How I Plan Weekly

This may not sound as fun a rhythm as Friday Night Pizza or a Weekly Date Night, but this is the one rhythm that sets the tone for the week. Without a weekly planning rhythm, the wheels fall off pretty quickly.

Everyone’s planning rhythm is going to look different based on the season of life you’re in and who all you need to plan for. It’s also going to look different based on what paper or tech options you use to plan. I’ll share what I use, but again, recognize that what I use may not be what’s going to be best for you. Take what’s helpful and leave the rest.

Supplies

• Shared Apple calendar on iPhone
• Weekly Planner from Dapper Desk – This is sold out but it’s very simple. It has the days of the week, and then at the bottom of each day is little circles for to do list type items. There’s no labels for anything which is why I got it. I like to make it what works for me.

Planning

Step 1 – The Transfer

My first step is to take what’s in our shared phone calendar and put it in my physical weekly planner. This may be vet appointments, family or friend commitments, church, work events, workout classes, or other plans. We usually don’t have a whole lot of these, but maybe a few a week to write in.

Step 2 – Plan for Rest & Connection

Next up, I look and make sure our Thursdays are free and put date night on the calendar. While we have it already in our shared calendar to intentionally avoid scheduling things that day, sometimes we can’t help it. If that happens, we usually look to Wednesday as our back up slot.

Then, I write Sabbath in for Friday evening through Saturday evening. This is when we intentional pause from the hustle of our days and rest and savor the day without work. If there’s things already scheduled for that day that don’t align with what we intend for Sabbath, we move it to Sunday as our back up slot.

These two things are the first things I put in outside of any other commitments. This goes in before to dos, could dos, should dos, or other requests. It’s important for us to keep both of these, so we make sure to plan for it first before everything else.

Step 3 – Braindump

This is where I then start to brain dump all the things on my mind. It could be chores around the house, calls or appointments to schedule, plans I want to make, or other ideas or nagging things weighing my brain down. I dump it all on the right hand side of my planner in a list.

While my brain sometimes tells me I should be or need to be doing all these things and fitting them into the week, I’ve learned that my brain is often a liar and my thoughts aren’t always true.

Step 4 – Prioritize Tasks

I try to go through the braindump and ask myself, what absolutely has to get done this week? Those then I look at first. Again, it’s not what do I think should get done this week or what do I want to get done this week. I ask what HAS to get done this week no matter what? This tends to mean it’s deadline driven. Usually there’s not much. I take those items and try to spread them across the days if I can.

Then I look and see what what I’d like to get done this week, realistically. There’s usually a few more of these. Again, I try to look and spread them across the week.

I only really leave space to do 3 things a day, or a “Top 3”. For me, examples that come to mind are weeding the front garden bed, doing laundry, making an appointment, ordering groceries, fixing our outdoor lights, powerwash the house, or cleaning up the backyard. I would summarize them by saying they tend to fit in the bucket of home chores, communication, or projects. The home chores tend to be similar each week or every two weeks, whereas the communication like appointments or emails as well as projects like building a firepit or cleaning out the garage vary by season.

I find that by keeping the list to 3 items a day, and none on Saturdays, I really have to limit all the things I “could do” to trying to be intentional about what really does need to get done. I also don’t fill out every single one of these so I can plan for margin as things come up that need taken care of.

Step 5 – Plan

Once I have the items like chores, communication, and projects listed, I then go in and finish planning a few other areas, primarily meals and workouts. While I’d like to think that it will be fun to just pick a workout that day or figure out dinner on the fly, that’s just not the reality. The chances of us ordering takeout or going out to eat significantly increases if we don’t have a meal plan. The likelihood of me skipping a workout without one planned is also quite high. I know myself well enough to know that without a plan, I will come up with an excuse.

For meals, I’m usually planning 3-4 dinners per week and then I try to plan out my breakfast and lunches since I work from home and that makes meals easier. I will touch on what meal planning for me looks like in an upcoming post on rhythms.

For workouts, I may have a combo of workout classes, a hike, some walks, and some Peloton classes I schedule. I put the name in and try to consider what time of day I’ll do it based on the other events of the day.

Step 6 – Review

Once I have these in, I’m pretty much set up for the week. I have an outline for my Top 3 each day, know what meals will be, know my workouts, when we are resting, and what events and appointments we have. I check and make sure I didn’t miss anything and then put any “carry over” items from the week that I didn’t plan out into my braindump already for next week. Then I’m all set and just share with Teddy anything he needs to know for the upcoming week like our meals or events.

Wrap Up

I recognize that weeks need to be flexible so building in margin and flexibility is what’s most helpful for making the week work. Maybe I swap meals because I forgot to get an item or it’s not defrosted. I may swap workouts because of weather or timing. I may adjust which chores get done which days based on other things happening. The weekly planning is a rhythm, which should be flexible and not rigid.

Overall, this takes me about 20-35 minutes per week to do. The first time I did it probably took closer to 45-60 minutes, mostly for the brain dump, since I wasn’t aware of what all I was keeping in my head versus on paper. Now, it is a lot quicker since I keep a running list of these to make it easier on myself. I also keep a bank of go to meals which make it quicker as well.

What works for me may not work for you. Again, keep what’s helpful for the season you’re in and do what’s realistic. Maybe you only want to plan 2-3 meals at a time. Maybe you don’t want to plan workouts but instead need to consider kid schedules. Spend time on whatever makes sense for you, and know that it’s a rhythm which is intended to be flexible. I plan the week over the weekend sometime so that we’re set up for the upcoming week. You do what works for you!