A planning system should help you pay attention in the present.
To be fully present means your attention is not in the past or the future.
It’s in the now.
But it also means that it’s focused on what you want to be focused on.
And it’s really easy to get distracted by things that come up.
Unless you have a healthy way to refocus on the task at hand.
Without a good system, every interruption, whether from others, from yourself, or just from life happening, can derail your focus.
To be present means you accept the interruptions, of course, but you do so in a way that gives them exactly as much energy as they need. Which is usually very little.
Because most distractions can be deferred, at least for a while.
And those that cannot aren’t distractions at all. They are the universe, or God, or other people, telling you that you need to change your focus.
The trick is telling the difference and responding correctly.
At this point, you’ve processed your past. You understand it, you’ve come to terms with it, and it shouldn’t be causing issues.
You’ve planned your future, in natural cycles, so that you know what’s coming and you’re confident that you can handle it as it comes.
Which gives you confidence to handle present distractions with your head on straight.
Because you know what your plans are, you can quickly compare the new interruption or distraction to what you’ve planned. Is it more or less important? Is it more or less urgent?
With a proper plan, it’s much easier to adapt, knowing you can still get to the right stuff, and make adjustments about when and how you will do that.
But also, because you have a habit of planning by the period, you can easily add a note to come back to the item at hand when you next plan your day, or your week.
Of course, you won’t always handle things perfectly. Sometimes you’ll get distracted, waste some time, and end the day dissatisfied.
When you do, you can catch yourself and process the past: write about it, or just think through what you can do better next time.
The great thing is that, as you pay attention in the present, you’ll be more conscious as you process the past and plan for the future.
Which means you’ll get a positive feedback loop going that will lead to more calm, more confidence, and higher levels of consciousness throughout your life.