3-step weekly planning for leaders who want to get done what matters most

Are you a nonprofit leader who finds you intend to get a lot done each week but mournfully realize that when Friday hits, you've barely touched your to-do list? 😒

Instead, you accomplished a lot of things that other people added to your to-do list. While reacting to everyone else's demands, you didn't complete the assignments you wanted to work on. Miserably, you note that some of the unfinished items on your list were crucial tasks to move important projects forward that were truly important to you and your team. 

Trust me. You are not the only one who feels like this at the end of your week. 
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Too much REACTING rather than responding​
Leaders spend more time acting on requests from others than completing their own priority tasks. The urgency to solve everyone else's problems leaves a manager feeling like they spend their days chasing fires and never getting anywhere 😫

If you want to get off that hamster wheel and do more of your essential work, you must be more intentional about what you do with your time rather than reactionary.

⭐️ It is critical to begin with planning
You must start each week by planning your week. Before you get caught up in chasing everybody else's plans and agenda for you, you must reorient yourself to what are priorities for you. By setting aside time each week to lay out what you want your week to look like, you will have better control over what happens 👏🏻

​You must get perspective 👀
Weekly planning sessions allow you to pull your head out of the sand. While putting your head down and getting work done at times is crucial, a leader's critical function is to lift their head (and their organization's head) and get a bigger picture view repeatedly. Weekly planning time is this head-up, expansive view of the bigger picture. This time allows the leader to put things into perspective for them and their organization. 

​You need to refocus your time and priorities
Weekly planning allows you to get projects, plans, and tasks into focus again. From this outlook, you can choose how to respond to your week rather than frantically reacting to whatever shows up in your inbox, at your door or desk. Creating a habit of weekly planning puts you back in control and moving forward rather than running around and around 🙌🏻

3 Steps to Creating a Weekly Planning Habit

 1️⃣  Schedule a weekly time slot into your agenda 
First, set aside time each week to do your planning. Schedule it into your agenda and stick to it. You will need 20 minutes to an hour, depending on your responsibility level and style. 
 
Find a time that works best for you. 

• Some people prefer Sunday evenings, others Monday mornings. Still, others will end their week setting up the upcoming week, doing it last thing on Friday.

Set clear boundaries

• Be relatively rigid with those around you; that is your time to plan. Even more importantly, gets strict with yourself. This is planning time and planning time only!

❌ DO NOT let anyone or anything interrupt this time
❌ Do NOT book anything else in that slot. 
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2️⃣ Develop a list of action items for the week

A) Review annual goals

• What is your program or company working on for the year?
• What personal goals have you set for yourself as a leader?

Identify which tasks you must tackle this week to move those goals forward.

📝 Write those down as action items.

For Example:
Your company is looking at reducing short-term disability. Perhaps you need to schedule a meeting with the working group for the short-term disability strategy.


B) Review quarterly projects
Next, look at the quarterly projects you have on the go.
Where are you at with each of those?
What needs to be done to move the project forward?

📝 Write those down as action items.

For Example:
If you are planning your annual staff retreat, you might have to research venues.


C) ​Review last week's meetings
Look at the previous week's schedule and identify items needing carrying forward into this week.

📝 Write those down as action items.

For Example:
You may have met with someone and meant to connect them to another person. Note the need to send a connecting email to the two on your to-do list. 


​D) Review your upcoming appointments
Finally, look at the upcoming week. Review your meetings that are coming up and conversations that need to happen. Once again, continue adding to your to-do list.
 
📝 Write those down as action items.

For Example:
If you have a staff meeting on Thursday, you may need to compile the agenda to send out to the attendees. 


Dealing with the big list of items ✅ ✅ ✅
You should now have a list of things you want to tackle in the upcoming week. For some of you, this feels overwhelming. For others, it might be refreshing. One way to look at it is that you now have everything out of your brain and in one place. There will be less chance of forgetting or losing things in the shuffle. 

Dumping everything onto this list, from this big-picture perspective, is, in itself, helpful.

• 🗺️ It creates a roadmap for your week.
• 🚫This plan also allows you to set boundaries with others when they are trying to take your time. You can align their request with what remains on your to-do list for the week.
• 🧐 From there, you can choose what to do rather than react to what's thrown at you.

3️⃣ Creating your plan
From this list of action items, create your plan for the week.

• Prioritize which things need to be completed first. 
• Delegate certain items.
• Group tasks together that you can get done in one sitting.
• Notice which items you are less critical in the bigger scheme of things. They may get moved down to the bottom of the list. Only complete them if you have time.  

Make weekly planning your priority
Setting aside time to plan your week puts you on track to having a more productive week. Choose when you want to do this, then schedule planning time weekly into your agenda. Review your annual goals, quarterly projects, the previous week's appointments, and the upcoming week's schedule during the identified time.

☑️ From this analysis, list tasks you want to accomplish. 

But it won't work 🤦🏼‍♀️
If you read this and thought, that's lovely, but it doesn't work that way in the real world, I'm with you 💯
Even with the best of intentions, things have a way of getting in the way 😕

But is it things...or yourself?

In The Emotions of Time Management course, you'll learn why those strategies alone won't work for you.

✔️ We'll uncover the emotions that hold you back and help you make those strategies work for your unique situation.

✔️ You'll discover how to overcome hidden commitments that get in the way of getting done what matters most so that you can get done what matters most.

Learn more about The Emotions of Time Management here.


You can do this! 🙌🏻
You can get more organized, on top of things and get done what matters most. However, it will take a bit of intentional digging into what gets in your way, and that's often what's happening inside you. Thus, you must do the inner work!

​Start with the system, then notice what gets in the way of the system working. That's where The Emotions of Time Management come into play. It's the inner work you must do to be the best leader you can be!