Reboot - S1 Ep 2 - Daily Planning

Daily Planning: As Simple as ABC

Success rarely happens by accident—it’s built through intention, structure, and consistent daily habits. In this rebooted episode of What’s the Mathematics, I break down one of the most practical lessons I learned through FranklinCovey: how to simplify your day using the ABC method of planning.

This episode explores how to prioritize what matters most, eliminate distractions, and create momentum by focusing on high-value tasks first. Whether you’re leading a business, building a career, managing family responsibilities, or simply trying to gain control of your schedule, this framework can help you win the day.

We’ll discuss:

•  How to identify your true priorities 
•  The power of planning before the day begins 
•  Why urgent is not always important 
•  How simple discipline creates long-term success 
•  Turning busy days into productive days 

If you’ve ever felt overwhelmed, reactive, or stuck in the weeds, this episode offers a timeless system to help you move with purpose.

Because when you plan with intention, success becomes measurable.

#WhatsTheMathematics #DailyPlanning #Productivity #Leadership #FranklinCovey #SuccessHabits #TimeManagement #PersonalGrowth #PodcastLaunch

Transcript

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SPEAKER_02 0:00

Ladies and gentlemen, welcome back to podcast number two. What's the mathematics? I am your host, Jeff Magruder. Today, we're going to continue on our series of daily planning. And today we're going to work from the middle, which is daily planning is as simple as ABC. Our first podcast, episode one, we talked about C being community. And like I said on the last show, community is the most important piece to everything that I do. And that's why I wanted to leave with community as my topic of discussion on my first show. But today, we're going to talk about B of the ABC. B is the operational section of task management, which means when I write that B down on my planner, that means I'm writing everything operational I have to do at the office. And so if you don't know my background as a banker, bankers, we just don't only close loans and open accounts. There are things that go on after the client leaves the office that we have to do to make sure that the deal is closed. And there's also things that we have to do to make sure that the deal will work. And so typically I will write those things down as a B. Like, for example, I'll have clients that say, hey, Jeff, I'm getting ready to buy this commercial property. I need you to know, I need to know if I can afford this thing. I'm going to send you some financials. And will you cash flow this for me without pulling my credit? Will you cash flow this deal for me and kind of let me know if I can do it? Sometimes that could take an hour, sometimes that could take 30 minutes, or sometimes it could take 10 minutes based on the person's financials. But I have to write that down because after that phone call, I probably have gotten 10 emails or a text from someone from my family needing me to do something. And so as I'm managing my time during the day, I can go to my planner and write down John Smith client needs to cash flow to purchase commercial real estate. B. I will move on from there if I'm in the middle of another task. That's why it's very important to really take the time to think about what you've been asked to do as it relates to your day-to-day grind. So this, you know, I keep talking about this because, man, it is such a stress reliever. Because I tell you, the operational things in in life and in at work, it's not the sexy thing. They're not. They're not the sexy thing. And as someone like myself who who loves sales, who loves, who loves to close the deal and go out and find the deal and pitching the deal, I love that piece. And one of the weaknesses of mine has always been the middle piece, this B that I'm talking about, the task management, making sure that I've checked this piece off in the middle of getting to the closing. So, and it's so appropriate that I've been able to use this system to identify those things to make sure that I do the follow-up things that are necessary to make the deal happen and to make them close. It's also made me just a better, a better teammate at the office because a lot of the things operationally affect my teammates who assist me with things in the office. And so I have a teammate at the office that will take a lot of my phone calls and manage my portfolio, and she will take client calls for things like new check cards or they want to open an account if I'm out running around the city. And I find it very critical to make sure the things that I need her to do to or to help me do, I write them down. So it's it's it's so important to take the time to focus on your operational pieces. And and this is this is your your this is the blueprint that a lot of people don't see. This could be a lot of time, it's the it's the math and what you do. And so it can be seen just as important as the A part of your day. And so I want to make sure I I get a chance to read kind of maybe maybe the second piece of my blog that that I wrote on uh my website. If you ever wanted to kind of get a highlight of what I'm speaking about, I'm coming straight from my blog. This is jeffmagruder.com. And so here's some things that I wrote that I think I want to make sure you guys hear. Um I also use the B category to help prioritize my community efforts. And so even in the community piece, as we know that C, sometimes those efforts are operational too. And so you could get a little bit more granular in your planning by using this task management system. And so I could almost break out a C category and then go through another A, B, C in just that one thing. And so I I've really learned how to how to really hone in on not missing things, missing the small things that people appreciate about your performance or help on a project. Um And here's another thing I said. I said my service in the community does occasionally create revenue opportunities. However, I do not make community service tasks a priority a priority over how I normally create business opportunities. And so, you know, that's that goes hand in hand. I I do these things to to be efficient, to be a to do my part in the community if I'm serving on the board, but I also make sure that I have not put a community task over the that over the thing that's paying my bills. You know, I do both things well, but I do understand there's a pecking order because I do have to keep the lights on at the house. You know, mama needs a new pair of shoes, daughter needs a new basketball, new league to play in, daddy wants a new set of golf clubs, you know. So though those those types of things are important to understand as you're as you become more ingrained into the community. People uh become be begin to lean on you for a lot of different things because of your skill set, and you have to keep the main thing the main thing. And that's why this B, um, the maintenance and operational piece is so important to make sure you identify and keep up with because it can get crazy if you look up and you're doing so much maintenance and operation on the community piece. Um lastly, um, I read this piece and uh I want to get to the mathematics and in um of this episode too on the What's Mathematics Podcast. The B task should be considered as the fuel that drives the expensive race car. I like how I said that. In order to maintain your business, you must have an organized support and operations. You must have organized support and operations. And so if if, you know, I've I've kind of reiterated that a little bit, but but really that kind of sums it up. I mean, it is the fuel. You know, I'm a hard driver. I like to go out and make calls and have coffee and sit down and teach and educate and recruit and and show my banking skills and my MBA skills and things that I've been I've learned. I like to be able to pass those things on to help my community and help people, but also um driving those people in a place of production to help them make money, and also I'll make some money working with them in my business practices. Um if I didn't have an organized approach, and I if I wasn't able to keep the main thing the main thing, it goes to waste. So I really I really believe in this system, and I look forward to um kind of getting into more details on, I think which is I think it's the funnest topics, which is on the uh episode three coming up. We'll talk about um the A-task of top priority revenue generating. So once again, what's the mathematics to this episode two? And so I I wanted it's basically the same thing from last week because I want to give the formula to using this task management feature for your business or for your community service, or just if you're a coach. It doesn't matter. It works for everything. Or if you're a stay-at-home mom and you want to keep things on point at the house, this all works. So what's the mathematics? Here's the list. Remember, A equals top priority, revenue generating things. B equals maintenance and operational tasks. That's today's lesson. Remember that. That's that's the that's the engine. That's the that's the that's the fuel. You have to keep keep that fuel going. All right. And uh lastly but not least, um, is C, which is your personal, community, family task, that you are making sure you are keeping notes and keeping up track of that alongside of these more business things that you're doing throughout the day. And if you want to kind of learn how to man how to manage those on your on your planner, you put a tending sign beside something you're working on, and so you can use an asterisk for that. Um when you've decided not to move forward on something and it kind of falls through, you can put an X to delete that and you won't come to it. If your day goes by so fast you only get you got 30 things to do, you only knock out 15, um, you could put a forward sign beside those 15 things, and either you can cut and paste them to your next page or you can just start there tomorrow. And once I'm saying, like when you master this, you will see stress levels go way down, your work anxiety will go down, your production will go way up, and you will you will just rock it. And so I'm I'm I'm so thrilled to be able to do this and be able to spit this knowledge because it's been helpful to my career. And I'm I'm hoping that you're taking notes and um feel free to hit me up anytime um to talk more about it. So in closing, I want to make sure we remember this. As iron sharpens iron, so one person sharpens another. If you like the music and the opening, it uh it's my boy Aminus Red out in Phoenix. He's a great DJ and artist. Um I fell in love with some of the stuff he's done. Check him out on Instagram. He's dope. I want to give a big shout-out to Urban Campus Core, uh commercial real estate company here in Nashville, uh minority-owned, lots of great projects they're working on here in the city. I'm glad to be a partner with them and and um looking to hear how looking to see how well they're gonna do. Also, I want to give a big shout out to Hustle Strong Foundation. Um if you if if you love youth sports and services in the community, this is a great foundation to support. You can hit them up on their website at hustlestrong.com. Excuse me, that's hustlestrong.org, uh, where you can see how the Hustlong Foundation leads the National Pro Am and all of the proceeds from that pro am from sponsors go to grants and things and that support really positive things for youth in the in the community. So and we out.