One small ritual that has had enormous benefit to me is weekly planning. Previously, I might glance ahead at my week, but I was more likely to plan day by day, or sporadically schedule in gym sessions.
It wasn’t until I started weekly planning that I was able to pull out more patterns about how my weeks were going, where I was getting stuck, and where I could improve. One of the biggest unlocks was combining my weekly planning with reviewing my voice note transcripts from throughout the week, which I’ll get into in this post.
Ultimately, taking a few moments to plan has helped me achieve my goals, balance my workload, and go into each fresh week with intention.
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Why I take time to plan for the week ahead
Having planned for the week ahead of time, I usually enter any given week feeling calm about what my intentions are and the work I’ll be doing each day. Personally, I like to do my weekly planning on Sundays, but really any day could work. Then I can go into the week focused and ready to get things done.
I started doing a weekly review, where I reflect on the past week, every Sunday in 2023 as a part of my goals for the year. I felt I was moving too quickly to action and not taking enough time to plan things out, and I wanted to change that. In addition to the weekly review, I spend a small chunk of time planning for the week ahead. It’s not a huge investment — usually about 30 minutes total, including my weekly review.
This small routine has been so powerful for me. As my work has evolved I’ve taken more on at work (leading a team, managing bigger projects) and at home (having two kids, moving, managing school and camp schedules). With that, it’s been important to keep on top of my projects and priorities and not get caught up and sucked into a flurry of action when the week starts and kick off my week without any intention.
Weekly planning helps me get a bird’s eye view of what I need to move forward every week, both at work and in my life more broadly. I take a few minutes to outline priorities, look at my calendar, make sure it all supports my priorities, and plan out my to-do list. This last step is helpful for workload planning (making sure I only keep a reasonable number of things on my to-do list for any given day) because otherwise, I would default to scheduling most of my tasks for Mondays, and that didn’t always lead to me feeling like I could start the week strong.
What I do to plan for the week
Here’s exactly how I spend my planning time on Sundays.
1. Review the previous week
Before I get into the next week, I take a minute to close out the last week. I do this by:
- Looking over my priorities for last week, are they finished, moving to next week, or have they changed?
- Taking a few minutes to reflect on what went well, where there was room for improvement, and what I would like to do differently last week.
- Possibly most importantly, I take my voice notes from throughout the week and use AI to process them and look for patterns, and help me analyze the previous week. This step is optional and relies on you journaling via voice notes throughout the week, but if you are a verbal processor I highly recommend it.
→ Read: Using voice notes and AI for personal growth
2. Review projects, priorities, and goals
Next it’s time to review goals for the year. How are they going? Which ones will I need to move forward for the week? I also take a look at my priorities for work and the projects I have on the go. Which of those needs to move forward to keep on track?
This step is about getting a bigger picture and ensuring I’m still working towards my overarching goals.
Projects, priorities, and goals are all kept in various Notion databases for me that I link within my weekly planning template to make this review more smooth. This step would take a lot longer if I hadn’t already taken the time to outline work priorities and set my goals for the year.
→ Here’s my goal-setting framework
3. Set priorities for the week
After taking stock of what is going to need to get done this week in terms of work priorities but also personal goals, I can take a moment to set my priorities for the week. I currently do this all in Notion with a new database item for the week, and then each section (work, personal, side-projects) gets one to two priorities for the week. However, I’ve also done this in a notebook that I’ve left on my desk in the past. Digital systems are better suited to my habits and personality, but either could work.
4. Review my calendar
Knowing my priorities, I take a moment to review my calendar. Do I have enough focus time blocked off on my work calendar if I’m going to be writing that week? Is there anything I need to get done to get closer to my goals that has to happen on a specific day? I’m essentially just playing Tetris with my calendar and all of the things I want to get done to make sure they fit in, and I can still do basic things like sleep and eat.
5. Review my to-do list
Finally, I review my to-do list. I tend to have absolutely everything I need to get done on my to-do list on any given day. Everything from my habits and reminders to actual tasks for work. I’ve fallen into the trap before where I’ll schedule all of my work tasks for Mondays, and that isn’t always the nicest start to the week. Now, I take a few minutes to move things around based on my calendar and priorities so that I have the correct tasks showing up on the days they truly need to be done.
This process got easier with time as I got faster at reviewing my to-do list, not scheduling all of my tasks for Mondays, and was in a solid routine with my calendar. This is also only possible because I have clarity on my goals for the year as well as my work projects and priorities listed clearly in one place I can reference.
Your turn
This one change in choosing to take an intentional moment to plan for the week ahead has turned into a cherished ritual for me. Not only do I feel calmer and more intentional, but I also know I am moving towards what I want to achieve in work and in life. I hope it can do the same for you!