Since we have been at school we have been working to schedule; planning your week for success in our younger years so why stop that? Our brains thrive on structure and discipline which as we grow older we gain more freedom making our lives more chaotic, let’s begin to plan your week for success.
Set Aside an Hour to Plan
Set aside time each week to make your ‘plan of attack’. A Sunday afternoon is normally a good time to do it because you can review how last week went, looking at the highs and lows and how to not make the same mistakes for the following week. I choose to do it on a Sunday night as it fresh in my mind for when I wake up on the Monday, but you can do it when you feel like doing it.
Having an Actual Calander
Now a paper based calander is good but what it plans change? This where digital calendars come in handy. You can use tools like iCalendar, Outlook or Google Calendar. Each have their pros and cons. Digital calendars can automate re-occurring events effortlessly. They also send you reminders for upcoming events via email or as push notifications on your smartphone. You can also share your calendars with others to have access to see your calendar and/or edit your calendar which can come in handy in multiple situations.
Clear Your Mind
As the week goes on your mind will build up with thoughts and things on your to do list; respond to emails, call the client back, writing content etc. This causes a backlog in your mind taking up space and causing us to feel stressed and fatigued if left alone.
These tasks that are left unfinished are taking up unnecessary space in your mind and causing you to function slower than your mind should. For example, when you are using your computer and it takes a day and age to load because you have loads of apps open for no reason taking up all the processing power – this is the unfinished tasks in your mind.
To clear your mind to jot everything in your mind down on paper or computer so you don’t have to remember them in your mind you can just remember all of your to-dos are in your note book.
Set Weekly Goals
After reviewing last week, I like to set new goals for the week for myself to accomplish during the week. I like to set my goals to fit certain categories; business, academic, financial, social (The BAFS if you like). Every week I aim to set a goal to fit in these categories and accomplish it. As an example, I would:
- make sure I have achieved my main jobs asap so I can work on new marketing material for the business
- like to make sure I am prepared for new tasks and stay on top of my coursework
- like to save up for my holiday so I would like to save £20 a week
- go to 5-a-side with my friends every week
Setting these goals helps to keep your mind focused and when you veer off you something to set yourself back on track.
