thesweetsetup-com-99zpkj.txt (9840B)
1 fbpx * 2 3 FREE! Plan Your Ideal Week: Bonus Workshop + Planner → Get the Workshop 4 5 [1]The Sweet SetupThe Sweet Setup 6 [2]ABOUT [3]COURSES [4]BLOG 7 [5]Sign In 8 9 • [6]Categories 10 □ [7]Mindfulness 11 □ [8]Workflows 12 □ [9]Setups 13 □ [10]Quick Tips 14 15 [11] 16 [12][ ] [13][Go] 17 How to Create an Effective Weekly Schedule 18 19 April 24, 2023 20 by [14]Isaac Smith 21 22 HeroHero 23 24 How to Create an Effective Weekly Schedule 25 26 Have you ever finished a week feeling like your to-do list got longer with each 27 passing day? 28 29 Even though each day was a flurry of activity, it feels like no matter how hard 30 you try and regardless of how much you do, it seems impossible to make 31 progress. I can relate. And there were a lot of weeks this was my reality. 32 33 But it’s been a while since I’ve had one of those weeks. And as a whole, they 34 have become a lot less common. I would attribute much of this due to my weekly 35 and daily planning process. 36 37 Every Monday for the past 5 years, I’ve taken the first 15 minutes to plan the 38 week ahead. 39 40 For me, this has been my single greatest productivity routine. Before being 41 sucked in to the myriad of inboxes and notifications, I take a brief moment to 42 identify and plan what is truly important for the week ahead. 43 44 Part of this planning process includes accounting for the unmovable rocks in my 45 schedule. Meetings, errands, when the kids need picking up, the things I know 46 are going to happen on a specific day and time. These events act as guardrails 47 in my schedule. Hard stopping points in which I know I’ll have to transition 48 out of “get things done” mode. 49 50 With a framework of my week sketched out, I set myself to the task of painting 51 what done or progress looks like. First, what two or three projects do I need 52 to push forward? Second, what are the two to four tasks associated with each 53 project? And what does “done” mean? The more specific the better. 54 55 Targets 56 57 In every sport, there is a clear objective — get the ball into the basket, hit 58 the target, get to home base, etc. Strategy and tactics may differ, but 59 ultimately there is clarity on what it means to win. That clarity allows for an 60 endless number of ways to achieve success. The rules and boundaries actually 61 cause creativity to thrive within their confines. 62 63 When we give ourselves clear objectives (targets) to aim for through planning, 64 we increase our ability to be creative. A lack of clarity leads to confusion, 65 inefficiency, and ultimately, frustration. 66 67 When there is a lack of clarity, people waste time and energy on the 68 trivial many. When they have sufficient levels of clarity, they are capable 69 of greater breakthroughs and innovations—greater than people even realize 70 they ought to have—in those areas that are truly vital. —Greg McKeown 71 72 For me, the planning process gives me time and space to identify what is truly 73 important. This results in clarity of what needs to be done. That clarity moves 74 me to precise action. 75 76 Winning Each Day 77 78 Once I’ve outlined my weekly plan, I turn my attention to the day ahead. 79 80 Weekly planWeekly plan 81 82 The same principles that guide my weekly plan are also true for daily planning. 83 Greater clarity on what I’m trying to accomplish leads to taking action. 84 85 This does not mean my tasks do not involve any level of ambiguity. Often in the 86 doing of something, greater clarity comes as a result. I try to remove any 87 guesswork for myself in planning out my tasks. 88 89 Instead of assigning myself the task, “write weekly newsletter” I may start 90 with instead “outline weekly newsletter on restoring margin.” A smaller, 91 bite-size, specific task. 92 93 I’ve found my limit is typically three important tasks (MITs) for each day. And 94 usually I only have enough brain power for two deep work tasks. Things that 95 require a large chunk of un-interrupted focus and creativity. If I assign 96 myself five deep work tasks in a single day, it’s unlikely I’ll get through 97 three of them, and I’ll finish the day feeling behind. 98 99 The real secret to winning each day has been planning my three MITs the day 100 before. 101 102 At the end of each day I review what I accomplished and compare that to my plan 103 for the week. Then, I look at my schedule for the next day and plan the two to 104 three tasks I will tackle. 105 106 * * * 107 108 All of this leads to a remarkable level of calm and responsiveness to my work, 109 rather than feeling frantic and reactive. 110 111 I’m able to be proactive in managing my workload rather than just surviving the 112 dog-pile nature of incoming requests. 113 114 The more I lean into the 4-Focus Method, the more I find it working for me. 115 116 IDENTIFY → PLAN → ACT → CELEBRATE 117 118 Studio spreadStudio spread 119 120 My 15-minute planning session on Monday mornings has changed the way I get work 121 done. And thankfully, it’s rare to find myself absolutely buried on Friday as I 122 wrap up my week. 123 124 There will always be more work to do, but I know I’ll be able to plan for it 125 when I’m back in the saddle on Monday. 126 127 (P.S. We’re re-launching our task and time management course All the Things 128 next month (May). 🙌 In which we cover weekly and daily planning extensively.) 129 130 Follow us [15] [16] 131 132 [17]Get App Picks, Guides, & More 133 134 Get workflow tips, app recommendations, how-to guides, stories, and more 135 delivered to your inbox. Plus we'll send you our productivity guide for free! 136 137 [25][ ] 138 139 [26][Sweet!] 140 141 [27]Best-Selling Courses 142 143 [28]🎟 All Access Pass 🎟 144 145 Join the Focus Accelerator to get instant access to the entire course library, 146 resource vault, and more. [29]» 147 148 [30]NEW: All the Things 149 150 Best-selling productivity course. Stop being managed by your task list. [31]» 151 152 [32]Full Course List 153 154 Serving 15,000 customers since 2013, we have a library full of in-depth courses 155 to help you be more productive, creative, and focused. [33]View all courses » 156 157 [34]The Latest Posts 158 159 [35]Our First Look at Apple’s New Journal App 160 161 Let’s take a look at Apple’s new Journal app for iPhone and how it stacks up to 162 one of the perennial apps on the App Store. The app has a long way to go, but 163 it has some very intriguing elements to start. [36]» 164 165 [37]Tracking Important Events with Up Ahead, Time Blocking Methods, and More 166 167 Catch up on what we published this week, including a look at Up Ahead for 168 tracking upcoming events you're looking forward to, a guide to effectively 169 using time blocking for productivity, and more. [38]» 170 171 [39]Up Ahead Lets You Track the Important Things in Life 172 173 How many days is it until your next trip? How about until your anniversary? Or 174 maybe that movie you’ve been waiting to see comes out? You can of course put 175 all of these events on a calendar and find them that way, but that doesn’t 176 really make it easy to see how long it is until that thing happens. That's 177 where Up Ahead comes in. [40]» 178 179 [41]The Power of Focus Themes 180 181 One of the most important concepts to learn as you figure out your 2024 plans 182 comes from David Allen: "You can do anything you want, but you can’t do 183 everything you want." [Free Workshop this Monday] [42]» 184 185 [43]The CEO Who Had No Goals (Video) 186 187 I recently heard a surprising admission from a very successful CEO. [44]» 188 189 • [45]Home 190 • [46]About 191 • [47]Products 192 • [48]Contact 193 • [49]Blog 194 • [50]Newsletter 195 • [51]Sign In 196 197 A website by [52]Shawn Blanc and friends. See also: [53]The Focus Course | 198 [54]Tools & Toys 199 © 2024 Blanc Media, LLC 200 [55]Design by Ink Blot Media Group • [56]Dev by Jonathan Christopher 201 fbpx 202 203 References: 204 205 [1] https://thesweetsetup.com/ 206 [2] https://thesweetsetup.com/colophon/ 207 [3] https://thesweetsetup.com/training/ 208 [4] https://thesweetsetup.com/blog/ 209 [5] https://thesweetsetup.com/my-account 210 [6] https://thesweetsetup.com/how-to-create-an-effective-weekly-schedule/# 211 [7] https://thesweetsetup.com/category/mindfulness/ 212 [8] https://thesweetsetup.com/category/workflows/ 213 [9] https://thesweetsetup.com/category/sweet-setup-interview/ 214 [10] https://thesweetsetup.com/category/quick-tip/ 215 [11] https://thesweetsetup.com/how-to-create-an-effective-weekly-schedule/# 216 [14] https://thesweetsetup.com/author/imsmith/ 217 [15] https://twitter.com/thesweetsetup 218 [16] https://thesweetsetup.com/feed 219 [17] https://thesweetsetup.com/newsletter/ 220 [27] https://thesweetsetup.com/training/ 221 [28] https://thesweetsetup.com/accelerator/ 222 [29] https://thesweetsetup.com/accelerator/ 223 [30] https://thesweetsetup.com/things/ 224 [31] https://thesweetsetup.com/things/ 225 [32] https://thesweetsetup.com/training/?utm_source=training_sidebar_link&utm_medium=sidebar&utm_campaign=sidebar_att 226 [33] https://thesweetsetup.com/training/ 227 [34] https://thesweetsetup.com/blog/ 228 [35] https://thesweetsetup.com/our-first-look-at-apples-new-journal-app/ 229 [36] https://thesweetsetup.com/our-first-look-at-apples-new-journal-app/ 230 [37] https://thesweetsetup.com/tracking-important-events-up-ahead-timeblocking-more/ 231 [38] https://thesweetsetup.com/tracking-important-events-up-ahead-timeblocking-more/ 232 [39] https://thesweetsetup.com/up-ahead-lets-you-track-the-important-things-in-life/ 233 [40] https://thesweetsetup.com/up-ahead-lets-you-track-the-important-things-in-life/ 234 [41] https://thesweetsetup.com/the-power-of-focus-themes/ 235 [42] https://thesweetsetup.com/the-power-of-focus-themes/ 236 [43] https://thesweetsetup.com/the-ceo-who-dad-no-goals-video/ 237 [44] https://thesweetsetup.com/the-ceo-who-dad-no-goals-video/ 238 [45] https://thesweetsetup.com/ 239 [46] https://thesweetsetup.com/colophon/ 240 [47] https://thesweetsetup.com/training/ 241 [48] https://thesweetsetup.com/contact/ 242 [49] https://thesweetsetup.com/blog/ 243 [50] https://thesweetsetup.com/newsletter/ 244 [51] https://thesweetsetup.com/my-account 245 [52] https://shawnblanc.net/ 246 [53] https://thefocuscourse.com/ 247 [54] http://toolsandtoys.net/ 248 [55] http://inkblotmediagroup.com/ 249 [56] http://mondaybynoon.com/