220131_weekly prep

FESCH.TV INFORMIERT:

This week’s 122 second video is about starting your week off right.

For me that equals finding some quiet time on Sunday to sit down and think about the last week and the week ahead. A good glass of wine or cup of tea helps.

There are only two essential tools: 1) your calendar and 2) your to do list. Here are a few tips I have picked up over the years.

I color code my calendar to account for the different types of commitments I make.

Orange is used for appointments with others

Yellow is used for travel time

Green is used for appointments with myself to accomplish specific tasks or work on specific projects

When I start my week I leave a little white space to account for the unexpected. But for the most part I know both where I need to be and what I need to accomplish before each day starts.

I divide my to do list into three parts

Projects and to do’s that I am deciding to tackle this week

Tasks related to 2022 personal goals that I am committed to accomplishing this month.

All other tasks or projects I need to complete in the future.

I take a good look at the things I was able to accomplish from my list last week and what I didn’t get done. If I failed to check a box that I wanted to check it is almost always because I never figured out ahead of time when and where I was going to tackle it on my calendar in the first place.

It is usually the case that I have more projects to tackle in the upcoming week than I have time on my calendar to tackle them. If I realize this on Sunday night I have a chance to delegate or reset expectations and avoid fire drills later in the week.

Remember having a successful and productive week is really about deciding what you are NOT going to do. Filling up a to do list with all the things you hope or wish to get done without a realistic plan to accomplish them is a recipe for disappointment.

Starting without a plan or a list is the biggest reason we get to the end of a week or a quarter with nothing to show for all of our hard (but frenetic) work.