How to Plan a Kick-Ass Week
I used to tell myself I was a really spontaneous person, you know, one of those go-with-the-flow types who welcome last-minute events in my calendar as they pop up. I didn’t like the idea of committing to a strict schedule because I thought it meant sacrificing potential opportunities that might present themselves during the week, especially the fun ones!
Going with the flow sounds all fine and good, but I found myself not really getting anywhere in particular. I had hopes and dreams and goals, but I was having a hard time getting to the finish line on any of them. Somehow, the days just went by, and I didn’t have a ton to show for it. I was able to do a lot of fun things, work on tasks as I felt like it, and get things done within reason, but I wasn’t making progress like I wanted to on the things that really mattered.
You see, it’s hard to get anywhere when you haven’t even decided where you’re going or intentionally planned how to get there. All you end up doing is wasting gas driving around in circles, waving at all the people passing you on the way to their destination. Sure, you might be having a great time spinning donuts and taking in the scenery, but aimlessly driving around in circles gets old after a while.
As much as I wanted to fight the idea of planning my schedule in detail, I finally decided to bite the bullet and give it a shot. And y’all, it changed EVERYTHING. I started smashing my goals and making real, tangible progress towards the dreams I have in my heart.
It wasn’t enough for me to *hope* I’d have a successful, productive week ahead. Hope, my friends, is not a strategy. In my opinion, I’ve found that the best way to ensure you’ll have a kick-ass week is to intentionally PLAN ahead to have a kick-ass week.
Every Sunday, I take 20 minutes or so to intentionally plan for the week ahead. Here are my four tips (and FREE templates!) to help ensure your plan for the week will set you up for success.
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Tip #1: BE INTENTIONAL
Arguably the most important piece of setting yourself up for a kick-ass week is being intentional with your mindset. Before scheduling out anything, I start by taking a few minutes to complete the first part of my Weekly Journal, digging a little deeper into my intentional goals and thoughts for the week ahead.
Intention
Before you can create a plan, you need to first decide where you’re going. We need to take our big picture goals and dreams and simplify them into smaller, actionable steps. This helps us focus in on what we can do THIS week to get us one baby-step closer to the finish line.
Ask yourself, “What are my goals for this next week? By the end of the week, what are the three things I want to have accomplished that will make me feel most proud?”
Thoughts on Purpose
The things we think and believe are more powerful than we give them credit for. Before diving into a full week of responsibilities ahead, I like to stop and decide ON PURPOSE what thoughts I will choose to believe that make me feel the most empowered to reach my goals. Some weeks, empowering thoughts don’t come as naturally, but even then I still practice the habit of learning to believe the thoughts that serve me best on my journey and throw away the thoughts that don’t. Instead of sitting in self-shame, self-doubt, or self-judgment, practice thoughts that make you feel powerful, energized, and like you can take on the world. Need a daily reminder? Write it on your mirror or put it on a sticky note somewhere you will see it every day. The last few weeks, my thought to believe on purpose is, “I am a successful entrepreneur that empowers others to love themselves to health and happiness.”
Ask yourself, “What do I want to believe, or learn to believe, about myself or my abilities? What thoughts make me feel the most on fire to reach for my goals? What beliefs make me feel motivated and inspired to continue reaching for more?”
Gratitude
I read somewhere once that, “[t]he secret to having it all is knowing that you already do.” So many of the things that we want in life - a roof over our heads, food in our fridge, good health, a loving family, clothes on our back, or air in our lungs - are things most of us already have. We just don’t take time to appreciate it because we assume these things will always be available to us, and too often, it takes a terrible tragedy to remind us that nothing in our lives is guaranteed. If you want to create space for what you hope and dream for, you must first start by finding gratitude for that which you already have. The more time we take to find gratitude, the more things we will find in our life to be grateful for. If there is one habit that you should start practicing today, that’s starting your week and your day with a grateful heart.
Ask yourself, “What am I most thankful for? What am I looking forward to? What am I thankful to have today that I didn’t have a year ago? Who is someone in my life that brings me joy? What do I appreciate most about where I live? What personality trait do I love most about myself?”
Scheduling
Besides taking time to create the right mindset for a kick-ass week, being intentional is also about making decisions ahead of time and scheduling out your days to align with your goals and priorities. Whether you’re a hard-copy planner user like I am or someone that prefers apps to organize their days, I cannot emphasize enough the importance of physically scheduling things on your calendar. If you don’t schedule it, it won’t happen.
Start by filling in all your non-negotiables. Maybe for you that includes doctor appointments, work events, kids sports games, date night, and time to exercise. What are your main priorities for the week? Family? Work? Personal? Whatever the intentional goals you set for yourself are, make sure to include scheduled time to accomplish them. Once you have your non-negotiables and time for yourself in your calendar, you can see what pockets of your days you have for everything else. I want to make sure that when you’re scheduling out your non-negotiables, you’re not forgetting to schedule time for YOU. It’s easy for us to schedule a meeting or date with another person, but when it comes to making a date with ourselves it’s a lot easier to bail. Is health and exercise a priority for you in your life? Great! I want to see it on your calendar and I want you to treat it like a date with your very best friend. That means no lame excuses or last-minute cancellations. Let’s practice keeping promises to ourselves. I promise you it will change your life.
Meal Planning
Now that you’ve scheduled out your week and created a mindset for success, it’s time to intentionally map out your meals for the week. If you’re a meal prepper, Sundays are a great day to do batch cooking to free up time during the week. And even if you’re not, Sundays are a great day to decide ahead of time what meals you’re going to have, which will also help you create your grocery list for any items you need to pick up.
Deciding on purpose when you’re in a positive mindframe will help ensure that you’re making the best food choices for you and your goals. Leaving meal decisions up to spontaneity will create more space for unnecessary internal arguments like, “It’s been a long day, I’m just going to eat the pizza. I’m stressed, ice cream will make me feel better. I did so good all week, I earned this delicious (insert food you know you shouldn’t be eating here.)”
Listen, I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, I don’t believe there is such a thing as “bad” foods. I think there is a time and place for all of it - wine, cookies, donuts, chocolate lava cake, you name it. I think people should lose weight the same way they intend to keep it off. Unless you intend to never drink wine or eat any of your favorite treats ever again, don’t restrict yourself! You shouldn’t fear ANY food. Instead, practice planning for them and enjoying them with balance, moderation, and intention. Do you have a date night coming up this week and you know you want to treat yourself to a glass of wine? Awesome! Put it on your plan. Does your son have a birthday this weekend and you know you want to have a piece of cake? Great, put it on your plan.
Tip #2: BE REALISTIC
Now that you’re making your plan for the week and you’re on fire, ready to tackle those goals, I want you to look back and ask yourself, “Is this plan I’ve created a realistic one?” I’ll be honest, I’m a hopeless optimist, sometimes even to a fault. I get REALLY excited and eager to do ALL THE THINGS, and I end up creating a plan that I couldn’t even accomplish if I had the ability to clone myself. Don’t get me wrong, I love ambition, but when we create a plan that is unrealistic for us to accomplish, all we are doing is setting ourselves up for failure.
We need to instead meet ourselves where we’re at, and find small ways to level-up slowly over time. When you’re putting down your goals for the week, you don’t need to write an essay or a long, bulleted list of everything you want to accomplish in the next month. Just pick three things you know are doable in the next seven days. When you’re planning your meals for the week, be honest with yourself about what you can realistically commit to. If you don’t think you can commit to having salads every meal, every day of the week then don’t kid yourself. A plan is worthless if it isn’t one that you are confident can be followed.
Tip #3: BE FLEXIBLE
Even the best laid plans often go awry, or something like that right? You guys, LIFE HAPPENS! Don’t let a change of schedule throw you off course. Be willing to adjust as needed. Before bed each night, I take a peek at my schedule for the next day and make any tweaks necessary to set myself up for success.
Tip #4: BE REFLECTIVE
Congrats! You made it to the end of the week, now what? Before diving into planning for the upcoming week I encourage you to take a few moments to reflect. Start by asking yourself, “What went well this week? What am I really proud of myself for?” There is no win too small, I think we should celebrate them all! Taking some time to celebrate your small victories is just one more way to find gratitude for the effort you’re putting in on your journey to your big goals.
This is also the time to take a look at the things that maybe didn’t go so well. Did you fall short on those goals you set for yourself at the beginning of the week? Don’t confuse this part of reflection with self-judgment. This isn’t the part of the week where you sit in shame about all the things you did wrong. This is a chance for you to look at your mistakes as opportunities for improvement. Ask yourself, “What can I learn from this and how can I show up as a stronger version of myself next week?”
There you have it folks, my four tips for planning a kick-ass week! Everyone has a different system that works well for them, but whatever that looks like for you, I hope you’re taking time to intentionally create a pathway to get one step closer to your goals each and every day. Progress over perfection, always. Now go on and have yourself a kick-ass week! I’ll be rooting for you every step of the way.
