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279 lines
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Plaintext
#[1]The Sweet Setup [2]alternate [3]alternate [4]alternate
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fbpx [tr?id=1547247442291447&ev=PageView &noscript=1]
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IFRAME: [5]https://www.googletagmanager.com/ns.html?id=GTM-PS7L89F
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FREE! Plan Your Ideal Week: Bonus Workshop + Planner → Get the
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Workshop
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[6]The Sweet Setup The Sweet Setup
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[7]ABOUT [8]COURSES [9]BLOG
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[10]Sign In
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* [11]Categories
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+ [12]Mindfulness
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+ [13]Workflows
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+ [14]Setups
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+ [15]Quick Tips
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____________________ Go
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How to Create an Effective Weekly Schedule
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April 24, 2023
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by [16]Isaac Smith
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Hero Hero
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How to Create an Effective Weekly Schedule
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Have you ever finished a week feeling like your to-do list got longer
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with each passing day?
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Even though each day was a flurry of activity, it feels like no matter
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how hard you try and regardless of how much you do, it seems impossible
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to make progress. I can relate. And there were a lot of weeks this was
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my reality.
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But it’s been a while since I’ve had one of those weeks. And as a
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whole, they have become a lot less common. I would attribute much of
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this due to my weekly and daily planning process.
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Every Monday for the past 5 years, I’ve taken the first 15 minutes to
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plan the week ahead.
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For me, this has been my single greatest productivity routine. Before
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being sucked in to the myriad of inboxes and notifications, I take a
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brief moment to identify and plan what is truly important for the week
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ahead.
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Part of this planning process includes accounting for the unmovable
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rocks in my schedule. Meetings, errands, when the kids need picking up,
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the things I know are going to happen on a specific day and time. These
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events act as guardrails in my schedule. Hard stopping points in which
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I know I’ll have to transition out of “get things done” mode.
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With a framework of my week sketched out, I set myself to the task of
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painting what done or progress looks like. First, what two or three
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projects do I need to push forward? Second, what are the two to four
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tasks associated with each project? And what does “done” mean? The more
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specific the better.
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Targets
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In every sport, there is a clear objective — get the ball into the
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basket, hit the target, get to home base, etc. Strategy and tactics may
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differ, but ultimately there is clarity on what it means to win. That
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clarity allows for an endless number of ways to achieve success. The
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rules and boundaries actually cause creativity to thrive within their
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confines.
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When we give ourselves clear objectives (targets) to aim for through
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planning, we increase our ability to be creative. A lack of clarity
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leads to confusion, inefficiency, and ultimately, frustration.
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When there is a lack of clarity, people waste time and energy on the
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trivial many. When they have sufficient levels of clarity, they are
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capable of greater breakthroughs and innovations—greater than people
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even realize they ought to have—in those areas that are truly vital.
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—Greg McKeown
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For me, the planning process gives me time and space to identify what
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is truly important. This results in clarity of what needs to be done.
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That clarity moves me to precise action.
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Winning Each Day
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Once I’ve outlined my weekly plan, I turn my attention to the day
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ahead.
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Weekly plan Weekly plan
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The same principles that guide my weekly plan are also true for daily
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planning. Greater clarity on what I’m trying to accomplish leads to
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taking action.
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This does not mean my tasks do not involve any level of ambiguity.
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Often in the doing of something, greater clarity comes as a result. I
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try to remove any guesswork for myself in planning out my tasks.
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Instead of assigning myself the task, “write weekly newsletter” I may
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start with instead “outline weekly newsletter on restoring margin.” A
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smaller, bite-size, specific task.
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I’ve found my limit is typically three important tasks (MITs) for each
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day. And usually I only have enough brain power for two deep work
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tasks. Things that require a large chunk of un-interrupted focus and
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creativity. If I assign myself five deep work tasks in a single day,
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it’s unlikely I’ll get through three of them, and I’ll finish the day
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feeling behind.
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The real secret to winning each day has been planning my three MITs the
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day before.
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At the end of each day I review what I accomplished and compare that to
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my plan for the week. Then, I look at my schedule for the next day and
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plan the two to three tasks I will tackle.
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* * *
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All of this leads to a remarkable level of calm and responsiveness to
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my work, rather than feeling frantic and reactive.
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I’m able to be proactive in managing my workload rather than just
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surviving the dog-pile nature of incoming requests.
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The more I lean into the 4-Focus Method, the more I find it working for
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me.
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IDENTIFY → PLAN → ACT → CELEBRATE
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Studio spread Studio spread
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My 15-minute planning session on Monday mornings has changed the way I
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get work done. And thankfully, it’s rare to find myself absolutely
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buried on Friday as I wrap up my week.
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There will always be more work to do, but I know I’ll be able to plan
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for it when I’m back in the saddle on Monday.
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(P.S. We’re re-launching our task and time management course All the
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Things next month (May). 🙌 In which we cover weekly and daily planning
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extensively.)
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Follow us
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[17]Get App Picks, Guides, & More
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Get workflow tips, app recommendations, how-to guides, stories, and
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more delivered to your inbox. Plus we'll send you our productivity
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guide for free!
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____________________
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Sweet!
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[18]Best-Selling Courses
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[19]🎟 All Access Pass 🎟
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Join the Focus Accelerator to get instant access to the entire course
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library, resource vault, and more. [20]»
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[21]NEW: All the Things
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Best-selling productivity course. Stop being managed by your task list.
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[22]»
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[23]Full Course List
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Serving 15,000 customers since 2013, we have a library full of in-depth
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courses to help you be more productive, creative, and focused. [24]View
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all courses »
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[25]The Latest Posts
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[26]Our First Look at Apple’s New Journal App
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Let’s take a look at Apple’s new Journal app for iPhone and how it
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stacks up to one of the perennial apps on the App Store. The app has a
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long way to go, but it has some very intriguing elements to start.
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[27]»
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[28]Tracking Important Events with Up Ahead, Time Blocking Methods, and More
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Catch up on what we published this week, including a look at Up Ahead
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for tracking upcoming events you're looking forward to, a guide to
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effectively using time blocking for productivity, and more. [29]»
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[30]Up Ahead Lets You Track the Important Things in Life
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How many days is it until your next trip? How about until your
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anniversary? Or maybe that movie you’ve been waiting to see comes out?
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You can of course put all of these events on a calendar and find them
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that way, but that doesn’t really make it easy to see how long it is
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until that thing happens. That's where Up Ahead comes in. [31]»
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[32]The Power of Focus Themes
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One of the most important concepts to learn as you figure out your 2024
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plans comes from David Allen: "You can do anything you want, but you
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can’t do everything you want." [Free Workshop this Monday] [33]»
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[34]The CEO Who Had No Goals (Video)
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I recently heard a surprising admission from a very successful CEO.
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[35]»
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* [36]Home
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* [37]About
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* [38]Products
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* [39]Contact
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* [40]Blog
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* [41]Newsletter
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* [42]Sign In
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A website by [43]Shawn Blanc and friends. See also: [44]The Focus
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Course | [45]Tools & Toys
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© 2024 Blanc Media, LLC
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[46]Design by Ink Blot Media Group • [47]Dev by Jonathan Christopher
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fbpx
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References
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Visible links:
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1. https://thesweetsetup.com/feed/
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2. https://thesweetsetup.com/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/160038
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3. https://thesweetsetup.com/wp-json/oembed/1.0/embed?url=https://thesweetsetup.com/how-to-create-an-effective-weekly-schedule/
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4. https://thesweetsetup.com/wp-json/oembed/1.0/embed?url=https://thesweetsetup.com/how-to-create-an-effective-weekly-schedule/&format=xml
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5. https://www.googletagmanager.com/ns.html?id=GTM-PS7L89F
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6. https://thesweetsetup.com/
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7. https://thesweetsetup.com/colophon/
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8. https://thesweetsetup.com/training/
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9. https://thesweetsetup.com/blog/
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10. https://thesweetsetup.com/my-account
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11. https://thesweetsetup.com/how-to-create-an-effective-weekly-schedule/
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12. https://thesweetsetup.com/category/mindfulness/
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13. https://thesweetsetup.com/category/workflows/
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14. https://thesweetsetup.com/category/sweet-setup-interview/
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15. https://thesweetsetup.com/category/quick-tip/
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16. https://thesweetsetup.com/author/imsmith/
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17. https://thesweetsetup.com/newsletter/
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18. https://thesweetsetup.com/training/
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19. https://thesweetsetup.com/accelerator/
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20. https://thesweetsetup.com/accelerator/
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21. https://thesweetsetup.com/things/
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22. https://thesweetsetup.com/things/
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23. https://thesweetsetup.com/training/?utm_source=training_sidebar_link&utm_medium=sidebar&utm_campaign=sidebar_att
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24. https://thesweetsetup.com/training/
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25. https://thesweetsetup.com/blog/
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26. https://thesweetsetup.com/our-first-look-at-apples-new-journal-app/
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27. https://thesweetsetup.com/our-first-look-at-apples-new-journal-app/
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28. https://thesweetsetup.com/tracking-important-events-up-ahead-timeblocking-more/
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29. https://thesweetsetup.com/tracking-important-events-up-ahead-timeblocking-more/
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30. https://thesweetsetup.com/up-ahead-lets-you-track-the-important-things-in-life/
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31. https://thesweetsetup.com/up-ahead-lets-you-track-the-important-things-in-life/
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32. https://thesweetsetup.com/the-power-of-focus-themes/
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33. https://thesweetsetup.com/the-power-of-focus-themes/
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34. https://thesweetsetup.com/the-ceo-who-dad-no-goals-video/
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35. https://thesweetsetup.com/the-ceo-who-dad-no-goals-video/
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36. https://thesweetsetup.com/
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37. https://thesweetsetup.com/colophon/
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38. https://thesweetsetup.com/training/
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39. https://thesweetsetup.com/contact/
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40. https://thesweetsetup.com/blog/
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41. https://thesweetsetup.com/newsletter/
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42. https://thesweetsetup.com/my-account
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43. https://shawnblanc.net/
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44. https://thefocuscourse.com/
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45. http://toolsandtoys.net/
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46. http://inkblotmediagroup.com/
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47. http://mondaybynoon.com/
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Hidden links:
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49. https://thesweetsetup.com/how-to-create-an-effective-weekly-schedule/
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50. https://twitter.com/thesweetsetup
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51. https://thesweetsetup.com/feed
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