Transcription
Hello, my loves. Welcome back to my channel. And hello from the office. I am in the office today. It is the end of my first week here, and I am having the best time. I've had the most productive week. I feel so dialed in and happy and inspired and ready to start week two.
I thought I'm just about to sit down and plan out next week. And I wanted to share with you my end of week planning routine that is trial tested and proven to work. And it is realistic enough for the busy gal, the everyday busy gal to jump on board this train and action it immediately. So, I'm going to take you through all the steps as to how I plan out for a brand new week. It is nothing crazy. It is not a 1-hour planning routine. In fact, it is so simple and short, I'm concerned this video will be too short. I wanted to start at the top and then work down all the way to the bottom, which is we're ready for a brand new week. We are locked in, ready to rock and roll.
So, this is the planning system to say. I'm not even going to say it's a routine. It's more so a system because there are pockets of strategy to this planning routine. And this system is kind of like my go-to when I'm like, "Okay, I'm consistent right now. I am I've got momentum behind me right now, and I want to maintain this. How can I show up to the best of my ability and set my environment in which I work up for success so that I can continue this momentum into the new week."
I really want to preface that this system relies solely on the goals I have set for myself and my business. I am not reactive in the way that I plan out my week. As in, I am not shoving my week full of to-do list items because I've fallen behind. I am actually strategically planning out my week ahead in alignment with my goals. This is where I think a lot of people go wrong. This is where I think a lot of people overlook. You should be strategically planning out every single week in alignment with what it is you want to achieve or the person you want to become.
So, let's start at the top. Let's do it. You're going to look at, first and foremost, what am I currently working towards? Maybe you've set some mini goals for the month ahead. Maybe you have done the 12-week year method where you've either taken a big huge goal and broken it down into quarters, or you've set yourself quarterly goals and you're chipping away at them. Whatever however you've planned out your goals and whatever it is that you're working towards, you're going to look at, what am I trying to achieve and/or who am I trying to become? And from there, you're going to set your weekly three priorities.
So, if you've watched my April reset video, which is what I posted at the beginning of April, I always set myself some monthly goals to chip away at. My goals for April were to get back on the bandwagon with my health and wellness, as well as to get back on the bandwagon with all things career, all things business. So, that meant getting back into a consistent posting schedule. That meant making sure that my workflow is strategized so that I'm showing up in everything I need to to maintain this momentum, staying ahead. In saying that, because they are my goals, my three priorities for the week ahead are gym sessions at least three times per week, a content day scheduled in on Thursday. That is my priority. So, making sure that I'm always ahead with my content by scheduling in an intentional content day. And my final priority for this week is going to be getting on top of my editing.
So, I have just used the Get It Done Notepad Duo, which is our duo notepads. One side is a brain dump page, the other side is a task batch and time block page. You would typically write all your to-do list here, and then you would break it down into batches of tasks and attach them to blocks of time because I swear by the task batching and time blocking method. I think it is the productivity hack of all productivity hacks, and we'll get into it later.
So, step number one is obviously having a look at your overarching goals for the month ahead or for the year, however you're chipping away at them. And then, step number two is identifying what are your three main drivers for this week. What are your three main priorities? So, mine was, as I said, gym sessions, content day on Thursday, non-negotiable, making sure that's booked in, and getting on top of my editing and staying on top of my editing.
Based on your top priorities, you have some non-negotiable behaviors or actions or habits, routines, or rituals that are going to make these things happen. So, it's up to you now to go into your calendar and lock them in. You are actually going to block out time to get these things done. So, I'm going to show you what my Google Calendar looks like for next week so that you can have a little look-see at how I'm going to show up in these non-negotiable behaviors so my top three priorities for next week are completed. Afenito.
So, you can see I have done a pretty good job at time blocking what is required from me every single day. So, I've got morning routine and breakfast, which is my morning walk and my mindset work. Then we get straight into training at least three times a week. I will probably do an extra session on Saturday. On Mondays, I do my CEO weekly reset routine, and I can do a video on what that is a little bit later. And then I get straight into admin and operations. This is things like invoicing, this is things like customer service emails, this is things like checking my personal emails. If you can think of everything like BTS that we don't like to do or the adult boring businessy stuff, I get that done on a Monday. This allows me to maintain that momentum for the boring, basic, mundane stuff. We all know that when we fall behind in emails or invoicing or paying bills, well, once we're behind in that, it makes us feel so It makes us feel like we have really dropped the ball across basically everything. So, I know that if I can show up in my CEO weekly reset on a Monday morning and then straight into admin and ops, which is a lot of the time sometimes intertwined, I'm going to have a really good rest of the week.
Now, because two of my priorities are content day on Thursday and getting on top of editing, I have dedicated some time on Monday afternoon to content plan and build out a shot list for my content day. On Tuesday, it is very similar for the morning, and then I will do whatever I need to do work-wise. It's quite flexible on Tuesdays and Wednesdays. Zoe is in on Wednesday, so we have a work day together. Thursdays, I'm trialing doing my entire day as a content day. So, this is where I'm going to batch create all my content, this is where I'm going to batch film and batch record my podcast. This is how, again, I'm staying very on top of my priority for the week, which is content day on Thursday, which will then allow me to build and maintain momentum, staying on top of my content. Being on top of content and dedicating an entire content day on Thursday directly correlates to my other weekly priority, which is getting on top of editing, which is what I'm going to do on Friday.
Friday is very similar in the morning, and then the weekly wrap-up is where I do all the tasks I need to do that will set me up for the following week. And this is where I will do my editing. I send vlog files to my editor, who is like a second helper with my YouTube. And again, this allows me to stay on top of my editing. Can you see that my entire week is dictated by goals, not by random tasks that I've just shoved in for the sake of it. This is where we get caught in the trap of feeling super busy, but we're not actually necessarily productive because we've just shoved all these random tasks into a list that don't actually move the needle towards where we want to be or who we want to be.
So, once we have blocked out our calendar, we are then going to go a step further, and this is optional. This is something I don't actually love to do before the day, but I do at the start of every single day of the next week. And that is time blocking your work day. So, as I said, I won't be actioning this right now at the end of a week. I will do this at the beginning of every single day in the new week. And it will look something like this. So, this is just a rip out of the Get It Done Notepad, but basically, I will brain dump everything that needs to get done onto the brain dump page and then break it down into bite-size actionable sets of tasks. As you can see, this is just an example, but I batch all my admin tasks together because they require the same style of thinking. I sometimes go a step further and attach those tasks to blocks of time. And then, of course, I will use my productivity timer to keep me on track with those.
Can you see that this is a really powerful, impactful productivity loop? Getting clear on what's required of you, making sure it's legitimate by blocking it into your calendar, and then breaking those things down into bite-size pieces. It is this beautiful wheel of efficiency, quality, productivity. This is how you stop overwhelming your brain. This is how you work with how your brain actually functions instead of against it. So, that's what I do every single morning. Brain dump and then break it down further. And you can see there is enough for you to break down your entire day's worth of work. You now have full visibility of how you can completely nail the day ahead.
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The last step for you to really nail your week ahead is to have a glance over your habit tracker. If you don't habit track, I highly recommend that you do because this is going to keep you really honest as to the things you should be doing, the things you're actually doing, and the things you think you're doing or say you're doing but not actually doing. It's also going to be a really beautiful way for you to see what you're actually prioritizing week to week and what you're not prioritizing. I haven't got my habit tracker here with me right now. It is at home. I took it home earlier this week. But just have a quick glance over at some of the habits you thought you were maybe doing, some of the habits you did actually tick off the past week, and some of the habits that you need to double down on and dial in for the following week. This is a really beautiful way to kind of like find your northern star again. And you could even add these into your priorities for the week. So maybe you haven't been drinking your 2 L of water. That could be a priority for you. Maybe you're not moving as much as you should be or you're not hitting your step goal or your macro target. This is a really beautiful way for you to realign and get serious as to what is required of you week to week.
And guys, all this is doing, this entire process, the three priorities, looking over your habit tracker, finding your northern star again, all this is doing is the 1% better method. You're not overhauling your entire life. You're not starting from scratch or starting from ground zero. You're just getting 1% better than you were last week. And this is where the growth actually happens. And it doesn't feel glamorous and sexy and huge and powerful in the moment. But if you could consistently do this over time, three, four months down the line, you could be a completely different person in terms of consistency, discipline, health, fitness, career, relationship. Like imagine if you dedicated three to four months of pure aligned action where you're like, "I'm not negotiating with myself anymore. I'm dialing in." The time is going to pass anyway between now and the end of that four months. Why not make it intentional?
Anyway, I get very passionate about this because I have seen firsthand the power of taking yourself and your goals and your dreams so serious. I lived the life I live now as a byproduct of taking myself seriously. And the moment you start taking yourself seriously, everything else follows suit. So that is my planning routine. I am fully ready for next week. I'm going to clock off for the day now, head home, and know in the back of my mind I just had a beautiful week, a beautiful productive week, and I have another powerful, productive, consistent week in the works as a byproduct of spending like 10 minutes planning it out. This is your sign take yourself, your goals, your direction seriously. Promise you it is always worth it. You are so worth it.
Hope you guys enjoyed today's video. If you did, I would love if you could give it a thumbs up. And if you want to subscribe, you really should. Trying to get a lot more consistent on YouTube. I'm also trying to pump out lots of videos that are of quality you guys will love and can learn from. And if you're not learning from them, I want to motivate you and inspire you and show you a little bit of BTS of my life. Hope you guys loved the video. As always, thank you so much. I love you so much. Happy planning. I'll see you in my next video.