Planning Your Week In Your Digital Planner
We’re going to jump straight into this week’s topic!
Why should you plan out your week?
There are a few reasons why we find planning out our week to be a worthwhile activity to do. For starters, we feel that taking 10-25 minutes to plan before the week begins allows us to save time during the week since we are not having to constantly figure out what we want to get done. In addition to this, it allows us to take the time to identify what we should be doing in order to make action on our goals. Because we have taken the time to plan out the week, it makes our week go much more smoothly and even allows us to be more present during the week.
When to Plan out the Week:
It’s very personal. Find what works best for you and stick to that. I find that if I am using a Sunday start calendar, I prefer to plan out my weeks on Fridays. If I am using a Monday start calendar, I will plan out my week on Sunday.
Lately, I’ve enjoyed planning (regardless of which day my Calendar starts on,) on Fridays. This has allowed me to use the weekends for more reflection and enjoyment.
**I don’t think this can be overstated, but my goal (and the goal of Oodles of Joy Designs,) is to use planning as a way to get to more doing. We plan so that we can make action on our goals. We plan so that we can live our life to the fullest. We are not planning for planning’s sake. We are planning to make concerted efforts to reach our goals. **
How to Plan Out the Week:
Again, this is quite personal. Figure out which type of space and environment you can work and be most focused in. We like to make sure we’re in a place where we can quickly focus so that we’re not taking too much time on the planning. This includes:
A relatively quiet place
A timer ( we like to keep our planning session short and sweet)
A playlist
A snack
Water
Noise canceling headphones
Now that we are fully set-up and understand why it’s important to plan out our week. We are going to jump right into the planning.
Weekly Intention
The first item we like to look at within our digital planner is the weekly intention. We like to choose our weekly intention based on how we want to feel. We will choose a word or phrase that resonates with us through a 2-minute brainstorm based on the question: how do I want to feel this upcoming week?
Once you have a small list, review it to see which word or phrase resonates with you the most.
Highlight it, but be sure to leave a bit of a tail past the word so you can erase the highlighter later if need be.
Identify What You Want to Get Done
After we have tentatively chosen a Weekly Intention, our next step is to identify what we want to achieve this week.
We suggest doing 3 step identification process based on: your calendar schedule, last week’s schedule, and a current brainstorm.
Calendar Schedule - Review any appointments and/or events that are on your calendar for this upcoming week.
Last week’s schedule - did everything you wanted to get done be completed? If no, would you like to add it to this week’s list or is it something you can scrap?
Brainstorm what you want to accomplish this week. I like to brainstorm in 3 different ways, by my feelings, goals, and by what I need. These are the questions that I ask myself in order to get a sense of what I want to accomplish for the week.
Brainstorm led by your feelings:
How do I want to feel this week?
What would cause me to feel those feelings?
Brainstorm based on goals:
What are my goals for this year?
What are 3 steps I can commit to this week that will get me closer to my goals?
Brainstorm based on what you need?
How am I feeling physically? Mentally? Spiritually?
What do I need in order to cultivate more of how I would like to feel X, Y, Z, in relation to my desired physical, mental, and/or spiritual state.
Prioritization:
Now that we have created a brainstorm dump full of things and actions we want to accomplish for this week. Our next step is to make a prioritization list that identifies what we most want to achieve this week.
**It’s possible and very likely that you will not get to everything you have put on your list, that’s totally fine. The brainstormed list is more of a guiding framework for you to use throughout the week.**
I will prioritize my list based on some personal criteria. I have found that it’s best to set up a base group of criteria that works well for you and your life. For me, I like to create 3 lists from my brainstorm session. One list is full of functional and care tasks, another list is for actions that get me closer to my goals for the year, and the last is for things that bring me enjoyment. Since I have the 3 groups, it makes it easy to rank the brainstorm ed list.
Planning:
After I have generally prioritized my brainstorm list, I will begin to plan out my week.
I start by adding in any appointments, events, or meetings. Then I add items from my brainstorming list.
**I like to make sure have a mix of things in my week. Things I love doing that give me energy and things that take me a bit more time and energy from me. This helps me to stay balanced throughout the week and not be burnt out by the end. **
REMINDERS IN WEEKVIEW
I tend to put reminders in my weekview spread, if I am trying to incorporate a new habit into my life. But it is simply for me to try and get some traction on the habit. Once the habit has been successfully established, I will leave off the reminder in my weekview spread, so that I have space for other things.
Review Your Intention to Make Sure it Still Resonates.
The penultimate step is to review the weekly intention we chose at the start of the planning session to make sure it still resonates not just with ourselves but also with the week that we have planned.
If the word is still resonating well with you and your planned week, I will move into the final step for my weekly planning.
If I find the word isn’t jiving, I will see which resonates more: the weekly intention or the week I planned. If I choose the weekly intention, I will tweak the week I planned; to be more aligned with the intention I chose. If the week I planned resonates more; I will choose a new word or phrase for my weekly intention (based on my planned week).
Set Up Your Daily Pages for the Week
The very last thing I do is set up my daily pages for the upcoming week. I do this so I’m not bogged down by busy work during the week. I generally will add the calendar insert, date, and weekly intention for each day. I leave all the planning and artistry for the day of planning.
We hope this blog post was informative for you. This is how we currently plan out our week, so take it with a grain of salt and do what works best for you and your life. We believe that it will be a good starting point for any one who wishes to incorporate weekly planning into their lives.
Wishing you oodles of joy!
