Is Week Planning A Waste of Time?

Do you plan your week?

You might feel like week planning is way too much work. Or you might think it’s unnecessary since life always changes your plans anyway. Unexpected events and projects always come up because there are no perfect weeks.

So isn’t it just a waste of time?  

I actually think that not only is week planning NOT a waste of your time, but it’s an absolute essential.

Do you ever get that scattered, overwhelmed feeling seeing all the things you need to accomplish?

Having a plan for the week will save you so much time each day. It can help you see HOW and WHEN you’ll get things done. If you know your top goals for the week and what tasks need to come next, you can stay really focused.

Rule #1: It’s really important to make week planning quick and easy on yourself.

You can do this with a week planning worksheet, but I think an even better way is using a project management tool like Asana.

I personally use Asana to plan my week digitally and see it all mapped out.

Asana is basically my command center for everything: goals, project plans, rotating calendars, workflows, and more.

I love that I can have it all in one place instead of little notes everywhere that can get lost.

Asana works great for teams, small businesses, large companies, or even just to stay organized if you work alone. I don’t currently have a team, but I do manage a lot of different types of work. Trying to keep it all straight in my head would just stress me out.

You can use Asana on your computer or use the Asana app on your phone when you’re on the go.

So sometime over the weekend (usually Sunday night), I take about 20 minutes on my phone to get my week in order. I’ll break it down so you can create your own week planning process and see how it works in Asana

How To Use Asana for Week Planning

1 | Look Back

What didn’t get done last week? You can choose to either reschedule those tasks or get rid of them. 

Asana makes this easy because you can set a deadline for your tasks or cause them to repeat. When one is overdue the date turns red, reminding you to reschedule it. (In Asana, you can easily change a deadline by clicking on the task, or just dragging the task to a different day in the calendar view.)

2 | Choose Top Goals 

Are you working toward a certain project or have any pressing events coming up? One way to make sure those happen is to choose a few top goals every week. Choosing top goals for the week can also help you prioritize what to work on each day.

If you already plan quarterly or monthly goals, breaking these down into weekly goals should be pretty simple. I try to limit these to no more than 3, and then add them to my goals board for the week. You don’t have to have a goals board, but seeing my goals all week helps to keep me on track.

Asana gives you many ways to view your tasks like board view, list view, calendar view + timeline view. Here’s what my weekly goals could look like…

3 | Create YOUR Week Plan Project

If you decide to use Asana, try creating a project titled Week Plan so you can see everything at a glance. I add a board for each day of the work week.

You can even choose themes for each day to make assigning tasks easy. (Examples: Admin on Monday, New Products on Tuesday, Marketing Wednesdays, Client Work on Thursdays, Home Tasks on Friday).

One tip for this is to make sure that your most important type of work is scheduled first in the week. (For example: If you’re a blogger, create new content on Mondays.)

First things first. That way you won’t get too behind later if unexpected tasks come up.

4 | Create Daily Tasks

What are the most important steps you need to take to tackle each of your weekly goals? Break these down into 1-2 hour tasks and then assign them to the appropriate day.

Rule #2: It’s really important to only add a few tasks to each day so you won’t get overwhelmed or feel behind.

It’s really common to take on more than we should and then get frustrated when things take longer than we thought. Assigning just a few tasks each day keeps you moving forward without feeling overloaded.

If you work with a team, you can also easily coordinate and assign tasks for each person. Asana will help you track what’s been done and what you need to work through together.

5 | Menu, Events, & Home Details

Another great thing about week planning in Asana is that you can use it as a HOME command center as well as for work. When it comes to my home, I try to plan ahead for anything that usually stresses me out to decide on the spot. So for me, that means planning the week’s menu, kids’ activities, cleaning tasks, and any birthdays/events/appts coming up.

You would think this would take a LOT more than 20 minutes to figure out! But my Asana is really built out, utilize rotating calendars and workflow templates to make it easy.

For example, I have 12 weeks of meals in a rotating menu calendar in Asana. So if I don’t want to change the plan, I can just grocery shop for the meals that are next up on the menu. OR if I want to eat something else, I can drag and drop meals around in the calendar view. It’s super easy and fast. (Let me know if you want to see how I did this in another post!)

Step #6: Start Each Day With Your Week Plan (Not Your Inbox)

Instead of going straight to your email inbox each morning like most people, get into the habit of starting with your week plan & goals.

If you deal with those most important tasks first, you’ll be sure to get a little closer to your goals each day. Then when those are done, go ahead and check your inbox to see what else has come up. No more being thrown off by email distractions throughout the day.

Do you use Asana already? Would you use it to plan your week? Leave a comment with your thoughts!