“Every minute you spend in planning saves 10 minutes in execution; this gives you a 1,000 percent Return on Energy!” – Brian Tracy
Weekly planning is one step towards a more productive week. It is the only tool to beat procrastination and inertia. While you are starting a new week, spend one hour for planning your tasks ahead. To plan your activities, it’s important to WRITE actions down; not simply think about it. What gets written has the higher chance of getting done! So what actions will you take this week?
Although planning has many layers, here’s a simple questionnaire to get you started. Answer these questions and you’ll have a huge list of actions for the week.
- Whom do I need to call?
- Whom do I need to meet?
- What tasks do I need to finish pending from last week?
- What bills do I need to pay?
- Who do I have to collect money from? Whom do I owe money?
- Household errands to be done? (Repairs, purchases etc)
- What one thing can I do this week that I have been putting off for a long time?
- What tasks need to be done by this week? (Priority work)
- What actions will I take to reach my long-term goals? (Buying a house, travelling the world, saving money etc)
Once you have your list of actions, all you need to do is
- prioritize
- learn to say “no” to people if they ask you to do anything that’s not on your list
- focus only on the tasks at hand (unless something very very very important comes along!)
- schedule the tasks (day & time)
- repeat this process next week and the week after that and forever!