fabiochiu/medium-articles huggingface dataset:
Renewed fear
By: S Prawin Visesh
Tags: Planning, Newsletter, Wealth, Investing, India

Renewed fear

Bullwhips are here to stay

The new virus strain is 70% more transmissible than before. In Europe, equities slumped the most since October as neighbours closed their borders to the UK. We saw a knee-jerk reaction globally — the US Dollar strengthened, and oil prices plunged.

The new strain threatened optimism over a vaccine-fuelled rebound in economic growth.

Indian equities also witnessed a significant shakeout — economically sensitive sectors, such as banking, infrastructure and autos, took a hit. Similarly, sectors sensitive to exports and imports — metals, commodities and energy saw a negative impact and continue to underperform as border restrictions could hit their supply chains. At the same time, defensives — IT and pharmaceuticals — are seeing flows despite current volatility.

DIIs were net sellers in December

With the Fed keeping rates low on all their recent policy meetings, money continues to flow, out of developed markets, to emerging markets (particularly India). On the other hand, domestic institutions — including mutual funds — were net sellers.

We could see flows taper down from here.

High valuations and Trump threatening to stop a new COVID bill, could be dampeners, and we could see more volatility before the year ends.

Improvements in consumer sentiment

The Refinitiv Ipsos Primary Consumer Sentiment Index was up 2.1 percentage points in December — positive momentum in employment and economic expectations Retail inflation declined to a 3 month low of 6.9% in November, led by easing food prices — however, core inflation (excluding food and crude oil) stood at a 2-year high of 5.5% According to a report by Boston Consulting Group, household consumption would reach pre-COVID levels only by 2022 —but, consumption would grow at 11% CAGR till 2030 as contributions from tier 2 and tier 3 cities would persist Toll collections grew by 10% year-on-year in November — this points to an improvement in consumer and commercial mobility.

Improvements in domestic business activity

Nomura India Business Resumption Index reported an improvement to 92.9 for the week ending 13 December, from 89.6 in the week before — increased power demand, labour participation and mobility were key drivers Owing to a low base effect, advance tax paid by companies rose by 50% year-on-year in the December quarter — this is still too early to expect a rebound in corporate earnings Indian exports contracted by 8.7% in November, compared to 5.1% in October — renewed restrictions, across trading partners, has reduced export demand

A llocation changes

We continue to remain cautious on equity. We are evaluating options to redeploy while safeguarding gains. Meanwhile, we continue to deploy gold.
모두싸인에서 PM으로 일하기
By: Yoolee Song
Tags: Modusign, Product Management, Planning, Engineering, 모두싸인

Learn more. Medium is an open platform where 170 million readers come to find insightful and dynamic thinking. Here, expert and undiscovered voices alike dive into the heart of any topic and bring new ideas to the surface. Learn more

Make Medium yours. Follow the writers, publications, and topics that matter to you, and you’ll see them on your homepage and in your inbox. Explore
Financial Blunders I Made So Now You Don’t Have To Make Them
By: Sharone T James
Tags: Money, Planning, Productivity, Finance, Loss

Setting Goals That Were Too Low In a Sense

One of the things that I wanted to mention here is that my goals — I kind of think that they were too low in a sense, and maybe you might find some value in this.

I read Grant Cardones’ book called The 10 X Rule, and one of the primary points was that you should really 10x your goals and I found this to be so true because, for example — for my goals for 2019, I set five primary goals that I wanted to hit.



Some of them were monetary, some of them were totally unrelated to finances, but I’ve had two of them hit so far. I’m hoping to hit the third one, but there’s no way I’m going to hit all five of my goals, and I think if you’re hitting all of your goals, your goals might be too low.

Now, I’ll give you an example here —

Say that in the next five years, you want to save $50K, you want to have $50K invested or in your bank account.



But what if you sort of increase that goal to say you want to have $500,000 in the next five years?

Now, that might sound like a lot of money — you might say.

Well, I only get paid $40K per year — How is that possible?

You can find that if you set these goals that are not absolutely outlandish, but something that seems a little bit far away — then you can then work towards them.

But what if you set that goal for $500K and five years later you have $300K?



Well, sure, you didn’t hit that goal, but it’s a hell of a lot more than if you set that goal for, say, $50K saved and invested by that time.

So set those goals a little bit higher without putting something where it’s absolutely insane like if you want to make a billion dollars next year — that might be a little bit difficult, and if you set them too difficult, that’s going to get to the point where you might become discouraged.
yoU don’t want to do it?
By: Phil Wall
Tags: Goals, Planning, Motivation, Long Term Thinking, Self Discipline

PERSONAL DEVELOPMENT

yoU don’t want to do it?

From Al Ho — Unsplash

You DON’T want to apologize. You DON’T want to workout. You DON’T want to save for retirement. You DON’T want to put effort into your relationship… You DON’T want to, so you don’t.

You DO want to go drinking with your buddies. You DO want to have cake and ice cream. You DO want to buy that new HD TV… You DO want to, so you do.

You don’t want to do something, so you don’t. You want to do something, so you do. Why?

Because there are no immediate consequences, there’s no pain attributed to your actions.

Divorce doesn’t happen overnight. It happens slowly, unofficially over months years, and then, all of a sudden — and we wonder what just happened.

Being fat or having terrible finances doesn’t happen overnight. It’s gradual. It’s poor daily decisions, then all of a sudden there it is, you’re fat and broke.

Then there are things you don’t want to do, but you do them because you “have to.” Pay your mortgage. Go to work. Put gas in the car.

You have a job it gives you a certain lifestyle. Try not showing up a few times next month because you don’t feel like going. See what happens.

Immediate consequences keep you in line.

Immediate loss of income, family relationships are stressed, kids can’t get the hockey gear they need, no trip to Mexico, the bank forecloses on the house… Sudden pain. That’s why you do it.

Brutal honesty.

If I ran my life and made all my decisions based on what I want to do, my life would be a tragic story of never achieving anything.

I would blame everyone and everything for where I am in life.

I would not be winning. If I’m not winning, I’m losing.

If I’m not a winner, I’m a loser.

There is another way.

Winning in life, getting ahead, requires doing things you don’t have to or want to do.

The author doing box jumps.

You have to or don’t want to, but you do because you have a long-term vision.

Make tough decisions early on, life is not so tough later on.

It’s easier NOT to make tough decisions because there are zero immediate awesome results.

I want a nice set of abs. I workout twice, I look in the mirror, no abs.

I want to be a millionaire. I save 10% each paycheque for a few months; I check the bank, not rich.

Tom Brady, Tiger Woods, and Sidney Crosby weren’t great athletes on day one or year one. It took years of doing what no one else was willing to do.

Sara Blakely, Oprah Winfrey — both years in the making.

Great things take time to mature.

Your long-term vision determines your daily choices.

Remember this — If you have no vision in the future, you have no power in the present.

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Steps to design and develop a fully functional web apps
By: Peter Son
Tags: Web Design, Knowhow, Web Development, Planning

Define your project

Start by defining the goal of your project. This can be showing your portfolio to the world, selling an e-book, building a blog, etc.

Also, define your audience. Ask yourself: which is the typical user that will visit my website?

Plan out everything

Once your project is defined, plan your content carefully. This includes text, images, videos, icons, etc.

Brainstorming with visual hierarchy. Always focus on the mobile-first approach. It means that you should design for the content, instead of designing a webpage and then filling it with a mobile-first design.

Define navigation.

Define the site structure. You can draw a sitemap in this step if we’re talking about a bigger project.

Sketch your ideas

Then, get the ideas out of your head. And with that I mean you should sketch your ideas before you start designing. It will help you explore ideas and create a concept of what you want to build. Using a pencil and paper is a great way of quickly retaining your valuable ideas.

Make as many sketches as you want, but don’t spend too much time perfecting anything. Once you have an initial idea, you can concentrate on the details when designing in markup/template/style languages.

Design and develop your website

After sketching, start to design your website using all the guidelines and tips you’ve learned in the web design section.

You’ll do that using HTML and SCSS. There are so many website text editor and tools these days. Pick the right ones. It also saves you tons of time.

Write clean and reusable codes. This habit will come in handy if anyone else looks at your code.

It’s not done yet: optimisation
Skills for your CV in Public Relations
By: Nikita Bajaj
Tags: Planning, Organisational Skills, Skills, Cv, Public Relations

Skills for your CV in Public Relations

Studying public relations gives you professional knowledge and practical skills in client management, media communication and ethical practice.

Identifying your achievements from work experience opportunities or assignments could help you match your relevant skills and strengths for specific roles and types of clients.

Employers will be looking for skills and potential in areas including:

communication skills – strong written, oral, visual and presentation ability

managing pressure – dealing with issues and crises

event and project skills – planning, managing and leading a public relations function

technology skills – understanding how to use social media channels and technology for PR

business awareness – knowing how business and PR work together effectively

media skills – having the ability to communicate with journalists and broadcasters while managing a client’s reputation

organisation skills – managing your own and client schedules.

Image source
Role of Production Planning and Control in Industry
By: Suyash Jain
Tags: Types Of Production, Planning, PPC, Production, Control

Role of Production Planning and Control in Industry

Types of Production

(1) Unit type of production.

(2) Batch type of Production.

(3) Mass Production or Flow production.

(4) Continuous production or Process production

Unit type of production

In the unit type of production, the company manufactures the same product in larger quantities. This is the most prevalent type of production. This type of production uses in small startups or small industries. Because small startups or small industries initially manufacture one or two products.

Examples of Unit Types of Production — Textile companies, cake bakeries, and food industries, etc.

Benefits of Unit type of production

(A) This type of production requires very little cost.

(B) Possible to manufacture a large amount of product in a short time.

(c) Reduces workers’ effort which gives them more time for planning.
GeeklyHub Reviews 7 Ways to Get Ready for 2021
Tags: 2021 Prediction, 2021, Planning

GeeklyHub Reviews

You might be wondering about what will the upcoming year bring along as it comes just like we all do. Nevertheless, our restless team at GeeklyHub decided to think over some helpful ideas that will help you to get ready for 2021. Starting from learning a new language to joining a great online course, the opportunities that you have will make it a great start and will make your life feel different. Of course, we all hope that things will be much better in 2021 and that we shall be able to travel and turn to things that we just could not do in 2020. Keeping this fact in mind, we know what it takes to bring all this dreaming to a new level.
Don’t Fall in Love with the Plan
By: One In A Billion Productions
Tags: Planning, Blog, Podcast, Asian American, Covid 19

By: Mable Chan

The week before Thanksgiving, I read a blog written by an initially happy mom who quickly turned cranky and punchy. “KaBOOM!” She wrote as if a speedboat just rammed into her sailboat getting ready to leave the dock. Well, her Thanksgiving trip had just been abruptly canceled. Covid, again, has torpedoed her family outings, sending her oldest child into a wailing fit — “I feel like we’re never getting out of here!”

Have you ever felt that way? You plan, you plan, and you plan, but things happened. Forces beyond your control scuttle your plan. You’re stuck, you feel doomed.

My husband and I felt bummed out as well last March when we had to

cancel a planned trip in April to visit friends and family in Utah and California whom we hadn’t seen in a long time. We did so out of an abundance of caution after we watched TV and read news reports that extra layers of security checkpoints at the airport and extra crowded conditions were ideal breeding grounds for the coronavirus. We changed course. We stayed home. In doing so, we moved from “the plan” to “the pivot.”

The pivot mode is light-footed and flexible, ready to swivel, and even to scrap “the plan” and start from scratch when we discern new information that steers us to a new direction. I confess that I am very much guided by General Eisenhower’s battle hymn “Plans are worthless, planning is everything” The point here is that the minute you hit the ground, your plans are subject to forces and conditions (externally and internally) that will interfere, upset and upend your plan. But in “planning”, you get into the mode of anticipating unexpectancies or emergencies. It will be this psychological readiness to watch out for surprises and your willingness to adapt to changing circumstances and to detach from “the plan” that will free you to recalculate and set new directions for success.

Last month, a close friend enthusiastically proclaimed that she had “a plan” for her future. Her excitement was palpable and enviable — she’d found a viable route out of a rut in her current job of two years. Her plan involves applying to numerous attractive graduate programs at various prestigious universities that are located in different historically and culturally rich cosmopolitan cities that appeal to her fancy. I was delighted to hear about her “plan” and encouraged her to think critically about her vocational purposes and contingency options. When “a plan” sounds very attractive, we have a tendency to fall in love with it. Don’t. In the age of Covid-19, preparedness for emergencies trumps a set plan.

Know your exit. Know your options. Be flexible. Be OK with second or third best. We live in unusual times, but soon enough, our DNA will be coded with antibodies against surprises because we’d become so used to anticipating emergencies. We have increased our capacities for KaBOOM in our lives. We may never be immune to feeling let down at first, but we can also rebound faster on our feet and aim differently.
BoPS sprint notes (22.12.20)
By: Michelle Ann Isme
Tags: Digital Transformation, Digital Planning, Planning

We are well into the second sprint for the private beta phase of BoPS — building a user centred and more efficient Back-office Planning System.

Since picking up BoPS again, in late November, we’ve implemented the infrastructure that will allow different planning authorities to receive applications (see our previous sprint notes), prototyped new validation features (in collaboration with a planner in Buckinghamshire), and had our first Show and Tell.

We have also developed a beta version of a production ready documented API, that any applicant facing service can use to submit certificates of lawful development applications to us. This means that we are effectively ready to begin beta testing as soon as we receive application data - bring on 2021! :)

In the current sprint we’ve also developed a couple of new features that will:

make it easier for planners to manage and edit the documents that are submitted with applications e.g adding and removing tags, so it’s easier to identify which drawing is which.

make it quicker to check the validity of applications e.g displaying a payment reference and whether the application is for proposed or existing work.

You can keep an eye on what else we’re up to by checking out our public backlog: https://trello.com/b/KQqYJd7W

We really welcome any thoughts and feedback on our work — please add a comment below.

Photo by Jay Mullings on Unsplash

We’d also love to hear from any planning teams who are interested in finding out more about BoPS and /or getting involved in helping us to design or user test further functionality in the future. Get in touch with our Product Owner, Tom, at: tom.buttrick@southwark.gov.uk

We’re really looking forward to getting BoPS into the hands of planners in early 2021 — see you then!

P.S. If it’s not in your diary already, our next Show and Tell will be on Thursday, 7 January at 10.30am (as always we’ll be streaming to YouTube and you’ll be able to tune in at: https://rebrand.ly/bops-show-and-tell)
3 passos para se planejar para o que é importante
Tags: Planejamento, Para Crescer, Objetivo, Planning

Learn more. Medium is an open platform where 170 million readers come to find insightful and dynamic thinking. Here, expert and undiscovered voices alike dive into the heart of any topic and bring new ideas to the surface. Learn more

Make Medium yours. Follow the writers, publications, and topics that matter to you, and you’ll see them on your homepage and in your inbox. Explore
Top Three Tips for Planners
By: Candost Dağdeviren
Tags: Life Lessons, Life, Planning, Tips

Photo by gorana b on Unsplash

This post is first published on my personal blog.

When I started my new system, I also changed my perspective on my day-month-year plans. I didn’t know the fundamentals of planning. I always made plans, but I abandoned them after a while. Because I failed to stick to them, and I discouraged myself from making new ones. When I learned these tips, they made my schedule more flexible; everything became organized. I started achieving more than I’ve expected. I also attached to my plan more than ever.

Put a buffer around goals.

The idea of putting a buffer time around the plan is glorious. Let’s say I plan to finish a book in a week. Instead of putting a one-week timeframe in my program, I put around ten days (one and a half-day in the beginning and the end). Many unexpected things can happen in life. And this way, I make my plan adaptable to them. While my goal is still one week, I’m less likely to fail. If I cannot begin reading the book, I still have more time to start. Be flexible.

The idea is changing the plan whenever it is apparent that it will not work out. I plan my days hour by hour, so I have no other option to make my program adaptable to change. I plan my next day hourly before I go to bed. And during the day, I usually cannot stick 100% to my plan. Whenever I see that I’m moving away from my plan, I quickly rearrange it in two-three minutes. This way, I still keep ownership of my day, and I know what I want to do next. Use failure as feedback.

Related to the second tip, whenever I see that my plan is not working out anymore, I try to determine the main reason. Vital signs are always easy to see. I take note of why my plan failed, and I use these signs in my next planning. The feedback is a secret weapon of any working system.

While working on any kind of system, I keep these three things in mind. I try to apply these also to my software projects as well. So, learning these skills is helpful in different aspects of life.

One last thing to keep in mind: you don’t have to plan your days. While planning is working for me, and I quite like it, it may not be a thing for you. There are many happy people without plans. So, if you think planning is not for you, don’t feel forced to do it.

If you plan your days, what are your tips? Send a tweet to me on Twitter.
Start the new year with a new approach to planning your days
By: Robert Drury
Tags: Product Management, Goals, Planning, Productivity, New Year Resolution

Start the new year with a new approach to planning your days

I love being productive. I love ticking things off lists.

The challenge is ensuring the things that you’re ticking off the list are the ones you should be doing in order to meet the goals you want.

I’ve tried lots of different things to enable me to get through all the things I want to achieve on a daily basis.

Like you, I’m a little on the busy side.

I have a full time job, a wife and five children, I write here on Medium and maintain my own product management focused newsletter

The question becomes how do you make sure that time is put aside for each in order to meet deadlines and keep things moving forwards?

Stuff doesn’t just happen all on its own. It takes planning.

And there are four simple steps you can take to get you there.
Why Others Are Critical to An Effective Accountability System
By: Colton Hibbert
Tags: Productivity, Accountability, Planning, Success

Image by VideoHive

It’s great to be back on Medium and writing to this great community. However, this time around is a little different. Originally, my account was activated and used as a medium (pun intended) for posting assignments for a rhetorical writing class I was taking at BYU. Since then — I think it has been about two years — I have experienced a lot in life and have gathered incredible nuggets of life lessons along the way.

Consequently, that has led me back here in order to share some of what I have learned recently. This will not only be an avenue for me to create accountability for myself in “practicing what I preach,” but if anything I wrote were to help someone in their life, I would be ecstatic.

That being said, this post is a result of an important lesson I have learned on accountability. For us to reach our goals and consistently bring our best selves to each moment, it is critical that we create a system of accountability for ourselves. This can look several different ways:

Weekly review of goals with your spouse/significant other

Reporting your progress to a trusted friend, like a “gym buddy” of personal growth

Incorporating your life’s work into your calendar

Establish positive or negative rewards based on whether you reach your goals or not

A common thread in these simple aspects of an accountability system is the involvement of others. It is possible for us to be responsible for ourselves; however, doing something for someone, or something, is often a much better source of motivation.

Social learning is the learning that sticks. Thus, I am here today. I will be writing about the important things I learn in my life that I feel are significant enough to share with the world. This means that everything I write is something that I feel can help you as well. It won’t be great writing (as is already evident in this post alone), but you have to start somewhere, right?

Next time you set a goal, share your intention with someone you trust. Make them keep tabs on you about it. I promise that will increase your success rate and widen your circle of great people around you. Here’s to a productive week.
MORNING RITUALS TO KICK START YOUR DAY
Tags: Planning, Morning Rituals, Sunlight, Screentime, Make Your Bed

Every morning decides the day you are going to have as it is an important time as well.

Spend it right; the rest would be right.

I am going to share my top 5 morning rituals that set me for the day.

Click on to read more
Plan Dimensions in Film
By: Xxii Consultancy
Tags: Film, Direction, Planning, Plan Dimensions, Filmmaking

Gattaca

General Plan

Place the global action of the film

Wide perspective of the ground

To highlight a person from the environment that surrounds, presents in visual terms a philosophical interpretation.

2. Overview Plan

Introductory

Focus attention in each actor

In the scene each action must have meaning that contributes for the all sequence.

3. Medium Plan

From the waist up

Practical to show relations between people

4. Chest Plan

For dialogues

More attention to the face

5. Big Plan

For maximum dramatic tension

Actor Expression

6. Very Big Plan

First Plans

7. Detail Plan

Visual Interest to get the spectator close to the action

20 degrees angle camara

Condense time

8. Inserts

Visual Variety
Moon Work-New Moon
By: Leigh Larue
Tags: Life, Planning, Spirituality, Daily Blog, Personal Development

It’s the ‘New Moon on Monday’, the day to get clear on what we want to accomplish or add to our lives over the next two weeks , two months, two years. I’m making a twelve month plan today. I’ve never really planned ahead, sadly. This is why I’m starting over at 49. But, age is just a number. I feel if we get it right at all it’s cause for celebration. And remember, no lesson or experience is wasted if we learn from it, and all the better if we can turn around and help someone else with what we’ve learned. That’s what my intention is with this whole blog.

Here are a few sources for creating a plan and setting goals:

https://www.mindtools.com/page6.html https://www.mindvalley.com/lifebook/online?utm_source=lbo-mini-site&utm_campaign=lbo_evergreen&utm_content=homepage&utm_term=

Tomorrow is the first day of the waxing moon, and it’ll be time to put some plans into action. What is something new we can do every day to add to our lives and move closer to our ideal lives? Make sure it’s something your soul is urging you towards and not what someone else wants for you. It’s a little easier to keep our goals if it’s genuinely something we’re excited about or that rings true for us.

I found the courage to do my first tarot reading on YouTube. It could have been worse. It could have been better. The point is, I did it. The first go is never going to be perfect, and that’s ok. Is there anything you’ve been putting off out of fear? I send you courage and confidence to take that first step. From experience, it gets easier with each attempt. More videos to come. I’d like to focus on a tarot therapy series. The great news about doing all this spiritual work and life planning, you start to find more clarity on what feels right.

Following the moon cycles, and really any natural cycle, is quite powerful I’m finding. There does seem to be an added ‘oomph’ behind our efforts and intentions. Keep in mind the New Moon represents a blank slate, potential, and dreams, similar to the Fool card in tarot. A time to take risks, to jump off that cliff, knowing that there’s a net below to catch us. It’s easier said than done, but the Universe has our back and will usually meet us halfway. If we start on the path toward our dreams and destiny with what we have, the rest will be provided in divine right time.
Safety Tips For Travellers
Tags: Travel, Adventure, Planning, Travel Tips, Tips

Trip planner who will create a tailored plan according to your needs
How the Lessons and Events of 2020 Can Carry Us Forward
By: B The Change
Tags: Planning, New Year, 2021, B Corp, Business Strategy

Delivered on Fridays, B the Change Weekly delivers the most important and most relevant stories about people using business as a force for good. The newsletter features a weekly note from the B the Change team alongside insight and context on the stories we share here on Medium. Below is our latest roundup. To receive these insights directly in your inbox, sign up for B the Change Weekly today. Now on to the good stuff:

As we make our way through the final weeks of 2020, many of us are ready to put this year of unexpected challenges and constant change behind us. But when the calendar turns to 2021, challenges will remain — and we can seize this opportunity to build back better and shape an economy that works for all stakeholders.

During the turbulence of this year, Certified B Corporations navigated the ups and downs by maintaining a stakeholder focus and drawing strength from their purpose and people. This week we highlight how the B Corp community stepped up to the challenges of this year and why stakeholder capitalism provides a framework for the future of business.

The B Corp Community Shows Hope and Resilience Amid Crises

The events of 2020 revealed the resilience and hope that can be found in community, even during times of crisis. B The Change highlights how B Corps provided examples for other business leaders to learn from or follow and collaborated with partners to use business as a force for good throughout this turbulent year.

Planning for the New Year? Focus on Gradual Progress

As with all things 2020, end-of-year wrap-up and forward thinking and planning will be different. If you’re fumbling through strategy as you try to determine next year’s plan, Chris Hutchinson of B Corp Trebuchet Group says you’re not alone and offers some guidance for 2021 in this B The Change article.

Make Your Year-End Planning Good for the World

In the massive shift that we’re living through — how we socialize, how we work, how we celebrate, how we travel (or don’t), how we make a living — we are having to plan with great ambiguity as well as uncertainty. It’s hard to know what will make for a “successful” 2021, but Nell Derick Debevoise of B Corp Inspiring Capital says developing our individual vision of success can help us find our way to greater fulfillment.

Stay in the Know

Here’s your chance to catch up on recent articles:
Productivity and Unemployment
By: Sarah Willey
Tags: Unemployment, Goals, Planning, Productivity, Layoffs

My musings on my recent layoff

Photo by Ryland Dean on Unsplash

This has been the busiest month of my life. Paradoxically, losing my job has made me more busy. How is it that getting 40 hours of my life back has felt like a burden? It seems to make no sense.

But this is why — I’m a planner. A goal setter. I’m organized, and when I’m on a clear path I can set my goals and manage my time really, really well.

Normally, I set aside a day four times a year to plan quarterly goals. I review my personal values, the vision I have for my life in the long term, where I want to see myself in 5 years and in 3 years, and then I focus in on what needs to happen in the next 3 months to move me closer to that place.

From there, I focus each day on managing my schedule to prioritize spending time on the tasks that will help me complete my goals, and each week on monitoring my progress.

When my boss’s boss invited me into a zoom meeting one Monday morning and informed me that due to budget issues, my full-time position was being eliminated, it meant that my carefully planned roadmap was pointing me down a path that no longer exists.

The next few days sitting at my desk, rather than pick the most important items off my running list, I’d just sit and consider all the possibilities. I could apply for a job. I could update my website, send some emails to build my side hustle. I could write a few articles for Medium and hope to make a few bucks.

Without a plan, without a target for where I intend to be at the end of the quarter, the year, how do I decide?

I love to-do lists, but without a clear goal and knowing my priorities, it hasn’t been as much help. It just keeps getting longer, and I don’t know where to start!

This experience has been an important reminder of how well my system works for me. Now I’m letting myself save some time to do some more thinking about what my new path looks like, so that I can draw a new roadmap and prioritize new tasks to get there. I’m not naturally comfortable with uncertainty, but for at least the next few weeks I’m allowing myself to embrace it, to envision all possibilities, and to see where this process takes me. Perhaps I’ll consider new destinations I hadn’t before.

Once I’ve settled on my new destination, watch out world — I’ll be back to my productive lifestyle and on my way to something amazing.
The 5 Best Planners for Organizing Your Life and Smashing Your Goals
By: Avery Strange
Tags: Lifestyle, Planning, Productivity, Organization, Personal Development

The 5 Best Planners for Organizing Your Life and Smashing Your Goals

*None of the products below are affiliate or ambassador links; I just wanted to give you the link to make shopping easier if you’re looking for a planner. I don’t make any money on anything you purchase from this article.

Are you a hot mess? Me too. Luckily, I occasionally fly under the radar as a “lukewarm mess” thanks to picking up the habit of using a paper planner a few years ago.

In high school, I didn’t track anything. I just remembered what I had to do and when I had to do it. Moving to college made planning a necessity, and I found that the convenience and prettiness of paper planners were too wonderful to resist.

Consequently, I’ve become somewhat of a “planner aficionado” throughout the years, and I’ve tried SO. MANY. Like, too many. Like, take my wallet because it’s almost January and my fingers are itching to buy pretty paper and pens (note: in most cases, the only thing you need in January to reach your goals is a plan. Keep it simple!).

Am I still late for appointments? Constantly. But that’s more of a “me thing.” At least I show up… Sometimes. Lukewarm mess, remember?

Anyway, I’ve chosen my five favorite planners that I’ve actually used and would actually recommend to others. I tried to choose planners that keep track of both your time AND your goals — because a good planner does both.

Let’s get started!
Just Start Your Goals
By: Asad Ali
Tags: First Steps, Goals, Planning, Just Start

I have decided to share the one goal that I want to achieve this month before 2021 and I have a strong belief that I will achieve InshaAllah :)

Here is my Goal “ want to secure a competitive job in the Refinery sector”.

Oil Refinery

GOALS

The process of the first Goal

Why I have this Goal????? As I have recently completed my Graduation in Chemical Engineering and from the first year I was interested that I will do the job in Refinery Sector, as I make more pure and good quality of Oil because we have an urgent need of pure Oil as we can save our Atmosphere.

Well, I know this time we are facing a very hard Situation due to COVID_19, but it's okay let’s work hard and never lose hope:)

While I have did not achieve yet this goal but INSHAALLAH I will achieve it before 2021.

Doing this activity I am feeling very excited as I am very near to my goal :)
Weekly Checklists and Reviews for Productive Folks
By: Collabio
Tags: Effectiveness, Planning, Checklist, Productivity, Efficiency

Hi there! We’ve been talking a lot about planning and setting goals. To make your flow even more efficient, conduct some periodic analyses to track progress and fix errors. Once a week is the best time for you to see the result and it’s not too late to reconfigure next steps.

Weekly Checklist

Let’s imagine you already have set ambitious goals to achieve and even have a plan on how to do that. It may be a plan for a year or less, we recommend to break long-term goals into baby steps. Some of them may take you hours and other may require even a day or two! That’s why weekly intervals are best to plan and measure results.

Why You Should Have a Weekly Checklist:

This gives you a quick grasp of free and busy time slots. You see where you can place another meeting or a small task.

You see where you can place another meeting or a small task. This provides you with the impression of progress on your targets. They no longer seem far away and can be divided into actionable steps.

They no longer seem far away and can be divided into actionable steps. You become focused on your plans and don’t get distracted too often. If something takes your attention away, you get back to important things asap.

If something takes your attention away, you get back to important things asap. This gives an opportunity to control every process planned. Also, you analyse everything soon, not once a month or so, that gives you a chance to be more flexible, adjust to the current situation and keep track of what is important.

Making a Weekly Checklist

If you’re a Collabio Spaces user, you can use the Weekly Planner template from the built-in “Planning” folder to write down your goals for the near future.

If you’re not, get Collabio from the App Store right away! ;) Okay-okay, we aren’t forcing you.

No matter what you use to create a weekly checklist, outline the following things:
Planning for 2021 — Sage + Cinnamon
By: Gitana Eleni
Tags: Bulletjournal, Planning, Journalism, New Year, Organizational Culture

For journals, bright warm colors are a great way to add some accent to your life, especially crawling out of drab and dreary 2020. You can never go wrong with a Leuchtturm1917. There are a wide array of bright colors to choose from (or dark and minimal, if that’s what you’re about).

Dotted Grids are in.

Even squared grids get a pass. But ruled journals restrict the creativity in your personally curated journal.

Go crazy with colored pens

Be bright and bold with your pens, markers, and highlighters! This journal is yours and yours alone. There are no rules and you can tailor your planner to suit your needs.

Two is better than one.

Get a journal for daily planning/to-dos and get another to hold all your house-making secrets (cleaning schedules, recipes, guest lists, gift guides, etc.). You can keep a “Bellini” dotted Leuchtturm1917 for stress-free scheduling and note-jotting, and a Sage square grid Leuchtturm1917 for serious party planning, referencing, and resources.
Creating a Playbook
By: Street Consulting
Tags: Planning, School Improvement, Continuous Improvement, Student Focus, Leadership

Perhaps the most difficult lesson for me to learn as a young administrator was that I was not the first person to wrestle with whatever problem I was facing, and that I did not have to manufacture a novel solution for it. This was not an exam. What I learned, over the years, is that shared expertise is the driver of excellence, and that many people had faced whatever problem I was facing and they had developed many solutions for them, as well. The problem was that collectively, we tended not to gather those solutions in a systematic way — we depended on the tacit knowledge of the system.

I have come to learn that it is well worth the extra time to write down what works. By taking the time to create a “playbook” for how certain problems should be handled, you create routine for the system, extra time for people to jump over some basic problem identification and solving steps, and you give everyone a better opportunity to improve on those known solutions.

As an example, one of the most difficult things that can happen to a child is having a parent placed under the control of the criminal justice system. A parent being arrested or put in prison has a significant and detrimental effect on a child. What’s more, these effects are somewhat known. However, most districts don’t realize, in a systematic way, which students this is happening to, and what those students might need in order to mitigate these traumatic effects.

The creation of a playbook that spells out best practices to identify who this is happening to and how to help keep students connected to parents, how to keep parents empowered as parents, and how to help students through emotional struggles that could make class difficult saves countless hours of social workers’ time and eases the frustration of parents, students and teachers alike.

Give me six hours to chop down a tree and I will spend the first four sharpening the axe.

– Abraham Lincoln
The #1 Way to Gain Control of Your Finances
By: Josh L
Tags: Money, Planning, Saving Money, Personal Finance, Budgeting

Why do people not have a budget?

A budget means different things to different people. I would say most people I talk to seem to view it as some kind of foul-smelling boss at work — they do everything in their power to avoid it.

Instead, people should aim to look at a budget as what is giving them permission to spend. It is hard to follow a plan or budget when you believe it is putting too many restraints on you. People like to be able to make their own decisions. “Rules drool,” am I right?

Wrong. Rules and being held accountable are exactly what most people need when it comes to their finances. Unfortunately, most people just do not know how to handle their money.

The fact is that most people do not have enough savings, do no kind of investing, and are just willy-nilly with their finances. If this year has taught us anything, it is that we can not afford to be careless with our money anymore. We need a plan and rules to follow when it comes to spending.
Passion & Talent Aren’t Enough: The Importance of Planning (Part 1)
By: The Stormy Poet
Tags: Planning, Art, Organization, Goal Setting, 2021

Who could have foreseen that I’d be faced with chronic and debilitating GI tract issues at 26?

Who could have known about the dark and twisted road of Depersonalization/Derealization I’d have to trudge, at 28?

Had I sat down, mapped out a plan, and started diligently pursuing my dreams, years prior, imagine how farther along I’d be on the path of fulfilling them. Not only that, but I would’ve had more time, energy, and money to put into my dreams rather than pouring those same resources into overcoming those random and massive hurdles–the kind like the aforementioned ones I had to endure–that life inevitably will throw at all of us.

My point is, your life isn’t going to mellow out and get easier as it progresses. Don’t wait for your situation to be picture perfect to start chasing your dreams now, because life will never be a constant state of picture perfect-ness.

TODAY IS THE DAY TO MAKE A PLAN ON HOW TO FULFILL YOUR DESTINY!

I’m extremely grateful to be a published author and to have 2 books out at 31-years-old. However, who knows how many light years ahead I’d be, of where I’m at right now, had I put in the work I’m putting in now, back when I was 22/23-years-old?

I have no regrets. However, I’d be lying if I said that it wasn’t a mistake that I waited and procrastinated as long as I did. You can’t learn from your mistakes if you don’t acknowledge them.

One thing I struggled with in my younger 20’s was sitting down and drawing out a plan for the things I wanted to accomplish.

Not only that, but I wasn’t being consistent with what in my efforts in the plans I was managing to get down in writing. I had all the TALENT and PASSION in the world, but I had no way to harness and focus them. Plus, I assumed people would think my talent was so awesome and amazing that they would literally throw cash at me to experience it.

Again, I’m not sulking over the past. However, one of the things my parents and school never effectively taught me is that, faith, education, and passion are NOTHING without a plan and that there is no cookie-cutter way to success.

God has a different path for everyone. You have the talent. The whole world is waiting on you. What are you waiting for?

From the Heart,
Why You Are Wasting 76 Days Every Year: Building Better Habits For 2021
By: Adam Rybko
Tags: Planning, Habits, Productivity, Habit Building, Screentime

1) Spending too much time on your phone

How many hours do you think you are using your phone every day? According to a study conducted by Provision Living [3], the average American spends roughly 5 hours a day on their phone. This is the equivalent of 76 full 24-hour days. Let that sink in. The study also shows that approximately 60% of this time is devoted to browsing social media.

I was no exception. Only a few months ago, a friend of mine brought my attention to my phone’s screen time function. I was spending as much as 4 hours on my phone every day. Most of this time was devoted to mindlessly scrolling through Instagram and Facebook.

I was astonished! If someone would have asked me how much time I spend on my phone, I would have guessed it to be somewhere around 1 hour.

The worse part about it? I did not even enjoy the time I was scrolling social media. It did not make me feel happy. Nor did it make me feel fulfilled or accomplished. I took a long hard look at myself and decided this is not what I wanted to do with my time.

Before you continue reading, ask yourself: what would you want to do with your extra 76 days in 2021? Writing or spending more time with your family? Whatever it is, hang it above your bed and remind yourself why you want to improve. This is how you can keep going.

Excessive screentime is simply a bad habit. Nothing more than that. And it was time for me (and perhaps also for you) to kick this one to the curb!
Planning Is Not All About Adding
By: Brian Dela Cruz
Tags: Goals, Planning, Motivation, 2021, Success

Planning Is Not All About Adding

It’s almost less than three weeks before the year 2020 ends.

And most of you, probably are planning or setting goals for 2021. We often ask ourselves,

What is our target for our business in 2021?

How to compensate for the loss we have this year 2020?

What can we do next?

As you’ve noticed, most of the questions are based on what can I ADD? But there’s another way of setting goals for 2021.

Let us ask ourselves, what can we SUBTRACT?

What are the things/activities we should stop doing?

What commitments do I need to revisit or uncommit myself?

Are there relationships that are unhealthy that I need to cut-off?

This method of asking yourself what things to remove, reduce, and eliminate is called Zero-Based Thinking. Popularized by Brian Tracy, he explains that:

“When you begin to plan your long-term future, one of the most valuable exercises you can engage in is zero-based thinking. In zero-based thinking, you ask this question: Knowing what I now know, is there anything that I am doing today that I wouldn’t start again if I had to do it over? No matter who you are or what you are doing, there are activities and relationships in your life that, knowing what you now know, you wouldn’t get involved in.”

Similarly, Greg Mckeown, author of Essentialism, suggests we can ask,

If I don’t own this item, how much would I pay to obtain it?

If I don’t have this opportunity, how much would I be willing to sacrifice in order to obtain it?

If I wasn’t already involved in this project, how hard would I work to get on it?

As you plan for 2021, try the ZBT method. Pick an area of your life and ask the ZBT Question.

Having clarity on what to subtract in our life is as essential as what to add. It can work both for your personal and professional life. With this, you can find ways to cut your losses and choose alternatives.

It’s a good thing to remind ourselves that sometimes, less is better, and less is more.
5 Tips When Starting a Dropshipping Store
By: Jake Treece
Tags: Dropshipping, Marketing, Planning, Motivation

Starting a business can be a headache on its own. Dropshipping is no different. Below are 5 tips I found helpful when starting your own dropshipping store.

Dropshipping is very much like wholesale. You have a supplier and sell the supplier’s inventory in your store. What makes them different is that wholesale requires you to make large quantity purchases, such as 500 t-shirts, while drop shipping does not. Dropshipping allows stores to select which items they want from a seller without physically carrying them in stock.

When an order is made, it goes directly to the supplier who then ships the purchased item to the customer. This essentially makes the store a middle man. By not carrying inventory, the store avoids the upfront costs such as bulk orders and rent making dropshipping affordable to a large number of people who want to set up an online shop without the financial burden.