Plan Daily

Every Sunday I take 5-20 minutes to look over the week and see what I have planned. I look through my calendar and my basic outline for tasks each day and just try to see if I can see any immediate problems or things that need to be moved around. 
While it is helpful to look through the basic outline of each day the night before, there are those weeks where I only get to this step on Sunday. If I am in a rush or do not feel like planning, I make sure I at least look at Monday. 
The ideal is to spend a few minutes before you really wind down for the night checking in with yourself about the day and planning for the next day's activities. Knowing what is on the calendar for the following day can be one of the most important steps to hitting the ground running in the morning. 
Why should a person take the time to plan and look over the week? The main reason is this: if you do not plan, your days and week will still fill up, but they will be planned for you. If you plan out when and how you need to accomplish certain tasks in your week, you will be much more likely to follow through with yourself as opposed to just knowing that you want to get to those tasks this week "sometime", but you do not have a plan in place. 
In just a few minutes, even in the busiest of weeks, you can set yourself up for success simply by taking a few minutes to review what you want to accomplish and putting together a basic plan. This plan will change and things will get thrown off, but you will be able to remember what is the most important and be able to refocus your week. 
Do not be afraid to move tasks to different days and remember to be kind and flexible with yourself. Most importantly, remember to say no if you need to accomplish things, even if others deem them unimportant. If it is important to you, schedule it into your life and follow through with yourself.