Planning your day the night before has long been touted as a keystone habit of highly productive people (by, for example, Stephen Covey in The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People).
But there’s another reason to plan your day the night before, one that might be more important to you than getting things done: It will make you happier.
1. Mental Offloading
Planning tomorrow tonight reduces your cognitive load, which can literally feel like a weight has been lifted from your mind. In his great book, Upward Spiral, neuroscientist Alex Korb explains why:
“When your prefrontal cortex has to loop through many potential scenarios, it increases the risk of triggering anxiety or worry. When you decide on one path, then you’ve reduced the number of variables the prefrontal cortex needs to optimize.”1
Now, you might be thinking that mapping out all the things you have to do tomorrow will make you feel more stressed and more overwhelmed because you’ll have just reminded yourself of just how much is on your plate. This thought is understandable, but it is wrong.
The fact that you could generate tomorrow’s to-do list in the first place means that you already knew about all the tasks. Consciously or unconsciously, they were on your mind. Getting them out of your head and onto paper, however, gives your mind permission to let go of them, which helps you relax.
2. Better Sleep
Planning your day the night before should also help you sleep better (which will make you happier2) because you won’t be worrying about how you’re going to spend your day as you try to fall asleep.
If you don’t map out your day on paper, then you’ll be liable to be thinking about how you’re planning to spend your day as you try to fall asleep. Putting it on paper gets it out of your head and gives your brain permission to stop thinking about it.
(Note: This is similar to how journaling about your thoughts and feelings helps you stop ruminating about them.)
3. Control
The act of choosing how you’re going to spend your time tomorrow helps you feel more in control.
Conversely, leaving tomorrow up in the air is an act of indecisiveness, which Korb argues “enhances your feeling of being out of control” because “when everything is up in the air, the amygdala becomes more reactive.”1
So exercise the power of choice, and you’ll feel more in command of yourself, your time, and your future.
4. Progress
When your day is all mapped out, and you’ve pre-decided how you’ll spend your time, you won’t struggle with decisions throughout the day. You’ll just take action. And when you take action, you’ll be happier than you would have been struggling with indecision because you’ll be making progress.3
Daily planning has long been a part of my 3-level to-do list system, but lately I’ve taken it a step further by using a day-planner. Each night, I map out the key parts of my day, hour-by-hour (or even half-hour by half-hour). I plan not only what I’ll be doing but when I’ll be doing it.
I don’t always stick to the plan perfectly, but having the plan always makes my day go much better.
1 Korb, Alex, Ph.D. Upward Spiral: Using Neuroscience to Reverse the Course of Depression, One Small Change at a Time. New Harbinger Publications, 2015.
2 Walker, Matthew. Why We Sleep: Unlocking the Power of Sleep and Dreams. Scribner, 2018.
3 Amabile, Teresa M. and Steven J. Kramer. “The Power of Small Wins.” Harvard Business Review. May 2011.