How to Organise Your Week in an Hour

 

Weekly planning seems like such a simple concept. But, like many things in life, sometimes the simplest things prove to be the most effective. Learning how to organise your week in an hour will help you focus on your goals, improve your productivity and make sure you get the most out of every week.

As someone who often became overwhelmed by my never ending to-do list, planning my week in advanced has honestly changed the game! I now spend 1 hour every Sunday planning the week ahead, so that when I wake up on Monday morning, I know exactly what I need to do and I am not bombarded with tasks and paralysed by stress.

By organising your week in just an hour, you will also be able to establish a healthy work life balance. This is great if you want more time with your loved ones or if you constantly feel like you are close to burnout.

In this post I will outline the exact steps you need to take to organise your week in an hour and all the benefits that weekly planning will bring.

 

Benefits of Planning Every Week

 

Once you start planning your week, you will find countless benefits to it. I honestly think it has the power to change your life!

Here are the top benefits I have found from planning my week in advance.

 

• You won’t forget anything you have to do.
• Helps you Prioritise.
• Increases Productivity- By having a proper plan you will waste less time, and you will plan tasks that can be done more efficiently on certain days or times.
• Keeps you Focused on your Goals.
• Reduces Decision Fatigue- if you haven’t planned you can get overwhelmed by being faced with so many tasks. This will also decrease productivity.
• Better Coordination with your Household- you can plan with your partner’s or family’s schedule in mind so your whole household is coordinated.

 

Now we have established some of the benefits of planning your week, we will now look at how to organise your week in an hour so you can stay motivated and increase your productivity.

 

Review Last Week

 

In order to properly organise the week ahead, you must first review the week you just had.

If you are at the start of your planning journey and did not plan last week, you can take a moment now to write down what happened last week, what tasks you accomplished and perhaps what tasks you wished you had time for.

Now you can see your last week, consider what you accomplished and what you didn’t get done. You can then transfer all of the tasks you didn’t manage over to the new week ahead.

If that is a long list, don’t worry! Just be mindful not to overload your week before you have even started it!

 

Get a Weekly Planner

I would highly recommend investing in a weekly planner. Until you have tried planning, you will not understand the difference writing everything down can make.

At this point, I feel like my planner holds my whole life!

I find it incredibly helpful to have everything in one place. If I am having a forgetful morning, I can simply open my planner and see exactly where I am in the week, what I have done and what I still need to do. This helps me re-establish myself with my week and makes me feel much less stressed for the day ahead.

If you are just getting started with planning, this A5 Undated Weekly planner is the perfect introduction to weekly planning. You can break down your weekly focus, goals, habits and to do list as well as having the classic sections for each day of the week.

I promise you that once you start planning you will see the benefits and wonder why you haven’t been doing it all along. But just in case you are not 100% convinced yet, if you do not wish to invest in a planner right away then I would recommend finding an A4 piece of paper and writing each day of the week along the top of the page (landscape). This way you will still have a column dedicated for each day where you can write your tasks.

 

Write out all Important Appointments

To start with, it is important that you note down any appointments or tasks that are already set in stone.

Note down the date and time of any appointments, meetings or classes you have in your planner so that you can see the bare bones of your week.

By first establishing the times and days where you are already busy, it is easier to plan all of your other tasks around them. You will also start to see what days you can plan bigger tasks on, and what days you should plan smaller tasks around your set appointments.

 

Brain dump Everything you were Planning for the Week

 

Now that you can have placed all of your set appointments in your planner, you can turn to all of the other tasks you would like to accomplish this week.

From doing the laundry to catching up with a friend, I want you to write down everything you would like to do this week in one big, messy list.

Doing a “brain dump” of all of your tasks can help you get them all down on paper so that you can see what you are facing, without having to retain anything else in your brain.

This is my favourite part of organising my week as it is the best time to make sure I include something for myself in the week ahead.

Without this step, I frequently forgot to meet up with friends for months at a time!

 

Prioritise your List

 

Once you have your brain dump of all of your tasks for the week it is time to prioritise them.

This is a crucial step!

You need to organise them according to priority so you do not overlook all of your important tasks in favour of some easier and less important tasks.

To do this I organise all of my tasks into one of four categories.

• Crucial– For all of the tasks you must accomplish this week.
• Important– These are tasks that you need to get done this week unless something big comes up such as sickness or an emergency.
• Wants– For every task you want to get done this week, but it would not be the end of the world if you didn’t.
• Extras– This category is for any remaining tasks which you could do only once you have finished all of the others, and you are left with extra time.

 

By organising all of your tasks in this way, you will have a very clear view of your week and the tasks you should prioritise.

This will make the next and final step really quick and easy to complete. This is one of the key steps to being able to organise your week in an hour.

 

Fill in your Planner

 

After prioritising your tasks in the last step, you may be tempted to just put all of your “crucial” tasks on Monday, then all of your “important” tasks then all of your “wants” and so on.

I would discourage this idea because, in practice, it is not as effective as you would think. Mondays become terribly painful and dull, and by Wednesday I found I just wanted to take the whole day off!

I recommend varying your tasks over each day so that you still get some fun, easy and less stressful tasks earlier on in the week.

This will keep your motivation up and you will be encouraged to tackle the harder tasks when you feel the satisfaction of accomplishing your other smaller tasks.

Say you have 5 “crucial” tasks for the week, I would recommend starting each day of the week with one of these so you know they will get accomplished. Then you could divide your “important” tasks over the week, remembering to spread them out, and not overload any one day.

Finish by filling in any clearer days with your “wants”.

By planning in order of priorities I know that if something comes up last minute, I can see what tasks I need to still fit in, and which ones I can reschedule for another day.

After planning everything out, if I know for a fact that I will have a clear afternoon, I will then plan in a few ”extra” tasks. But if I don’t, I just keep my list of “extras” handy during the week and fit them in as and when I find free time.

 

Tips for Weekly Planning

 

To finish, we are going to cover some top tips for weekly planning that will help you tremendously, especially if you are a beginner.

 

Plan in enough Breaks

I know taking a break never feels especially productive, but trust me when I say taking no breaks is the biggest productivity killer there is.

Everyone can and will burnout if they do not take proper care of themselves. Even if you are passionate about your work and never dread a single day, you still need breaks to give your brain and body ample rest.

Don’t be afraid to schedule breaks into your planner; it is an excellent use of your time.

 

Plan your week before it starts

 

Once your week starts, you may find it hard to find time to stop and properly plan. And if you haven’t got a plan by the time your week starts you may already feel overwhelmed and behind with all of your tasks.

To make sure you use your time most efficiently and stay productive, plan your week before it starts. This way not a moment of your week will be wasted trying to get on top of your never-ending to do list.

 

Be flexible

 

Planning is a gamechanger.

But unfortunately, life never goes according to plan. Make sure that once you have your plan, you stay flexible and learn how to adapt throughout the week. If you get sick, you need to make sure you rest. Not spend your time stressing about messing up your schedule!

If you don’t get everything done in a day, don’t panic, have a rest and reshuffle your schedule in the morning, making sure to prioritise your “crucial” tasks over the others, even if some have to get pushed into next week.

 

 

There you have it!

How to Organise your Week in an Hour!

I can’t wait for you to try this method and see how easy it is to increase your productivity, motivation and efficiency throughout the week!

If you found this post helpful, make sure you save and Pin it so you can refer back to it in your weekly planning journey!

 

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