after Spring Break because I had tiny break from work (I was only able to take one day off because of my workload, ugh!). I will do my best to keep up with my content, resume my regular posting schedule as soon as I can, and share anything I feel might be helpful to those of you in a similar situation. That said, if anyone has any tips or techniques for dealing with unusually busy times, I’d love to hear from you in the comments below! Also don’t forget to like, share, and subscribe. 🙂

Until next time, (hopefully very soon!)

♥ LilD ♥