Planner Case Study

CASE STUDY:

The R3 Planner

Meet Linda

Linda is a middle school history teacher of 15 years. She and her husband, Bob, have three children, Benny (16), Sarah (13), and Alan (5).

Linda and Bob have spent the majority of their adult lives raising their children. Linda, now 42 years old, has contemplated changing careers, but she carries the insurance benefits for her family with her teaching job. She really values being a mentor to her students and would like to build a business that would give her more flexibility with her time during the day and would be less mentally and emotionally draining. She has made some strides with setting up a website and has worked with some clients pro bono. However, she finds it hard to make consistent progress because her evenings are consumed by her children's activities.

OVERVIEW

Below you will be able to observe how Linda started using the 9 planning tools in The R3 Planner to begin transforming her old way of doing things.

In general, this process takes approximately 3 - 5 hours to complete. By doing this individuals can shift a significant amount of their planning to the beginning of the month and, thereby, reduce the burden of excessive planning throughout the month.

*FOR BEST RESULTS PLEASE VIEW THE FOLLOWING ON A TABLET OR COMPUTER SCREEN*

INSTRUCTIONS

Use the menu below and corresponding tabs to navigate through Linda's planning process.

If preferred, you may also download these items to help you follow along.

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Monthly Planning Tools

Occurrence:

Fill in on the first day of each month (or the day prior)

Function:

Serves to clarify vision

Procedure:

Write exactly how you feel about the vision in that moment; then reference from month to month to build clarity

Notes on Linda:

While Linda is currently a teacher, she wrote down what she sees herself doing. (Think of vision as "what you want out of life.")

Occurrence:

Fill in on the first day of each month (or the day prior); add to it as necessary throughout the month

Function:

Serves as a timeline and reference point for quantifying the remaining time to complete goals and/or major responsibilities

Procedure:

Record major recurring deadlines as well as significant deadlines/benchmarks for the respective month

Notes on Linda:

Note that Linda set a deadline of the 7th to finish student folders; this was likely a prerequisite to the One-on-one meetings she implemented with students

Occurrence:

Fill out on the first day of each month (or the day prior)

Function:

Serves to create an accurate snapshot of what an individual should focus on and help him or her establish actions for implementation

Procedure:

Work from left to right starting at the bottom row and then moving to the middle row and then the top row

Notes on Linda:

Assuming that Linda completed this matrix for her and her husband, the two of them actually make less per month ($88 less) than their total monthly expenses (Box 1); The initial projected balance for the month of $751 (Box 8) was based on the sum of their existing account balance and monthly income minus their total monthly expenses; throughout the month they added additional income and subtracted additional expenses from their initial projected balance

Weekly Planning Tools

Occurrence:

Fill this in either EVERY morning before starting the day or the night before

Function:

Increase efficiency and productivity throughout the day and reduce stress (statistics show that planning for 12 - 15 minutes to start the day can save 2 - 3 hours of wasted time)

Procedure:

Reference your weekly schedule and transfer the activities for the respective day to your daily agenda (you don't have to include every detail but just enough to provide the structure for your day); include any daily tasks on the right side and fit them in where most convenient

Notes on Linda:

Because Linda already has the basic structure for her day (from the Monday column of her Weekly Schedule), it becomes easier for her to see where her daily tasks can fit; by practicing this approach, Linda reduces the stress of not knowing how she will get things done

Occurrence:

Fill in on the first day of each month (or the day after); this should ALWAYS follow the completion of the Self-Assessment Matrix

Function:

Enables an individual to prioritize activities

Procedure:

Distribute the action items created in the self-assessment matrix (the 3rd column) to their respective category (Note: Responsibilities can be considered activities such as "work duties" and/or other personal obligations, some of which an individual may not have written on the self-assessment matrix)

Notes on Linda:

Linda is a school teacher. Planning lessons and grading papers did not show up in the 3rd column of her matrix but she is aware that she needs to fit in an approximate amount of time per week to complete these work duties satisfactorily; therefore, she records them in her Action Organizer as a "Responsibility"

Occurrence:

Fill this out after completion of Action Organizer

Function:

Enables individuals to paint a broad picture of their time usage in order to establish a daily reference point; individuals can make modifications as necessary

Procedure:

(1) Fill in all of your existing routine items (e.g., drive to work, take kids to school, favorite tv show, etc.)

(2) Fill in your "Long-term goals & responsibilities" where there are empty blocks of time

(3) Fill in your "Short-term goals" in remaining blocks (no more than two short-term goals at a time)

NOTE: If you find that you do not have enough time to fit some items, you can (1) modify the time you allotted in your action organizer, (2) defer some of those actions to a later month, and/or (3) look into how you can reduce the time demands of your existing routine activities

Notes on Linda:

One of Linda's dilemmas had been that she felt her time in the evenings was consumed by her kids' activities. By laying her time out and analyzing it, Linda was able to shift the majority of her goal activities to earlier in the day; for instance, she realized that the hour and fifteen minutes she had designated for lunch could be used to work on her website

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