How Planning with Your Future Self in Mind Improves Your Productivity

The concept of “your future self” was first introduced to me by my then-boss turned mentor and friend, Lorie Marrero. She shared with me how envisioning what you want your future self to feel, be and have will provide motivation to accomplish what you need to get done.

To some people, this concept seems a little “out there.” Some people use the term “woo woo” to describe it. Call it what you want, if you plan with your future self in mind, it will improve your productivity.

Basically, the goal is to do your future self a favor by getting things done to reduce stress.

The next time you need to accomplish a task or project (especially one you’re not looking forward to or one you don’t have to do, but it sure would be helpful), ask yourself these questions:

*What is it that I want to check off my to-do list?

*What steps or actions will I need to take to make that happen?

*What will my future self feel like if I don’t finish this?

*What will my future self feel like if I don’t take the next action step?

*What do I want my future self to feel like at the end of the day today?

Here’s an overly simplified example:

Q: How do I want my future self to feel when I walk into my bedroom when I get home from work?

A: I want to feel relief that I’m home and my bedroom looks and feels like a restful place.

Q: What do I need to do to make that happen?

A: I need to make the bed and make sure whatever I took out is put away.

Won’t your future self love you for doing this?!

Here’s a work example from my recent past:

Q: How do I want my future self to feel when I get home from vacation?

A: I want to feel relaxed and not have a pile of work waiting for me when I could have done it before leaving.

Q: What do I need to do to make that happen?

A: I need to have my blogs and e-newsletter already drafted and scheduled before I leave.

Q: How will my future self feel if I get home and still have those things to do?

A: I’ll be pretty ticked off at myself for not doing something to avoid this.

Q: Then what will you do to make your future self happy?

A: I’ll schedule time to get these things done.

This is the quick conversation I had in my head. I wanted to do more fun things like look online at the places we’d be visiting, but that wouldn’t leave much time for getting things done – and making my future self a happy camper. So, I really did schedule those tasks, and I got them done, so I wouldn’t have to worry about them during my first week back. I could instead concentrate on what came in while I was gone.

Funny story – I dragged my feet the following week regarding writing the blog for that week. When I finally went into my drafts to crank out something for that second week home, I saw that I’d already completed my blog for that week! My Present Self was thrilled that my Past Self had thought about my Future Self!

So, call the concept of your Future Self what you will. I’ll continue to call it awesome!

For other time management tips your Future Self will love, take a peek at The Inefficiency Assassin: Time Management Tactics for Working Smarter, Not Longer.