Happiful Planner

The Happiful Planner is our custom-designed form that makes it easy and automatic to implement many of the key elements of the Happiful program.

There are many reasons why your Daily Success Plan is more effective printed out and filled in by hand. When you write something down it becomes “real” and imprinted in your mind whereas if it is entered into your phone or computer it feels “done”. Even more important, though, is that if your Success Plan is printed out, it is highly visible in front of you all day to remind you of what you need to do and to keep you focused. If you’re like most people, your phone and computer are your source of distractions, and if you have to keep going online to find out what you should be doing next, your Daily Success Plan is no more important or visible than an infinite amount of distractions, and you are highly likely to stumble upon email, texts, or some other distraction. The cost of paper and ink is typically under 5 cents per page, so for under $20 per year, you will greatly reduce distractions, increase your focus, and turbocharge your ability to Be Happiful.

The Happiful Planner is free and ready to use. You’ll print out 7 copies each weekend, fill one out at the end of each day, and then follow it each day. (If you don’t have a printer, you can print them at a local copy shop.)

For now, print out 1 copy, or at least open and view it and let’s go over the form. Remember, you will be filling this out at the end of your day, to plan for tomorrow.

  • At the top right is a blank place to write down tomorrow’s day and date. (You can keep these completed forms to have a permanent record of your days, or scan them to keep a digitized version online.)

  • Below that is a place to identify one Habit you are working on. It could be a new habit you are installing into your life or one that needs some attention. (We’ll cover Habits in depth later on.)

  • Below that is what you want to Focus on in the upcoming day. That could be an especially important activity, a project or meeting, a relationship, or an attitude or mindset – whatever you want to give special attention to tomorrow.

  • Next is your Exercise plan for tomorrow. Planning ahead for tomorrow’s Exercise makes it more likely that you will do it.

  • Below that is the day’s Calendar, in 30 minute increments. Of course you should use an online Calendar (we’ll cover this in detail later on), and writing it down here ensures you have reviewed your Calendar for the next day. It also gives you a way to view your Calendar during the day without going into your phone or computer, which can lead to distraction. And it gives you a way to schedule your MVPs into your Calendar without needing to put them in your official online calendar.

  • Now back to the main section. At the top is a place to write down your Gratitudes. We’ll cover Gratitude in detail later on. For now, know that by writing your Gratitudes each evening and then reviewing them each morning, you get a double dose of Gratitude each day.

  • Below that is a section to write down some things you are Excited about. Spending a few minutes thinking about exciting upcoming events or activities helps to put you in a positive mindset and serves as potent motivation.

  • Next is a place for you to write one Affirmation. We go into the power and practice of Affirmations in the full Be Happiful program; if you already practice Affirmations this is a place to write out whichever affirmation seems most important to you right now.

Now we get to the actions you’ll take the next day. The Happiful Planner guides you to create a better “to do list”. As we discussed earlier, you want a focused list, consisting of only the handful of things you are actually committed to doing the next day. And you need to be able to separate the most important actions – your Most Vital Priorities, or MVPs – from other, less important tasks you intend to complete. And then you need a way to separate all the new to-do’s that arise during the day, so you don’t fall prey to the knee-jerk mode of “new = important” and drop your careful plans to jump on whatever is new. So there are:

  • 7 slots for your MVPs

  • 5 more slots for other planned tasks

  • Below that is a separate place to write down the new to-do’s that come up during the day.

That’s everything you fill out when planning the next day. The final two sections are a reflection back on the day that just ended:

  • How will you improve? This isn’t to beat yourself up: no one is perfect and we should all be focused on continuous improvement. So just like a sports coach will review game films to identify ways the team can improve, you want to think back over your day to identify ways you could improve.

  • What were today’s wins? This daily practice forces us to think about what we did well during the day, and what went right, which is helpful for a positive mindset and building self-confidence. And it closes out the day on a high note. 

It takes less time to fill out the Happiful Planner each day than it did to read about it. This Plan, along with the Daily Commitment Checklist which we’ll introduce next, are the two pieces of paper that will keep you on the path to Be Happiful.

Your Action Step: Commit to printing out 7 copies each weekend, filling it out each evening, and following it each day. Instead of resisting, just try it for a week.