Weekly Planning Hack(s) to Get You Ahead
Learn how to get ahead of your week, so that your week does not get ahead of you.
It's Sunday night, and you've just finished having an incredible weekend with friends and family. As you post more stories to your Instagram, giggling through all the fun moments, you start to feel a sense of dread. You then sink into despair and start breathing shallowly. It's like a heavy elephant just sat on your chest, and you have no clue how to get it off. As you sling on your sleep mask and turn off the lights, you lie awake worried about Monday morning and the week ahead. One, two, three hours roll by, and you're squirming. This happens every week!
Does this sound familiar? You are likely a victim of the Sunday Scaries. The feelings of anxiety that many of us experience the day before heading back to work after the weekend. And it's way more common than you think.
I used to get them all the time, as I explain below. But then I came up with a simple routine to help me get a good Sunday night's sleep and plan a great week.
Below is my 5-step process to help you get ahead of your week --- so that your week does not get ahead of you.
1. The Sunday Overview
Take 20 minutes on Sunday to review your calendar for the week. This will help you avoid the Sunday scaries and help you get into the right frame of mind come Monday morning. Ask yourself:
Are all of these meetings necessary?
What can be canceled or rescheduled?
Are my tasks helping me achieve my business goals?
What's missing?
Who should I be connecting with this week?
I have been doing this for a few years now, and it has helped me get a better night's sleep. For example, I was notorious for losing sleep on Sunday nights worried about the week ahead, mostly because I had no clue what was going on.
The important thing is to schedule your most important tasks first, like working out, spending time with family, and eating the big frog. Think of it this way, if your assistant has complete control over your calendar from 9-5, M-F and was free to schedule you in for anything, and I mean anything, how much time do you think would be dedicated to doing silly tasks? Likely a lot more than you want to believe.
That's why it's essential to fill your time with important, needle-moving tasks first. Then add in the other things, not forgetting that self-care is also a priority.
Tip: keep a notebook and pen next to your bed. If you have problems falling asleep because your mind is in overdrive, writing the thoughts down will help you relax.
2. Review your Repeatable Morning Actions
High-functioning entrepreneurs and leaders follow the same morning routine without hesitation.
It could be a morning meditation, workout, yoga and stretching, writing in their gratitude journal, having a coffee, drinking a glass of water, or spending time with their family. Their alarm is set early, and they make a concerted effort to follow the same sets of tasks every morning. Their morning actions are ingrained into their routine so much so that it is rarely ever forced; it comes naturally. But, unfortunately, it has become a habit. While some may no longer need to write down the things they want to do in the morning, many still fly by the seat of their pants. Is this you?
You essentially give up all control by letting someone else, such as your kids, husband, or work emails, rule your morning routine. Without a routine, you'll be far more likely to operate in reactive mode, which means you'll simply be responding to what life throws at you and not really progressing at all.
Your Repeatable Morning Actions are things that lock you in for weeks, if not months at a time, and must be completed before you do anything else. For example, write for 60-minutes straight, check your bank account, review daily meetings, or check website traffic, stats, and sales numbers. It can even be simple things, such as filling up your water bottle and placing it on your desk.
If you haven't yet conquered the art of a perfect morning routine, then you must start by drafting out your Repeatable Morning Actions.
Repeatable Morning Actions should not change that much. I urge you to get a sticky note and write down these tasks, then stick it to your monitor or on your desk somewhere. Until they fluidly become a natural part of your mornings, keep it there and look at it every morning.
I use the Pack app (Free) to create my 'Daily Success List' and check things off as I go.
3. Monday OKR tasks
Next up, Monday morning OKR's!
What is OKR? It stands for objective and key results, a goal-setting methodology that can help teams set measurable goals.
I will [objective] as measured by [key result].
The objective is the goal you want to achieve and why. It answers: What is your top priority for 2022?
The Key Result is the metric by which you'll measure your progress towards your objective. These are metrics that truly matter (No vanity metrics!)
If we achieve this, then the objective has been met
80% of the time, it must be measurable
You need to be able to tag each task with a done/not done tag or a due date
Only measure what truly matters.
OKR Example #1
Objective: Build a high-performance customer service team
Key result: Decrease average interaction per ticket from 3.80
Key result: Maintain at least 2 Brown bag sessions per week
Key result: Decrease escalated calls from customers from 45% to 10%
OKR Example #2
Objective: Increase Annual Recurring Revenue
Key result: Increase Account renewals from 75% to 90%
Key result: Increase Lead Conversion from 20% to 40%
Key result: Revamp Customer Acquisition Process
Now, it's your turn...
YOUR FIRST OKR
Objective:
Why:
Key result:
Key result:
Key result:
Key result:
Your OKR Template. Remember to make a copy for yourself.
So on Mondays, the first thing is to jump into your spreadsheet and review what's a priority for you this week, add tasks to your success list, and prepare to reach your weekly targets by Friday.
4. Mid-Week Check-in
All you have to do on Wednesdays is take a quick peek at where you are and ask yourself, 'Will I complete my Success List this week?'
From 9 - 10 am every Wednesday, I have blocked off time to review my tasks and use the remaining time to approve podcast episodes. Since it's a recurring meeting in my calendar, no one can take that time away from me.
5. Friday Review
On Friday mornings, after updating your metrics (you are measuring your efforts, right?), it's time to see what you've accomplished or where you may have fallen short. Use this time to wrap up tasks or move things to the following week. But please don't let things spiral, as in, don't lose sight of the big picture or get caught up in the menial crap.
I have my marketing meetings scheduled for Friday, and we use this time to review the metrics from the week and plan ahead. When you're accountable to someone else (this does not always mean a superior, but even a contractor or assistant), you get more done.
So while you may think you need to constantly work a 40+ hour week, it's not really the case. Work smart, create goals, systems, and a structure on how to achieve success, and if you're given the flexibility to harness all those hours each week, make the most of it! [And I can't stress this enough, self-care is the most selfless thing you can do!]
