To Start: Grab My Free Weekly Planning Checklist and a Beverage
The first thing I recommend you do is make your weekly planning ritual an enjoyable check-in session with yourself and your calendar that you look forward to weekly. Whether you are doing this first thing in the morning or after the kids go to bed, make yourself an iced coffee, pour yourself a LaCroix or a glass of wine, put on a happy playlist on Spotify, and enjoy.
Grab my free weekly planning checklist at the button below and I’ll take you through the list step by step.
Step 1: Scheduling and Weekly Household Tasks
Start off by looking at the week ahead on your calendar to note any one-off appointments or events. You will want to confirm logistics for the week ahead, notably if you are needed to drive a child to or from school, daycare, extra-curricular activities, and note any changes in your typical childcare schedule.
When it comes to household tasks the idea of theme days can simplify the mental energy of what needs to be done when. I suggest starting out with one or two themed days to test this out.
What are themed days? I’m glad you asked, they are days set aside for one chore or task.
The beauty of themed days is you know they are coming. As an example, if I decide Tuesday is my laundry day and I do every load of laundry every Tuesday, then you know it’s coming, your family knows it’s coming, barring any gross kid accidents you can let the laundry pile up again until next Tuesday. The real time saving of themed days comes from not spending the mental energy to make this decision every week and from batching together like tasks. Same goes for errands. If you batch together your errands into a single day you cut down on time spent driving.
If you are using a digital calendar option, creating these themed days as recurring all day open and private appointments on your calendar can simplify this step even more.
While you are setting up new recurring appointments go ahead and pencil in a recurring 15 minutes for your weekly planning session too!
Step 2: Task Planning
If you have a list of monthly or seasonal tasks that must be done, pull an item off of that list and put it on your weekly calendar.
My Master Your Week: The Mom's Guide to Time Management course has a module on Planning for the Long Term where I will teach you how to create and action out a seasonal list structure.
Examples could be to schedule a landscaper to do fall clean up, winterize your pipes, you get the idea…the necessary, but not so exciting parts of being an adult.
Step 3: The Fun Stuff
My favorite part!
With most of the must dos written on the calendar, you now get to find time for what you actually want to do. Plan at least 30 minutes once during Monday-Friday (or whichever days you typically work) and again during the weekend to have fun!
Find a hobby
Make a list in Google Maps of local places you’ve been meaning to check out
Spend time outside at a park, the driving range, or any outdoor place you don’t typically go to
Meet up with a friend for pedicures
The goal here is to put it on the calendar, make sure you have coverage plans in place if this requires the help of your partner, and enjoy the anticipation just as much as the event itself.
I by no means think 30 minutes once or twice a week to do something enjoyable is enough, and I hope you can find more than that, but we are starting small here. Start with this. Expand on it as time goes on.
Step 4: Goal Setting
Take a minute to review any bigger picture, long term goals you have and decide on 1-3 small tasks you can accomplish in the next week. I have these broken out into four categories listed on the checklist; personal, work, career, and hobby.
An example of three steps I could take in the personal realm of life could be “workout 3x next week, schedule my annual skin check, and finally start using those Crest Whitestrips I bought way too many of at Costco.”
This doesn’t need to be deep or serious. It is simply 1-3 to-do list items or reminders you can knock out in the next week. Schedule what you need to on the calendar.
Step 5: Work
When I plan out the next week of work I am referring mostly to office / knowledge work but these steps can be applicable for many types of careers. Block off any prep time for important meetings / presentations you see happening in the next week. Don’t forget to block off travel time if your job requires you to change offices during the day.
Next, I sit down with Trello open on my laptop, and fill out tasks and follow ups for each day of the week.
Learn more about how I use Trello as my single source of truth for all things planning in the Master Your Week: The Mom's Guide to Time Management course.
Finally, I want to go into next week with a clean inbox. Archive messages, flag follow ups, create tasks, and delete any junk mail.
Rinse and Repeat
A 15-minute planning block is most effective when you plan for it at the same time every week. Friday at 4 PM when your brain is fried or Sunday evening while you sit on the couch are both strong contenders.
Now that you’ve read how to use it, grab my free weekly planning checklist here.
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