Mondays are a great day to hit the ground running, but if you wait to plan your week until Monday, it’s likely that you’ll spend most of your Monday planning rather than working on what you want to accomplish for the week. Thus, it’s best to set time aside either on Friday or on Sunday to plan out the work week to come. I tend to plan out my week on Sundays unless I know that I’m going to have a hectic weekend. Then, I plan my week out on Friday afternoon.
Since I’m a fan of David Allen’s GTD, I always conduct a quick weekly review. This helps to ensure that no project falls through the cracks and that I’m on top of all my inboxes. Once I’ve finished the weekly review, I start planning my week out. What will I do when? What is my over-arching theme for the week? What has to be done this week? What would be nice to get done this week?
By planning my week out ahead of time, I can create a bit of a stir about the week to come. I really do get excited when I see everything I want to accomplish for the week, and when I think about what theme I want to focus on. Bit by bit, by planning my week this way, I move closer to completing my goals. I also am happy to say, that planning out my week helps me feel more motivated.
I do have one more component of planning my week, and that’s my weekly Monday morning meeting with my accountability partner. I will talk more about that next week.
How do you prepare for the week so that you look forward to the week to come?