Referral Authority E-ZineFinding the Time: Why Weekly Planning WorksAuthor: Matt Anderson, The Referral Authority
Date: 08/03/2009
“The week becomes the “normal lens” that gives the most accurate perspective for creating a balanced quality life.” Stephen Covey Last week I wrote about determining your Big Picture by identifying your goals. I also outlined that turning these goals into habits was why Stephen Covey’s The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People was such a successful book. Weekly planning allows you to turn your goals into habitual actions and strategies so that you do put your first things first. Daily planning is too reactive on its own; it focuses too closely on the urgent rather than the important (although I highly recommend Andrew Carnegie’s strategy of identifying the top six things each day and starting with the first one until it is complete. He attributed much of his success to this one daily habit). First review your goals. Second, identify your roles in life: spouse, father, daughter, friend, your career, volunteer, board member etc. It is best to have no more than seven roles. Third, decide what you want to do this week – you do not have to fill every role every week. That will depend on your first things! Put these things on your schedule first. Covey calls them the ‘big rocks’ that you prioritize by making sure they go on your schedule first. Then you make room for your next layer of activities. I have developed a list of over 30 habits that I go through each week. I pause and consider what I am doing in that area and schedule whatever I need to that relates to that area. It helps me enormously in making sure I put in the big rocks first and that I do not overlook practices that have helped get me to where I am. My list used to be a few things and it used to take me 20 minutes. But I have found it so useful that every time I realize there is something that I cannot afford to forget, it becomes a weekly habit. I recognize it’s very detail-oriented but the benefits far outweigh the time it takes to plan and I always feel a certain peace of mind when I’m done, that I have a good handle on what’s coming up. You will too. Here is my current list of habits. Some serve primarily as important reminders: Clearly, you will want to prioritize your own list and add/delete as appropriate. More than anything this planning helps to keep you in a proactive mode as often as possible taking care of things so that there are many fewer breakdowns and last-minute stressors. The last item, the weekly review, can be very valuable. It takes seconds to skim over each of the past seven days and evaluate what you did at a glance and it’s a great way to be clear on how valuable each meeting you had was. Five years ago I was in seven different organizations to network. Needless to say they were not all created equally in terms of helping me grow my business. This quick survey helped me identify quicker where to spend more time. This review is also helpful for one-on-one meetings. There are plenty of nice people out there to have coffee with but how much do they all impact your business and network? I know this might look like a time-consuming task but I assure you that planning ahead in these areas makes life much less stressful and, ultimately, frees up time to do more of what you want. Almost everyone has challenges with managing their time. Please forward this onto someone important to you that won’t take you doing so personally!!
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