If there’s one habit that has transformed my life and set the tone for success, it’s this: nightly planning. Apart from my decision to spend time with the Lord every day, this has been the cornerstone habit that positively impacts everything else in my life.
You may have heard of cornerstone habits before—those foundational routines that trigger a cascade of other positive actions. For some, it’s going to the gym. A morning workout often leads to better eating habits, more energy, greater focus, and a more productive day overall. Instead of focusing on multiple smaller habits, it’s powerful to identify and prioritize one that creates momentum for everything else. For me, that habit is taking 5-10 minutes at the end of the day to plan the next day.
This simple routine can make all the difference between a day of chaos and a day of purpose. Let me paint a picture of the two types of days you’ve probably experienced: the reactive day and the proactive day.
The reason nightly planning is so powerful is that it sets the tone for the day ahead. Your day doesn’t start in the morning; it starts the night before when you take the time to reflect and plan. It moves you from living reactively to living intentionally. Instead of getting swept up in the urgent and unexpected, you are prepared to focus on what matters most.
Here are a few reasons this simple habit is a game-changer:
Proactive Focus – When you take time to plan, you know what your most important tasks are for the next day. You’re not wasting time figuring it out when you’re already in the thick of things.
Mental Clarity – Having a plan relieves decision fatigue. You wake up with a clear mind and direction, instead of feeling overwhelmed by all the things you could do.
Increased Productivity – When you plan ahead, you’re able to block time for deep, focused work on your priorities, not just responding to emails or distractions. You accomplish more meaningful work this way.
Stress Reduction – Instead of starting the day in a hurry and feeling behind, you create a sense of calm and control, knowing that your priorities are already scheduled.
Ready to try this out? Here’s how you can build this powerful habit into your routine:
Set aside 5-10 minutes each night – You don’t need a lot of time for this. The key is consistency. Block out a few minutes before bed to review your upcoming day.
Identify your top priorities – Choose 1-3 key tasks that will make the biggest difference in your progress and schedule them in your calendar. These should be the things that align most with your goals and values.
Block your time – Plan your day around these priorities. If you have meetings or other commitments, block time before or after for your most important work.
Prepare for success – If one of your priorities is going to the gym, lay out your gym clothes the night before. If it’s a big meeting, have everything you need ready to go. Planning isn't just about writing things down—it's about setting yourself up for action.
Reflect on what went well – This is optional, but reflecting on the day you just had can help you improve. Celebrate your wins and identify what you might tweak for tomorrow.
Taking just 5-10 minutes to plan your day can transform the way you live. It allows you to show up intentionally, with purpose and clarity. You’ll experience less stress, more productivity, and greater satisfaction as you move through your day with a clear sense of direction.
If you’re not already in the habit of nightly planning, I encourage you to start. It’s a small investment of time that will yield massive returns in your focus, energy, and ability to live intentionally.
Remember Benjamin Franklin’s famous words: “If you fail to plan, you are planning to fail.” So, take the time to plan—because you deserve to live each day on purpose.
Today, I want to talk about one of the habits that has had the greatest positive impact on my life. Apart from my decision to spend time with the Lord each day, this habit has probably been the best one that I have put in place. Even that time with the Lord in the morning flows from this habit.
When I’m working with men, I love to identify what I call Cornerstone Habits: These are habits that, if you do them, typically set you up for success in some of the other habits you want to develop.
For some guys, it’s going to the gym. If they go to the gym in the morning, they usually eat healthier the rest of the day. They drink more water. They have more energy so they are more focused. They aren’t as distracted at work because they set the tone in the morning.
So instead of focusing on all of those other little habits, we work together to build the habit of going to the gym consistently knowing that will positively impact everything else. That’s what I am talking about with a Cornerstone Habit.
One of the cornerstone habits that has been most effective in my life is taking time at the end of the day to plan the next day. Having a quick nightly reflection and planning session is the cornerstone habit for me that impacts everything I do the next day.
I was having a conversation with one of my friends the other day who recently started doing this, and he said it was making all the difference in his life. When he does his nightly planning, he is dialed in the next day. When he blows off the nightly planning, things can have a tendency to unravel the next day.
If you are having trouble sticking to your habits and commitments throughout the day, I would encourage you to try out planning your day the night before.
Your day ultimately starts the night before. That’s how I like to look at things. My day doesn’t start in the morning, it starts when I plan the day before bed.
Let me paint you a picture. You have probably experienced both of these scenarios.
Imagine the day where you wake up, hit snooze on the alarm clock a few times until all of sudden you don’t have much time to get ready. You feel rushed…you quickly take a shower, get dressed and rush out the door without eating anything for breakfast. You are running a little late to work so you are speeding through traffic trying to get there as fast as you can. When you get to work, that stress carries over. You still feel rushed. You immediately jump into email where you have a bunch of items waiting for you that need your attention. At that point, you start reacting to the requests in the email. You spend the morning working on every else’s requests of you that you didn’t get to what you wanted to work on for yourself.
You feel the stress of the day and want to decompress, so you spend a lot of time distracted on your phone. The rest of the afternoon is spent with mixed focus and not much productivity. Then you get home and feel tired from the day so you jump on the couch and starting watching TV.
Can you relate to this scenario? I know I definitely can. I have been here so many times. And this whole story might be a little dramatic, but you can see elements of how your day might go if you head into the day in reaction mode instead of being proactive.
The other scenario, you take time the night before to plan out your day. You know exactly what you are going to work on tomorrow and when you are going to work on it. You know that you are planning on going to the gym in the morning, so you lay out your workout clothes. You take a look at your day to see when you are going to have time to eat between tasks and you pack your food the night before.
When you wake up, you turn the alarm off right away, jump in your workout clothes and get to the gym. After that, you get ready for the day, grab the food you already packed and head to work with plenty of time.
Instead of hopping right on email, you blocked out the morning to work on your 1-3 most important tasks for the day. You knock those all out before lunch. You take a break to eat the lunch you packed and then you jump back into the day feeling all the momentum from earlier so you crush it for the rest of the work day, working on your most important activities.
You also planned time to spend with friends or family after work, so you come hope and invest in your important relationships instead of watching TV. You planned to relax and be spontaneous for the last two hours of the day so then you can watch TV or play video games or whatever it is you like to do for the last two hours guilt free.
Can you see the massive difference in a proactive day vs a reactive day. Can you see how so many good habits, focus, and energy followed from taking time the night before to plan out the day.
This is why the nightly planning session can be one of your greatest tools. If waking up at 6:00 is in your calendar and you’ve committed to it, you have a way greater chance of turning off the alarm and getting up. When the gym is in your calendar, your chances of actually going increase exponentially.
When you plan out the most important tasks for the day and block out time to do them, you know that you will be making significant progress.
When you plan on intentionally time with family or friends, you know you are making time for the people in your life that matter the most to you.
And then you can absolutely block out time at the end of the day to do whatever it is that you like to do.
If there is one habit that I could encourage you to do that would have the greatest impact on your life, it would be this one.
Living a life of intentionality means being proactive. This habit is a great way to be proactive with each of your days.
And it should only take you about 5-10 minutes to do. What a massive return on investment. We’re talking about taking 5-10 minutes out of your evening to give you 24 hours of proactivity and focus the next day.
It feels like a no-brainer.
If this is something you are not consistently doing, the key there is consistently, then I would encourage you to make a renewed commitment to putting this into practice every single night. I believe you will notice the impact immediately.
Benjamin Franklin has the famous quote that says, “If you fail to plan. You plan to fail.”
If you don’t plan out your day to be in line with your priorities, your dreams, your goals…you are missing out on a great opportunity. We typically don’t react our way into a life of significance. We create a life of significance by being intentional day in and day out.
Your life is the sum total of your days. You must make each day your masterpiece. You must win the day. The best way I know to set myself up for a win each day is to take time to plan.
If you don’t have a system or a tool for nightly planning, order one today. The International Man Planner is a great tool that you can purchase on Amazon if you need one, but pretty much any system where you can block out and plan each hour of the day will work great.
Don’t wait until the end of the year to start planning, get started today!
Thank you for joining me today, if this was helpful, please share it with someone else that might find it beneficial. Please like and share this training and please leave comments about some of your thoughts and best practices you have found for being proactive each day.
Thanks for joining. Live a life you are proud of by living intentionally.
