Do What Matters Most
Pre-Week Planning
Why Pre-Week Planning
Pre-week planning allows you to Do What Matters Most. The quantity and quality of what you do goes up while stress goes down. A recent study showed that after four weeks of pre-week planning a group of managers and executives were accomplishing 30-50 percent more while all reporting less stress.
Pre-week planning additionally allows you to prioritize health, improve relationships, and avoid burnout. With pre-week planning, work-life balance comes naturally; without pre-week planning, it is a constant struggle and battle.
If you have big goals, pre-week planning is also how you take those goals into your daily and weekly schedule to make them a reality.
Ultimately, pre-week planning is living life intentionally and the culminating habit to lead a life by design, not by default.
How to Pre-Week Plan
Step 1 - Develop a Written Personal Vision
Pre-week planning ideally begins with your personal vision. Your vision orients and drives your weekly daily actions towards what matters most.
The top 3 percent of high achievers have a written personal vision. Using your planner or digital planner, you have a template and guide to develop a personal vision. You simply write out your roles and your vision for each role. That’s where you begin.
If you don’t yet have a written personal vision, take 5-30 minutes to get one started. If you’re not sure where to start, jot down some thoughts right now, and let it take shape over time.
Write out your vision and let it articulate your purpose, actions, and motivation. This is your “why” behind what you do at the daily and weekly level.
Step 2 - Set Roles and Goals
Once you have a vision, you set SMART annual goals that specifically & measurably detail how you’ll progress towards your vision. One of the big keys to accomplishing big goals successfully is breaking them down by role.
If your vision is already broken down by role, that makes it easy to identify 1-3 SMART goals for each role that you can accomplish this year. You can use your planner or digital planner to set, track, and measure these roles and goals.
step 3: Do Pre-Week Planning Weekly
- 1. Review your vision & goals (these are your compass and drive your priorities)
- 2. Write down your key 5-7 roles (e.g., personal, spouse, professional, parent, coach, etc.)
- 3. Identify your key action items for this week by role (see the video and example)
- 4/.Schedule these prioritize into your calendar before prioritizing the schedule (see the video)
Tools for Pre-Week Planning
Learn more about the digital planner here:
If you prefer to write things down, the Becoming Your Best planner is the ultimate tool for pre-week planning! If you prefer digital and use outlook or google calendar, then the Digital Planner is the tool for you. Both tools are simple to use and designed to help you pre-week plan and realize your goals and vision.
How to Learn More about Do What Matters Most
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