Plan Your Week with these 5 Tips!

Ever get to the end of the week and have NO IDEA where the time went? Don’t worry – you’re not the only one! But the good news is that doing a little planning on a Friday, Saturday night or Sunday night will make a huge difference. Not only because you’ll be sooo much more productive (though you will), but because you won’t have that ominous feeling that you’ve forgotten something important. Not to mention the fact that you won’t waste nearly as much time scrolling through Instagram in an attempt to distract yourself from your overwhelming life.

Even just 15-20 minutes of planning can help you feel do much more organized. So I am sharing some tips with you below. And just so you know, these tips will work whether you’re using a digital or paper planner. I hope you find it helpful!

STEP 1: PLAN YOUR NON-NEGOTIABLES

This might seem obvious, but it’s always a good idea to start by putting your non-negotiables in your calendar. It means you don’t have to worry about forgetting anything critical (which is always nice). Plus, you’ll be able to clearly see what you’ve got left to work with.

And when I say your non-negotiables, I don’t just mean work btw. I’m talking about working out or meal prep or your morning routine or getting a mani pedi or your beauty routine or whatever it is that helps you stay sane (because the things that keep you sane should be non-negotiable, right?). If you only do one thing from this blog post, make it this!

STEP 2: PLAN YOUR MOST IMPORTANT

At this point most people would start scheduling in each item on their to-do list, but I’m gonna ask you not to do that yet. Instead, carve out time in your week to complete your most important task.

How do you decide what your most important task is? Well, it’s not necessarily the one that will take the longest or be the hardest or even the most urgent. Instead, it’s the one that would make you breathe a sigh of relief if you had it done by next Sunday night. It’s the one that will move your life forward.

STEP 3: PLAN DOWNTIME AND SLEEP

Nope, we’re still not calendaring in your to-do list yet! Once you’ve scheduled your non-negotiables as well as time to complete your most important task for the week, plan out when you’re going to relax and when you’re going to sleep. I’m getting you to do this before you add your to-do list to your calendar because sleep and relaxation are sooo important. They’re also usually the first thing we cut back on when life is busy!

You don’t need to be too precise here, but I’d make sure you at least know what time you’re going to go to bed and have one block of free time at some point during the week. And if you feel resistant to putting these ‘limits’ on your productivity, you’re the kind of person that needs this the most.

STEP 4: PLAN EVERYTHING ELSE

Ok, now is the time to add your to-do list to your calendar. If you’re anything like me, there’s not going to be nearly enough time to get everything done. But instead of feeling overwhelmed and planning nothing (or trying to plan EVERYTHING and setting yourself up to fail) make sure your to-do list is prioritised before you add it to your calendar. And then add as much as you can without going overboard.

Don’t forget that it’s sooo much better to create a simple plan that you can stick to than a big plan that’ll overwhelm you. And if you do find yourself with extra time, you can always come back to your list later in the week.

STEP 5: MAKE SURE YOUR PLAN IS ACHIEVABLE

I spoke about this in the last step but it’s really important that your plan for the week is achievable, because overwhelming yourself from the get-go is NOT going to help. So once you’ve done your planning, have a look over everything and ask yourself whether you feel calm or overwhelmed. If you feel overwhelmed, it’s likely you’ve added too much to your calendar. Which means I recommend that you remove some of the things on your calendar, starting with the least important.

And I know it feels so unproductive to remove things from your calendar but trust me you will get SO MUCH MORE done if you set yourself up to succeed. And as I mentioned before – you can always do more things if you have extra time.