In life you have two choices; you either float through it by accident, dragged by its currents and moods, or you can do it on-purpose taking control of the helm and setting a course of your own design.
You can be reactive, or proactive… what’s it going to be?
Of course, I know; you cannot plan for everything. There are events you cannot anticipate, but it is a hell of a lot easier to get to your destination when you are proactive and have your destination in mind; and one great way to approach this strategy is by creating your Ideal Week, kind of a chart and a compass to steer you in the right direction.
I first heard of this concept from author, coach, and speaker Donald Miller, who originally heard it from his coach. The idea is similar to a financial budget; only in this one, you will plan how you will manage your time instead of your money.
Setting your Plan
In anyone’s ideal week –that is, the week you would live if you could control everything that happens to you- should be divided into a simple grid, so each day of the week has a main theme (listed at the top of the planner), and each day also is segmented into blocks, related to a specific focus area.
Themes
For instance, on an Ideal Week, the themes for the days of the week could be:
Mondays could be Teams (one-on-one meetings, staff meetings, and general planning)
Tuesdays and Wednesdays, Outside Tasks (travel, extended meetings, client visits, etc.)
Thursdays could be Problem Solving days
Fridays could be spent on medium and long-term planning
Saturdays are for personal/recreational activities
Sundays for rest, family, and spirituality
Focus Areas
It’s important to notice that there is no limit to the variety of things you can achieve if only you create firm boundaries around your time blocks and focus areas. If you don’t set them apart, work –it is mostly the case- will expand to the time allotted for it.
Early mornings are reserved for self-nurturing activities (reading, meditating, working out)
Middle morning to late afternoon is for work.
The end of the day is reserved for family time and home (cooking, dining, writing, etc.); it’s a time to connect and catch up.
You can use some kind of color scheme to highlight or even chunk things down a little bit more. It’s all subjective, you can create your own scheme, as long as you make sure you’re working on what matters most.
Map your ideal week, and use it constantly to check whether you’re on course, or off course. Not always you’ll accomplish 100% of your weekly goals, but it will give you something to shoot for; and hey, hitting half percent of a perfectly designed week plan is an unbelievable productive week!
If you take on your weekly chunk of activities without knowing what your priorities are, and just ‘move forward’, you’re actually moving sideways or going around in circles. Unless you have a laser focus aim, you’re going to miss your target.
Remember, if you aim small, you’ll miss small.
Stay on target, stay strong!
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