7 Weekly Planning Tips to Help You Become More Productive

---

Struggling to be productive is common among a lot of people.

As a new week begins you may feel overwhelmed and stressed out because you are not prepared at all. 

Then by the end of the week, you feel frustrated because you didn’t get anything accomplished.

If you don’t know what you need to get done and when you’re going to work on it, the chances of it happening are very little. 

Creating weekly planning habits will help you to attain your goals, encourage you to accomplish more responsibilities, and overall become productive.

7 Weekly Planning Tips to Help You Become More Productive

---

1. Plan Your Week on Sundays

I don’t know about you but I love Sundays!

On Sundays, I like to relax and recharge.

Unlike before I now do minimal work on Sundays since it is my reset day.

But, I do always try to make time to plan out my week ahead.

Sundays are the perfect day to start prepping and planning for the week.

I recommend taking about 30 minutes to 1 hour and finding a quiet spot with your favorite planner, digital calendar, or both, whatever you prefer, and use this time to plan out your whole week ahead.

Braindump everything that you want to get done, tasks that are a must (like dropping kids to school, work 9-5, side hustle tasks, etc), appointments, events, goals for the week, and so on. 

After that, you can start the planning process and map out your week.

2. Don’t overcomplicate your planning tools

Do you have a ton of notebooks with to-dos, tasks, and ideas listed in each one?

We tend to overcomplicate our planning efforts by being unorganized or duplicating the process by writing things down in different areas.

I have done this numerous times and it does not help at all.

Try to keep it simple.

I personally use one paper planner and a digital planner called Clickup.

I break it down like this.

My paper planner is used to give a broad look at all my tasks so I can have an overview of everything.

Then, I use ClickUp to break up my tasks, have a more detailed view of it, write notes, and set reminders.

I started to add Google Calendar in there since ClickUp syncs with it but I decided against it since it was getting too complicated.

So, it is definitely best to stick to 1-2 planning tools to help you stay organized.

3. Prioritize Your Tasks

You have your to-do list filled with tasks and it looks overwhelming and endless. 

Well, have no fear.

The next step is simple.

Pick the top 3 tasks for the day and schedule them.

You can always add more but make sure you finish the top 3 first before moving on to other tasks.

This is such a great way to not feel overwhelmed and to really focus on 3 tasks at a time.

Once you finish those 3 tasks and are able to move on to more you will feel great and so accomplished.

Related Reads:

• 10 Habits of People Who Are Always Productive
• 5 Ways to Stay Focused on Your Goals
• Tips for Staying Focused When Working From Home

4. Batch Your Work

Batching is when you group similar tasks together and work on them all at once instead of switching between different tasks.

This is a very focused time on a specific group of tasks so that you can get them all done and not have to work on them for a while.

Example: If you are a blogger and you write 4 blog posts a month a good way to get that task done is to batch write 4 posts in one day. That way you won’t have to do it again for the following month and you can use that time to do other tasks like promoting the blog posts.

➤ Check out this blog on Batching Ideas.

I recently started batching and it has really helped me to become more productive and get all similar tasks completed in one sitting so I am not jumping all over the place doing too many things at once.

5. Time Block Your Batched Tasks

Time Blocking is a method where you divide your day into blocks of time. 

Each block on your calendar will be dedicated to accomplishing a specific task, or your batched tasks, and only those specific tasks.

Combining batching and time blocking is a great way to stay focused and avoid multitasking on too many things at once.

You tend to lose a lot of energy when you switch from one task to another. 

And most of the time you don’t even finish the first task before you jump to another one.

An example of time blocking and batching:

5:30 AM – Wake Up
6:00 AM to 7:00 AM- Morning Routine
7:00 AM to 8:00 AM– Answer Emails
8:00 AM to 12:00 PM – Write 4 Blog Posts (batching)
12:00 PM to 1:00 PM – Lunch Break
1:00 PM to 3:00 PM– Write a month of social media captions (batching)
3:00 PM to 4:00 PM – Network on Facebook Groups
4:00 PM to 6:00 PM– Admin Tasks
6:00 PM to 7:00 PM– Workout
7:00 PM to 10:00 PM – Downtime
10:00 PM– Bedtime

See how productive that day looks.

By sticking to batching and time blocking it will help you to stay focused and complete tasks efficiently.

6. Have a midweek review with yourself

A good habit to build for productivity and accountability is to create a midweek review with yourself.

This is the time you use to see what is working for you and what isn’t.

If you have been checking off your tasks or if you have been getting distracted.

Or maybe something very important came up and you haven’t been able to accomplish anything on your list.

Hey, life happens. Don’t beat yourself up about it.

Just re-adjust and create a new plan.

So on Wednesdays, time block a midweek review with yourself to see what you have or have not accomplished, what is working and what needs to be changed, and what may need to be added or removed from your schedule. 

Holding yourself accountable is so important because only you can determine your destiny.

7. Schedule downtime

Planning your days should not only be about errands and work stuff.

Be sure to schedule downtime too.

Schedule time between meetings for you to catch your breath, your daily self-care routine, family time, and even alone time.

Scheduling downtime helps you to take a break, refocus, and rejuvenate.

It is important to not burn yourself out.

To your surprise downtime will actually make you more productive because you took the time to take care of yourself, reenergize, and breathe.

Final Thoughts

I know we all have so much to do and it seems like not enough time in the day.

Taking time to plan out your week is essential for success.

I do hope these tips have helped you to become more organized and productive throughout the week.

Do you have a method for planning out your week? Let me know in the comments below.