Signs you're not planning your week effectively...and what to do about it.

Have you experienced those times when you feel:

• Consistently overwhelmed thinking: How am I going to get it all done?

• You have too much to do but feel like you have so little time

• You can’t focus on what needs to be done

• Continuously checking your emails, for the next thing to do

These can all be signs of not implementing a few intentional and savvy strategies that can take you from wondering how to get it all done….to moving your biggest initiatives - and your business - forward.

If this is you or if you’ve dipped in an out of these phases, here’s what you can do about it.

1. Preparation

   If looking ahead at your next week isn’t in your routine, add it. Much of feeling overwhelmed can be attributed to not being prepared, and feeling like you’re always a step or two behind.

   Take the needed time to prepare your thoughts for upcoming meetings, proposals, conversations, projects. Even book time through the week to prepare for things. Gather the research, paperwork, client files, agendas and review them. This step is a game-changer.

2. Stop ranking everything the same

   Not ALL the items of your to-do list are equal. Yet, sometimes we treat them all with the same level of urgency and attention.

   Not all the balls you’re juggling are glass. There are more important ones than others - treat them that way. Move the others to the side, spend less time, see if someone else can take it on or play a role, or move them to another week. Do they have to be done at all? Depending on what’s on your to-do, if it’s been there a while, is it still important? If it still is, then plan a specific date and time to get it done and off the list.

3. Consider your switching time

   Let’s say you’re a baker and you went from making a pie right into a meeting with your accountant, into driving to pick up supplies, back to finish the pie, and then into writing a job description for your next retail shop position and then on to baking bread…. Research shows that there is a switching cost to moving from one activity to another especially when they’re vastly different from each other. The more different the task, the longer the switching time as you get oriented to a new thought process. Try batching like activities together. In this example, group your like activities so you get into the zone and truly leverage your time focussed in that area of your business.

4. Include recharge time

   Consider daily and weekly recharge time. Whether this is 10 mins between each meeting, lunch breaks or short afternoon walks; Water breaks, stretching and moving moments. This recharges your body, helps you focus throughout your week. Incorporating recharge time gives you a new boost and lengthens your productive time.

5. Include ‘future orientation’ work

   This is how you invest in the future. Investments info your future will shift and evolve the way things are now. This is the important but not urgent stuff. Building a new product or service, developing your team, learning a new skill, starting a second business, engaging in business coaching. These future orientation tasks often get pushed aside, but not engaging in them keeps us in the same spot. So, if you are trying to make advances, shift your business to look a certain way, earn more revenue, this often comes from your ‘future orientation’ work.

   A well-crafted week makes space - even if it’s a short time - for you to invest in your future.

Which ones do you want to focus on for this week?

NOW is YOUR time,

Ariana

Emerging Outcomes Coaching & Development - Business Coach in Canada, Canadian Business Coach, Business Coaching