How I Plan My Week
Almost every Friday since the beginning of this year, I've kept a standing appointment to set my to do list for next week. Ambitiously, I block off an hour from 4-5pm. I almost never start on time and I’m definitely never done that early.
Planning my week is not simple. Planning my week is not quick. It takes me, on average, 1-2 hours to complete. It’s not rocket science, but as you can see below, I use several different tracking systems to make sure I know what I need to do and when I need to prioritize it. I usually start around 5pm, when my inbox finally quiets down and no deadlines are looming overhead.
During this block of time, I do four things:
Go through my entire inbox
Set my to do list for next week
Time block the next week
Catch up on employee time tracking
Doing these four things at the end of each week has helped me feel confident about what I’ve accomplished in the week that’s behind me, and like I’ve got a handle on what’s coming up ahead. Here’s why and how I do each one.
Go through my entire inbox
First, I file anything that doesn’t require action from me into folders to clear out inbox clutter that stresses me out.
Then I review and respond to anything that will take two minutes or less. As I respond, I also file those emails, since they are no longer require my action.
When I’m done, I review what’s left in my inbox (I try to keep it around 15-30 emails total; more than that and I start feeling overwhelmed), and I add those items to my to-do list for next week. A lot of tasks can be bundled, like sales follow-ups or items related to a specific project. If I have 25 emails in my inbox, it translates to about 5-7 to dos. (I’m totally guessing here, but the point is that you should bundle tasks and not make each email it’s own to do if you don’t have to.)
Set my to do list for next week
I already wrote about this here.
Time block the next week
I wrote about this as well.
Catch up on employee time tracking
My company requires employees to keep track of their time through an online tracking system. This takes me about 5 or 10 minutes to do at the end of every day, but at the end of really long days, I usually skip it.
I make myself update any days I skip during this weekly planning process. This is a simple task that could easily become a massive to do if I didn’t get it out of the way each week.
Chances are you have similar administrative tasks that don’t take much brain power but are easy to procrastinate until they grow into a burden. Make a habit of finishing them each week, and they’re much less likely to get out of control.
Why it’s awesome
Leaving the office a little later on Friday in exchange for feeling like my schedule is not spinning out of control is a worthy trade off.
We all know that most success takes time, effort and careful planning. But we rarely give our own schedules the attention they deserve to set ourselves up for a successful week. By planning my upcoming week, I feel like I’m entering Monday on the offensive, instead of feeling the anxiety of playing defense against deadlines and deliverables I’m unclear on.
If you try this weekly plan out for yourself, let me know. I’d love to hear how it worked for you, and give you some additional pointers, like how I adjust my time blocking and to do list during the week when things come up that throw my schedule off.