I run into entrepreneurs all the time who are running around like chickens with their heads cut off trying to simply “make it” through each day. The hit the ground running in the morning, rush through their day constantly moving from one task to the next, never even slowing down to eat lunch or have a nice chat with a friend. After hours of this on end they finally come to a screeching halt at the end of the day, exhausted and spent, barely able to even be a reasonable human being to their loved ones.

This is no way to live…I know, I used to do it too.

One Sunday, about 10 years ago I was sitting in my office dreading the week ahead. I knew that I had tons of stuff to get done that week, but I didn’t have any clue where to start. There was “only so much time” and I would “just do my best” to get through it. That scene had played itself over and over again every week for much of my professional life, but for some reason on this night I decided that I was going to stop letting my business run me and I was going to run my business. After all, isn’t that what I did for a living; help other small business owners succeed faster, live better and create the lives they had always imagined? How could I pretend to know the answers when I was doing all of the same things that they were?

So that Sunday night, I sat down with my calendar and planned out my week…or I should say that I TRIED to plan out my week. I didn’t know where to begin so I just stared at the blank calendar for a while not knowing what to put in first. Of course I had all of my appointments for the week already scheduled, but then there was ALL OF THAT BLANK SPACE in the calendar…what should I do first? I was stumped and stuck and ashamed that I didn’t know how to do this any better than the small business owners that I was supposed to be helping. “What a loser” I thought to myself.

So I decided that I was going to take the time to create a system for planning my week that was a) so simple even I could do it and b) so easy that I wouldn’t want to avoid it each week when I sat down to do my planning. I wanted a process that had less than 3 steps, a process that I could complete in less than fifteen minutes each Sunday that would drastically improve my productivity.

What I came up with is what I now call the “Sunday Planning Session” and it’s something that I use regularly with myself, with all of my clients, mastermind members and now I’m happy to share it with you.

The first step for me was to sit down and create my own “ideal week”. This was to be my TARGET for the week. It didn’t have to be an absolute perfect calendar, but it needed to be something to shoot for and it needed to have time for coaching, creative time, task blocks and time to process emails and complete tasks. It also still had to have UNSCHEDULED blocks of time. After all I didn’t create this life to have every minute of it filled with required tasks! My ideal calendar has evolved a ton over the years, but here’s what it looks like now:

When I sit down to my Sunday Planning Session each week, the first thing that I do is open up my Current Ideal Week calendar on my calendar application. I then overlay my ACTUAL WEEK on top of my ideal calendar and begin the process of moving anything that I can into the proper block. For instance, if I had scheduled a meeting with someone that happened to not be in one of my meeting blocks I simply send a text or email asking that person to move the meeting into one of my blocks. As I mentioned, this isn’t a perfect system so sometimes meetings can’t be moved. That’s no problem, but I want to make sure that I’ve made the effort to gain control of my schedule wherever possible.

The next thing that I do is to open my task manager (I used to use Producteev by Jive, but that was discontinued in June so I’m now using Google Tasks) and determine how much time needs to be allocated to get the tasks that have due date IN THIS WEEK done by their due dates. I don’t CARE about tasks that don’t have a due date this week. I’ll schedule them NEXT Sunday. What I’m trying to do in this step is make sure that I allocate enough time THIS WEEK to stay on top of my tasks. Once I determine how much time is needed to complete the tasks for this week I do a very simple thing: I SCHEDULE TIME TO GET THEM DONE. I don’t let tasks hang out on my task list. I regard time scheduled to complete tasks as just as sacred as anything else on my calendar.

After I have my task blocks scheduled out I then schedule in other things that I’d like to get done this week with their own calendar block. My simple rule is: if it isn’t important enough to get it’s own block of time to complete then it’s not important at all and I simply let it go or delegate it if possible. IMPORTANT: Don’t use your Ideal Calendar as your main calendar. Take the time to add your calendar items to your Main Calendar. This very process will help you better grasp your week ahead and more appropriately schedule your week.

So to review, here’s my simple Sunday Planning Session process:
Overlay your “Main Calendar” on top of your ideal calendar and move appointments and tasks into their appropriate blocks.
Schedule blocks of time in your calendar to complete ONLY the tasks that have due dates THIS WEEK.
Schedule all other items that you’d like to get done this week in their respective blocks.

That’s it. And YES, IT IS THAT SIMPLE. There is no need to overcomplicate this process. The Sunday Planning Session is designed to be a) simple and b) easy. Part of our problem sometimes is that we want things to be harder than they appear in order to make them feel valuable. Just imagine if each Sunday night you took 15 minutes to plan out your week and you were able to easily accomplish everything that needed to get done…you can thank me later ☺