Planning Your Week 101

Happy Friday! After reading last week's post, you probably now know WHEN to plan your week. Learning HOW to plan your week is actually a very extensive topic. I have previously taught a two-hour course just on this topic, and if you search on YouTube you will find a lot of content too. Believe me, I have gone through hours and hours of this content and have tried several methods.

My conclusion: Everyone will try to sell you on their own method. However, it is impossible to find one method that works for everyone. We are all different and will benefit from different planning methods.

The Foundations of Weekly Planning

Having said this, I do want to share what, in my opinion, are the foundational aspects of planning your week, those shared by many of the methods. These are my step-by-step recommendations. The ones I would give to someone who isn't seeing the results they want or just feel like they are going in circles.

Step 0. Know your goals: If you don't know where you are headed, then nothing you plan for really matters. I wrote a step by step of how to get out of what I call "The Trap Zone" (when you are doing a lot, but not the right things). Planning your week if you don't have this covered first is like putting a Band-Aid on a broken leg. If you aren't sure, stop now and go read the previous post.

Step 1. Set the Scene: Remember that your present-self (Homer Simpson) want immediate gratification and planning your week if not something it will enjoy... so, try to "give donuts to your Homer Simpson-Self".

What does this look like? Change the scenery (get some sun on your face, or go to a nice coffee place) and/or give yourself a treat (get something nice to eat or drink).

The concept behind this is that this weekly planning event is looked forward to by both your selves. Your Homer Simpson-self gets a treat, your Mr. Spock-self gets to feel like they are in control.

Step 2. Capture: Do a brain dump. With a clear mind, write down everything that is in your brain. Everything. Not only the things that are work related, because you will still probably have to address them during "work hours". For instance:

• You haven't gone to the dentist in ages

• You haven't taken a training at work in the last six months

• You are upset about your commute and always wonder what it would be like if you left your house an hour earlier

Step 3. Reflect: Perform a retrospective. Think about all the things that you actually did. Reflect on all the things that you wanted to do but couldn't. Ponder; "What have I "run away" from?" (meaning that you pushed it around).

There will be several things we want to do but end up not doing. Take this time to understand why you think your Homer Simpson-self didn't want to execute what your Mr. Spock-self wanted it to do...and try again in a different way.

The ultimate goal of your reflection is to embrace your inner Bill Murray and think: "if I had to do this week again, what would I do differently?"

Step 4. Decide: what you promote to your calendar. Out of all the things you wrote down, which ones will get you closer to your goals? Grab those and add them to your calendar. Only then, you'll guarantee that you will do them.

• Your tooth has been hurting for two days? Then, schedule the exact time you will be contacting the dentist. If not, it's probably not going to happen.

• You have two meetings happening at the same time. Decide now; don't let your Homer Simpson-self decide.

Your goal is that if you suddenly get 1 hour free, your Homer Simpson self knows EXACTLY what to do.

Step 5. Remove: Now that your weekly plan is ready, remove 20% of what you had planned. When you promoted things to your calendar, you probably overestimated what you can possible do. I know, you didn't mean to, and you think you did OK, but science says that you are probably way off (i.e. the Planning Fallacy I wrote about a few weeks ago)

"Wow, this sounds kinda basic"

Yes, very basic, but do we all do it every week? Come on... probably not always. So I hope that this provided a basic guide on what to actually do, following these next steps:

1. Know your goals: If you do not, start there.

2. Set the Scene: Give Homer Donuts. Plan your weekly review time to be something nice for your present-self

3. Capture: Do a brain dump of everything that's in your mind

4. Reflect: think "what am I currently "running away from"?"

5. Decide: What you promote to your calendar - This is what will get done!

6. Remove: About 20% of the things you plan to do, you'll probably not get the time to do them anyways

Copy and paste these 6 next steps on a recurrent once a week calendar invite with yourself!

Go plan your week,

Jorge Luis Pando

PS: Pro Tip - The "donuts" you give your Homer Simpson-self, can actually. be. real. donuts.

I am not sure if people are reading this far, so if you are, thanks! Take a pic of your weekly plan or your scene while planning your week, reply to this email, and you will enter a raffle for a million imaginary donuts :)