There’s nothing better than the feeling of having a clear, worry-free mind.
Mental clutter is heavy!
For me, a big contributor to not having a lot on my mind is getting things down in one place.
That means writing down my monthly goals and then, the secret to my success, using my weekly planning system.
Click the picture to download your free weekly and monthly goals planner
It’s the best thing – it feels like there’s more time because there is – a whole week to get things done.
If I feel like I want to do nothing on 2 – 3 days, that’s fine, I have 4 – 5 more 🙂
Some things that work for me:
- I use a form of Eat the Frog with my weekly planning too. I put my “heaviest”, most important tasks at the beginning of the week which is why, if any of my friends are reading, I almost never agree to do anything fun on a Monday or Tuesday. Those days are for “heavy lifting”.
- I plan things throughout the week so that each day feels light and I never feel burdened or overwhelmed.
- I always plan fun things too, like playing with photos.
- I don’t make a huge list – I try not to have more than 10 things total, for both business and personal. That’s a comfortable number for me most weeks.
Do you do any weekly planning?
Tell me about your system, otherwise do try some weekly planning next week and let me know how you like it. It might not work for you and that is A-okay – I’m not a one size fits all coach 🙂
Click here to download the no-fuss monthly and weekly planner
I do a weekly planner that I mostly stick to. Some weeks are harder than others. I do think that sometimes my list is too long and then I get overwhelmed and end up doing nothing, except feel overwhelmed at my long list!
How long is your weekly list, Julia? Experiment with shortening it and moving the rest to your master list or your monthly list… (there is one in the Time Management Purpose Pack)
To give you an idea, I never have more than 12 things on my weekly list – split between personal and business.
I have to break things into smaller pieces than weekly tasks. I have a daily calendar with a 2pg per day spread, which allows me plenty of space for notes as well as separating out house stuff, work stuff, coursework, the romance site I write book reviews for, and my reading goals.
I also tend to write down things that I’d like to get done, but don’t necessarily expect to – that way it’s written down somewhere, and I don’t have to worry about forgetting things, and can just move them to another day. At the end of each month, I go back through each page and make notes of things that I haven’t done yet, and try to give them a hard(ish) deadline.
My main issue is that if I don’t write it down somewhere, I get overwhelmed with not knowing where to start. And I tried creating a master list, but then I just look at it and, again, wonder where to start.
Ah exactly, Melanie, that’s the power of a catch-it-all list. When you get it down somewhere, your brain can rest 🙂