5 Essential Steps to Plan Your Week Like a Pro for Maximum Impact.

You’re probably here because you felt like me a few weeks ago. Burned out, stressed, and your to-do list scrambled in your brain. The itching feeling to plan your week.

Your week is just messed up. It’s all over the place and you want to change it. Desperately. But how? How do you change your life? You do it by changing this week, and the next. It doesn’t matter what day you’re reading this, start to plan your week with this post.

Here’s what you’ll need:

• Calendar / Planner
• Pen / Pencil
• A glass of water
• Something else to write on (journal, notes app, scraps of paper, etc)

Let’s start talking about how to plan your week.

Write down all the things you want to do for the week

First, use the “something to write on”, and brain dump all your tasks. No matter how small or big, write them down. When you get them out of your head, you relieve stress. If this is your first time doing this, you can write down tasks no matter when you need to do them. You can then organize those in the coming weeks, to properly plan your week.

For example, my weekly braindumps look like this:

Sometimes they’re on Notion, a piece of paper, or a random document. Some weeks I have more tasks to do ahead of time, and other weeks it’s added on as the week goes. Don’t worry if you only have a few tasks at the start of the week. You can always add more to your brain dump, later on. This helps to plan your week because you don’t have to keep everything bundled in your head.

tip: keep ongoing document/notes pages for your brain dump tasks, so you can always update them.

Organize them in your planner

Now, this is where you crack open your planner and see which days you’ll do which. Tasks with deadlines should be easy to organize, but if you have hobbies or ongoing projects, create a timeline for that.

If you’re unsure about digital or physical planners read this post: Digital or Physical Planner? Here Are 20+ Pros and Cons You Need to Know.

Let’s say you have to practice piano for 4 days a week, and you have to work on a large project. In the next step you can time block repeating tasks, but for big tasks create a timeline. It can be a basic outline of when you’ll complete this, and add it to your planner.

“By next Monday, I’ll finish writing 2 paragraphs of my big essay.”

“By the 13th, I’ll have this part of the finances done.”

This helps to plan your week since you know what you need to get done, so you can add it to your planner beforehand.

tip: don’t write everything in pen just yet, especially if it’s more than 3 days into the future. But if a pen is what you prefer the most, watch out for messy scratches.

If you’re having trouble trying to balance it out, read this post on how I run my blog, finish my 7 courses, and still have time to relax!

Time block/schedule them into your calendar

This is the part where I open my online calendar. I use the Apple calendar to time block and to also schedule stuff already in my planner. Google Calendar is automatically synced with my Apple Calendar, so all my Google meets and such require no hassle. This certainly helps to plan my week because I can just glance at my calendar and see what I need to add, or what’ll take most of my time that week. So if you have a lot of calendars, see if you can integrate them, to better plan your week.

I prefer online calendars for time blocking because:

• It’s so much more customizable and flexible. If I have to work on something last minute or have a change of plans, in just a few clicks my calendar will be updated.
• I can bring this calendar with me everywhere and open it when need be. 
• It’s less time-consuming to time block online than to shade everything out and create an outline for it on a paper planner.

So if you’re new to time blocking, and you want to use it to plan your week, here’s what I do:

• Create labels, for example, guitar, school, events, exercise, blog, etc.
• Assign colors to each one to make it look more aesthetic and pleasing to use. You can search up [color] palette, and you’ll find hex codes!
• Repeat the events if they’re the same, instead of creating new ones.
• I give myself time between the events and try not to plan anything back to back.
• Start with only some parts of your week time blocked, and as time goes on you can start adding more events and plans. 
• Don’t go overboard and plan every hour out, you’ll be too overwhelmed if plans change(which unfortunately they do).

Color code

I mentioned above to color code your labels when time blocking, but it’s also helpful when you’re writing things down ahead of time. It could be for different subjects or work/personal-related stuff. Of course, you won’t always have colored pens/pencils on hand but at least at the start when you plan your week, you have an idea of which aspects of your life need the most attention.

Plan Your Week with a Goals list

This is optional but I find it helpful to write down my goals as well. My to-do list can be every single thing I need to get done, but my goals list is an overview. I suggest having it online so it’s easily accessible and very flexible. Your goals could be daily, weekly, monthly, etc.

Update it every week, and when you start planning, write down every goal you have. If you don’t achieve your goal, then there’s always next week. If you do achieve your goal, good job !! 

If the goal isn’t applicable anymore, just delete it. For me, a goal list is great for getting my priorities in order. Writing down your goals helps to plan your week since you can work on a hobby and remember to schedule it in it, so your week doesn’t just become work and/or school.

You can also write this in a journal, and keep track of it there. If you want to start journaling, read this beginner guide!

Make Time For A Hobby

When you plan your week, it’s natural to focus on the goals you have and similar areas. You’ll think of work, anything you need to do with your kids, and more. It’s easy to overlook taking time for yourself and doing something you enjoy.

Make some time for a hobby so you can do something fun yourself. You could try to learn to play guitar, for example. This Aeros tutorial is a great place to start.

By making time for a hobby, you give yourself time to relax and destress. It’s a form of self-care, and it could do more for your mental health than you could’ve thought. You’ve no reason not to make time for it.

Conclude:

Well, that’s it! That’s how you plan your week, and once you lay down a foundation you can always alter it. Maybe time blocking isn’t your thing, or if you want to change the color palette, go for it!

Just try not to do too many things at one time, or it will probably backfire and you’ll be burned out.