Welcome back to Plan Like a Boss. I'm your host, Tanya Lawson, and today I wanted to talk about the two-minute planning hack that literally saves me two hours every day. I don't know about you, but I used to wake up already behind every single morning. My phone would blink with a dozen notifications, my stomach would drop with the weight of an unaddressed to-do list. And well, before my feet even hit the floor, my brain was already sprinting through a mental marathon of things I hadn't done yet. Things I should be doing, and things I was already late for. Now, if that sounds familiar, you know exactly how chaotic and exhausting that feels. It's like playing catch up with life itself. I tried it all too. Color coding apps, five-step morning rituals, miracle morning books stacked high on my nightstand, you name it. I'd start strong for a day or two and then poof, back to the same old patterns. But one night, when I was just too tired to care, something shifted. I grabbed this neon pink sticky note, scribbled down three things, and slapped it onto my clothes laptop, and well, I went to bed. The next morning, I saw that little sticky note glowing under the desk lamp. And without thinking, I just started. And by lunch, I was done. Not halfway done, not still multitasking while eating my toast. Actually done with the important things. That tiny pink sticky note turned into a two-minute habit that now saves me about two full hours every single day. And today, I'm gonna show you exactly how to do it. If you're new, I'm Tanya. I'm a music teacher, I'm a business owner, and I am a self-proclaimed planning fanatic who's made all the mistakes so you don't have to. So grab your coffee and let's talk about how this tiny little tweak can completely transform your mornings. So let's back up for a bit. Six months ago, my mornings were a disaster zone. My alarm would go off at 6:30, and instead of getting up, I'd grab my phone and scroll till 7. You know that scroll. The one that starts with, I'll just check the news. And somehow ends with a cat video and an existential crisis. Then the panic would set in. I'd think, oh no, I'm late. But instead of getting up, I'd just scroll more, telling myself I was waking up. And breakfast, well, you could forget breakfast. I would stare blankly into the fridge, close it, and hope something magically appeared by the time I reopened it. By the time I made it to my desk, which was usually around 8.15, I'd already burned through my energy and was on decision fatigue. I'd open my inbox, answer three urgent emails, which let's face it, they weren't actually urgent. Then I would remember I was doing laundry. I would run into the laundry room to switch it out, and then poof, I would forget what I was even doing. Does that sound familiar? I know that's the case with a lot of us work from home people, home and work blur. And the worst part of these unstructured mornings is you're busy all day, but you never are actually productive. You end every night wondering, where did my time even go? So let's go back to the night everything changed. I had hit peak burnout. I had a flight at 6 a.m. the next morning, a project due, and about a teaspoon of brain power left. I could not make one more decision. So I grabbed the nearest thing next to me, an eye pink sticky note, because of course it was pink. And I wrote three things. That was it. No priorities list, no color coding, no time estimates. Just three clear doable tasks. I stuck it on my laptop, set my alarm, and I crashed. The next morning, when I saw that sticky note glowing under the lamp, I didn't overthink. I just followed the instructions. Slides, done. Workout, done. Call mom, done. By 8 45, I was packed, showered, caffeinated, and I actually kind of felt at peace. That morning, I realized something a little wild. I had accidentally hacked my own brain. So here's the system that I now use literally every single night. And don't worry, it does not require special tools or fancy apps. A scrap piece of paper works just fine. Before you shut down for the night, I want you to open your calendar. Not your to-do list. I want you to open your calendar. Then I want you to drop in three task blocks for tomorrow. One big, meaningful task, one medium task, and one small quick win. Then I want you to give each block a realistic time estimate. And I mean realistic, not wishful. Not what you think you can do, not what you would like to be able to do, but what you could actually do. How long is it actually gonna take? And then I want you to anchor each one to something already fixed in your day. So for example, after breakfast, after a client call, whatever makes sense for you. This is similar to habit stacking. Just tack it onto something that you already have scheduled. Then, and this is important, I want you to add a five-minute buffer before and after each block. Those mini breaks are like gold. They protect your schedule from the chaos of real life. You know, the slack message that has to be responded to, the bathroom break because you had one too many cups of coffee, or that moment, you need to just breathe. And that's it. Two minutes flat. When you wake up the next day, you don't have to decide anything. You just execute. Now, let's talk about why this works. There's real science behind this, and it all comes down to decision fatigue. Research shows we make about 35,000 decisions every single day. Every tiny decision from what to wear, which email to open, all of that drains your mental brain power. By making your top decisions the night before, you're essentially preserving your best mental energy for what actually matters. This is exactly why Steve Jobs had like five different versions of the exact same outfit in his closet. There's no thought behind it. You just grab it and go. Now, add in time blocking, and you've got a built-in cure for procrastination. Because Parkinson's law says work expands to fill the time slot available. So by giving your tasks tight little boxes of time, they shrink to fit it. Now, this isn't about rushing. This is not about being unreasonable with your tight little box of time. It's about clarity and control. When your day is built on three solid intentional tasks, it feels complete. It does not feel chaotic. Now, of course, I've made all the mistakes so you don't have to. So let's talk about just a few traps that you can fall into and how to avoid them. So the first trap that you can fall into is well, you write out 10 tasks instead of three. The result? Instant overwhelm. So instead, stick to three. Always, always, always radical simplicity is going to win out here. Trap number two, you schedule back-to-back tasks without that little five-minute buffer time built in. Those five-minute cushions are non-negotiable. They are shock absorbers of your day. Because let me tell you, life is gonna life. It's gonna happen. And if you have these little shock absorbers built in, it is going to save you. Okay, the third trap. You skip planning just one night. And then that turns into another night and another night. I get it. You're tired. I'm tired. But trust me, it only takes two minutes. So keep a visible streak. Think back to elementary school, those incentive charts where you got the sticker next to your name every time you did something, and you would do anything for that sticker. I want you to keep a visible streak. So tally your successful planning nights. It can literally be in your planner, it can be in your phone. Or, hey, if you want a calendar in your bathroom with sticky notes, go for it. I know that one of my marathons I was training for, I put my training schedule on my bathroom mirror because I would see it every day. And I drew a smiley face every time I did my training. But if I skipped a training day, I had to draw a frowny face. And let me tell you, I would lace up my shoes at 8 p.m. to go for a run so that I didn't have to draw that frowny face. This works. Nobody wants to break a streak, not even your inner procrastinator. So go ahead and track it. Now, the beauty of this system is that it is completely flexible. You can use it whether you're a teacher, a designer, parent, or a CEO. You don't need a 5 a.m. Miracle morning or a color-coded, complicated notion dashboard. It's just two quiet, intentional minutes tonight. So you can keep starting your mornings in chaos or you can wake up already knowing exactly what matters most. I want you to try this tonight. And tomorrow morning, when that sticky note or calendar block is waiting for you, you're going to see how freeing it feels. Now, if you love this episode and you want more practical planning and productivity hacks for creative entrepreneurs, make sure you follow the show. And check out last week's episode where we talked about how to prioritize when everything feels important. Until next time, I want you to take a breath, plan with attention, and remember small tweaks create massive freedom. Keep planning like a boss.