Best Weekly Planner Tips

Wouldn’t it be awesome to begin your week feeling fully prepared and ready to tackle anything? Yes, that may be a stretch for a lot of us- but we can’t let that keep us from trying! Read on for the best weekly planner tips.

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There are a few things that you can do in order to avoid a week of chaos! Here are some ideas that can help you plan out your week on Sunday night (or whatever day you choose) to prep for the week ahead:

Make a Planning Day for the Best Work Week Ever

Related Posts: 

• Do a Brain Dump for Productivity and Organization
• 50 Fantastic Ways to Use Your Personal Planner
• My Top 9 Tips for Using Your Erin Condren Life Planner

Begin with an Accomplishment List

This is a feel-good exercise that can do a world of good when you’re trying to get your chaotic life under control.  Basically you write down everything that you’ve accomplished so far. These can be big things from the past year, or smaller things like emptying the dishwasher yesterday.

Essentially you want to remember that you ARE doing things, you ARE accomplishing great things, and YES you are getting stuff done.

Writing down your accomplishments can make you feel so good. It’s a little thing but it can make a BIG difference in helping you have a positive mindset for the week ahead.

This is a great list to write down in your planner or journal. That way you can refer back to all of your accomplishments during times when you might be feeling discouraged.

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Do a Brain Dump

Think of a brain dump as a way to get everything out of your head and onto paper. It’s like taking your purse and just turning it over and dumping everything out onto the table- all the gum wrappers, receipts, and loose change.

By doing a Brain Dump before you start planning, your guaranteed to get everything out of your head and organized. Just as you clean out the clutter from your home, you need to clear the clutter from your brain.

Grab a piece of paper or use your journal and treat your Brain Dump like a brainstorming session. You can even set a timer if you’d like. I find that five minutes is usually plenty of time for this step but you may need more or less time, depending on how often you do a Brain Dump.

The purpose is to get everything out of your head and onto paper. Then you can organize all of your thoughts into doable steps.

Read more about how to do a Brain Dump in THIS POST.

Check Your Calendar

Yes, this may seem like a #duh thing but you gotta do it.

Double check your calendar and make a note of any deadlines, appointments or events that are coming up within the next week.

Then, see if you can do any prep work for calendar events beforehand.

Make sure you check other places where you might write down or save events. Go through your kid’s school folders to see if there are any fundraisers or dress-up days to be aware of.  Skim through your email for deadlines or events coming up. Basically just check all the places where your get information about events that need to go onto your calendar.

Then, make sure that all of those events are on ONE calendar or day planner. You can read how I do it HERE.

Make an Action Plan for the Week

Your action plan will be your to-do list. I like to call it an action plan because it makes me think harder about the things I put on my list. I don’t just want to make a list that will never get done. Instead, I think carefully about what I’m putting on my list and how I will do each task.

Choose a few tasks that you want to complete for the week, write them on your action plan or to-do list and then enter them into work days on your calendar or day planner.

Plan Your Goals

It’s helpful to keep your goals in the front of your mind. It keeps you focused and will also help you with the next step.

Make a Habit of Planning The Week Ahead

The BEST pens to use with your planner are the Staedtler Triplus Fineliner pens. These come in super bright colors, don’t smear, and don’t bleed through the pages.

It make take a few weeks to work everything out but try to commit to planning at least once a week. If Sunday isn’t a good day for you to do this, try another day.

The trick is to make it a habit!