The goal in creating a weekly plan is to complete what’s on the list and give you a solid, well-thought-out list from which you can create an effective daily plan.
You’ll know you have succeeded when you get to the end of next week and everything on your weekly plan has been scratched out!
- Create the plan at the END of the week
Why? The week’s projects are fresh in your mind, you’ll be ready for Monday, and your brain will be less likely to remind you of work tasks during your weekend.
Creating a solid weekly plan takes about 15 minutes. - Calculate your open hours
Why? Because everyone is unrealistic about what they can do in a week. Add up how many hours you are in scheduled meetings, appointments, and include travel time to clients, if applicable. Then calculate how many open hours you have left. Be accurate; don’t ballpark.
NOTE: When you get to the next step, you’re going to make a list of what you want to get done but the trick is to only use 3/4 of your open hours. This is because you need to save time for everyday things like answering emails and phone calls. If you know meetings are not yet scheduled (or your role is to be available for spur-of-the-moment things), use half of your open hours. - Decide what you want to get done and write it down
Start by asking yourself “What absolutely must get done next week”? Write it down and include how much time you think it will take. Be realistic. The goal here is under-promise and over-deliver so at the end of the week, you get the satisfaction of seeing everything on your weekly plan completed and scratched off.
NOTE: If your brain has a hard time correctly estimating how long it takes to do something, give yourself more time than you think.
Here are some potential pitfalls in weekly planning
- The weekly plan begins to morph into a huge, unachievable list.
You may find that when you start writing out your weekly list, your brain gets on a roll and all of a sudden you realize you’ve got everything written down. When this happens, it’s generally because we’re overwhelmed by the sheer number of tasks we need to handle.
Check out step #1 in the blog post “Are you Overloaded by Work…?“ - Assigning specific tasks to a specific days.
Weekly planning is about doing your “big thinking” once. When you create your weekly plan, it may sound good to do the X task on Tuesday and the Y task of Thursday but that doesn’t allow for any flexibility. What happens if Tuesday comes around and something else needs your attention? A weekly plan is a guide to creating each daily plan. This is why it is best to only use three quarters of the open hours.