Get Organized: 3 Reasons You Need A Weekly Plan (+ My Plan)

Get Organized! 3 Reasons You Need A Weekly Plan

If you’ve been following The Peaceful Mom website very long, then you know that I make a plan each week to enable me to prioritize and live intentionally. For those of you who haven’t started making a weekly plan, I’d like to give you three good reasons to start.

You Need Balance

Balance is something most of us want, but which is difficult to achieve. When I first began trying to organize my crazy life, I made a detailed “To Do” list every morning, but by the end of the day I just felt defeated because at least half of the items on my list were left unaccomplished.

A weekly plan is more realistic because it represents a manageable amount of time, but gives you a longer view than a daily plan. By setting goals for the week and looking at your schedule, you can easily see whether or not accomplishing the list is achievable. You then have the added benefit of avoiding the guilt of not getting everything done on a list that was far too long to begin with.

You Need to Prioritize

You can easily fill your schedule with activities and tasks, but are you achieving what is most important to you? Scheduling weekly enables you to plan goals in each of your life roles (wife, mom, friend, teacher, household administrator, etc.), as well as incorporating larger life goals.

A weekly plan helps you to focus on and give priority to those items you most value, and prevents your time from being hijacked by the mundane but seemingly urgent tasks.

You Need to Edit

When you look at your week as a whole, you can easily see where you are over-scheduled. Creating time slots on your calendar for personal care, household responsibilities (like grocery shopping and paying bills), taking care of  your children, time alone with your husband and anything else you want to accomplish, gives you a visual representation of how you are spending your time.

As you realize where you spend your time, you can make informed decisions about what you want to keep on the list, and what needs to be edited out of your life so that you can focus on your values and maintain your peace. Prioritize the truly important items first, then add in the less important items where you have space (emotionally, mentally and time-wise).

It’s “easier” not to plan, but being intentional with our time enables us to be happier, healthier and live life in line with our true values.

So How Do You Make a Weekly Plan?

• Set a regular day, time and place to do your planning each week. I like Sunday afternoons.

• Brainstorm a list of priorities for the week (relationships, spiritual connection, exercise, tasks that must be accomplished, etc.).

• Check your calendar for appointments and special activities.

• Schedule EVERYTHING on your calendar including regular responsibilities and rest time.

I have several Weekly Planner Options here to help you get started, and you can take a look at my plan for this week below:

 
{Click photo to enlarge.}

You can see last week’s plan here.

I accomplished everything on the list and a couple of things that weren’t even on my list like a smoothie date with my 15 yr old and an accidental “adventure” when we went for a walk and got slightly lost, an unexpected shoe shopping trip with my 16 year old, and an ice cream date with my 12 year old.

My focus for this week is to enjoy my family more. I am a full-blown type A, task-oriented kinda girl, so it’s easy for me to focus on projects instead of people. This week I am being even more intentional about the relationships than the projects. I will work a little on my e-course and organizing my desk area, but they are lower on the priority list.

You can read about my daily “Brain Dump” here”.

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calendar photo credit Stuart Miles; FreeDigitalPhotos.net