A 5 MINUTE READ TO MAKE YOUR WEEK 5 TIMES MORE EFFECTIVE

Posted on October 28, 2022 by Kristina Mueller, One of Thousands of Life Coaches on Noomii.

Are you one of those people planning their week in the tiniest detail, leaving you with the feeling that there is no or hardly any room for spontaneity and improvisation in your life?

Or are you one of those who let themselves drift completely, wondering towards the end of the week what you’ve been doing with your time, leaving you with that taste of dissatisfaction and the feeling that ‘life is happening to you’ and determined by others?

The good news is – no matter at what end of the spectrum you position yourself – a middle ground, YES! A SWEET SPOT can be found.

When we engage in short-term planning such as planning our week we tend to see our time in terms of the tasks that need to be carried out during that time span: go to the gym, do the shopping, buy that birthday present, call or visit the parents, etc.

Accordingly, we start to fit those tasks into neat and tidy boxes within our schedule, and most likely – if not most certainly – end up with a static grid of what we think our week should look like. And probably we repeat the same for our work schedule with all the tasks we think we need to perform: create that report, prepare that presentation, place those follow-up calls, attend that client meeting, and so forth. The list can be endless.

If things then turn out differently – meaning the thing called LIFE coming in between us and our plan, and as we know from experience it most certainly will – we end up feeling frustrated, disappointed and maybe even disempowered.

For freedom-loving spirits engaging in planning a weekly schedule on top of this can feel overwhelming and what’s probably more: completely and utterly boring.

But here’s the thing:

Let’s imagine one moment instead of asking ourselves “What do I need to do this week?” we ask ourselves “What is it that I want to see accomplished by the end of the week? What is it really that I want to achieve?”

This is a slight change, but a completely different story. As we ask ourselves what we want to achieve, we shift our focus from being attached to the specific tasks we THINK we need to carry out, to being focused on what TRULY MATTERS in terms of what we want to see accomplished.

We stop planning by endless to-do-lists and tasks and instead start planning by goals, allowing ourselves to connect with the WHY that drives us, beyond the specific action. Now that’s a game changer.

Let’s translate this into something more tangible.

To discern what you want to see reflected in your weekly planning, as a first step you can ask yourself:

“What are the most important areas in my life right now?”

Accordingly, you choose the areas you want to see reflected in your weekly planning which could include areas such as:

Health/Personal Wellbeing
Family/Partner
Professional life
Relationships
Learning/Personal Growth
Leisure/Travel/Adventure
Financial Health
Community/Social engagement
+ (name what’s missing for you)

As a next step, you proceed to defining a goal for each area selected. For instance, if you picked the three areas: 1.) Health/Personal Wellbeing, 2.) Family/Partner and 3.) Professional Life, you formulate one or more goals for each area. This might look as follows:

Health/Personal Wellbeing:
“Take care of my spinal health and improve my posture.”
“Progressively increase my energy levels after Covid.”

Family:
“Celebrate our daughter’s birthday, having a lovely and fun time together.”
“Take some time to reconnect with my brother.”

Professional Life:
“Launch my new project (course/workshop etc.) with success.”

The point here being that you take a moment to really think about what it is you are aiming for and respectively formulate the goals that make sense to you. WHAT exactly you want to do to get to your goals can now take many forms and shapes, giving you the freedom to fill it with the actions and fit it into a timeframe that works for you.

So far, so good – you’ve now established what you want to achieve during the week. Once you’ve done that, you might also want to make sure you’ve got your priorities straight.

Check in with yourself asking this simple question:

“Out of my goals formulated, what is the most important thing I want to see achieved?”

Picking out that SINGLE most important thing can make the whole difference as it helps you to be intentional about your number one priority, that one thing that is ‘non-negotiable’ for you. Things still might change along the way, but having clarity around your top priority will help you channel your focus and energy in the desired direction.

And what’s more: When asking yourself what’s the most important thing, you may be surprised what comes up as your most essential thing. Maybe you thought it was some work-related goal, but when checking in with yourself you might realise that it’s more important to you to accompany your spouse to the doctor or spend quality time with your family. And this will (at least) support you in making time for what truly matters to you.

You still want to go a bit further, making your week not only about what you choose to focus on, but also about YOUR MINDSET?

Then ask yourself how you’d like to feel in the process:

“What attitude do I want to apply in regards to my goal XYZ?”

For different goals you might want to adopt different mindsets. In regards to your professional goal for instance, you may choose a mindset along the lines of: “I want to feel calm, confident and determined.” In regards to your relationship goal you may choose a mindset of patience, compassion and openness.

As you practise asking yourself these questions, you might come to see that adding this small, yet significant step allows you to tune into the attitude you’d like to adopt towards any situation, person, circumstance or obstacle related to your goal. And since you’ve already thought about it, it’ll be much easier to connect with that mindset when you’re out there ‘in the field’ implementing it.

Let’s take a moment to summarise and review. To plan your week with ease there are four simple questions you can ask yourself and walk yourself through step-by-step:

STEP 1 – IDENTIFY YOUR MOST IMPORTANT AREAS OF LIFE: “What areas of life do I want to see reflected in my weekly planning?”

STEP 2 – MARK YOUR GOALS: "What do I want to see accomplished by the end of the week? (for each area selected)

STEP 3 – SET YOUR PRIORITY: Out of my goals formulated, what is the most important thing I want to see achieved?" picking your single most important goal.

STEP 4 – CHOOSE YOUR ATTITUDE: “What attitude/mindset do I want to adopt in regards to my goal XYZ?” (for each goal selected)

You can now repeat this process and iterate as many times as you need. You can modify it and personalise it. If it has proven useful for you, you can still add the specific actions around your goal while now staying closely connected to the WHY? behind the assigned ‘to-do’ on your list.

You’ve answered all four questions and are good to go?

Having done your weekly planning in this way might not be revolutionary, but it might create just enough focus for you to know where you’re headed, while allowing yourself to lean back and enjoy the ride and what happens along the way. I certainly hope you do!