Transcript of Episode #2:
How to Achieve More in Less Time:
The Game-Changing Power of Weekly Planning

Cristina:  Hello and welcome back to the Blissful Mompreneur podcast. I’m your host, Cristina Hall, and I am so grateful you are here today. I am on a mission to help mompreneurs or female entrepreneurs who hope to be moms in the future, systemize and scale their businesses to beat overwhelm and reclaim their time. Join me each week as I dive into actionable strategies and inspiring stories to support you on your journey to entrepreneurial success and work-life balance.

In today’s episode, we’re diving into the transformative power of weekly planning. But before we get started, I want to share a little personal story with you. I used to be one of those people who constantly complained about not having enough time. I’d always say I was too busy to get everything done, and one night I was reading Tim Ferriss’s book, The 4-Hour Workweek, and there was one particular quote that really stood out to me. He said, “if you don’t feel like you have time, you don’t have priorities.” In that moment, I felt as though someone punched me in the gut. I had been telling myself a story that I didn’t have enough time when, in reality, I wasn’t clear on what I wanted for my life. This inspired me to go on a journey to gain clarity on what is most important and begin coming up with a system to plan my weeks.

Now, planning my week has transformed the way I use my time. It’s helped me become more intentional, allowing me to move faster and feel more relaxed and in control.

Now, I want to talk about why carving out time to plan your week can be a game changer. When you set aside time to plan, you’re essentially investing time upfront to give yourself more time later on. You’re reclaiming the mental bandwidth wasted on indecision and meaningless tasks. In the past, before I started planning, I would sit down to work and I wasn’t sure what to work on. Now, I open up my planner and I know exactly what I need to be doing.

Alright, so how do I plan my week? Well, every Saturday I dedicate about 30 minutes to mapping out the week ahead. I open up my weekly preview page in my planner. Now, I use the full focus planner by Michael Hyatt. You can use any planner you’d like. I have no affiliation. I just really like the product. And on that preview page, the first section is the reflection. So, I reflect on the past week. I list out three to five wins and note how far I got with last week’s weekly big three. And I will talk more about the weekly big three shortly. I then review my annual and quarterly goals. Now, I store these in Google Drive. I have a designated folder for goals and I have a document for annual goals and I have separate documents for each quarter. I also review my task manager. I personally use Asana, but any program works. And I review my iCal calendar, which is typically where I store appointments and meetings. Then I begin identifying my big three for the week.

Now, these are three big objectives that will move me towards my goals. These are high impact, meaningful tasks. So this wouldn’t be schedule a haircut or get a present for this weekend’s birthday party. If I have a goal of increasing my revenue, one of my big three might be research and plan a new marketing funnel. Essentially, identifying your weekly big three will encourage you to focus on the things that matter most that will move you towards your goals. This is why when I do my review, I review my annual and quarterly goals because those will inform my weekly big three. Then I transfer all my appointments and meetings from my calendar to the daily pages. This is just so that I get a better sense of the kind of time I have each day to tackle those important tasks. And it just helps me kind of get a better look at my entire week. Then I go day by day and come up with a daily big three. Now, these are smaller tasks within each weekly big three. So using the example from before, if one of my big threes is researching and planning a new marketing funnel, one of the daily big threes could be brainstorm a list of 20 marketing ideas. Basically, you’re taking your larger project and breaking it down into smaller actionable steps that you could do each day. This makes it so much easier to tackle and it reduces overwhelm. Cause I’m sure you’ve had that experience of, wow, I have this big project. I don’t even know where to begin. And then you’re more likely to procrastinate, right? Because you’re not sure where to begin. But when you’re doing your planning, you’re breaking those big projects into smaller, more actionable steps. And I’m sure brainstorming a list of 20 marketing ideas is far less intimidating than research and plan a new marketing funnel and implement a new marketing funnel, right? That’s just so big and can be really overwhelming.

So after I figured out my daily big threes, I then list out all the smaller tasks that I need to do each day. Those are going to be like checking my email, calling to schedule a doctor’s appointment, just kind of these smaller tasks that need to be done but aren’t big enough to move me towards my goals. And the last thing I do is I estimate how much time I will need to complete my daily big three. And I block off time on my calendar and in my planner to work on the big three each day. This ensures that my most important tasks get done each day.

Now, it has taken me a while to develop and perfect this system. Over the years, I’ve struggled with inconsistency. There were some weeks where I thought I didn’t have the time to plan. So I would skip it and every single time I would regret it because I would be way more stressed throughout the week and far less productive. So I cannot afford to not plan. Now, because I’m human, even though I know that there would still be weeks when I wouldn’t plan. What really helped me become more consistent was identifying my why. Why am I planning each week? I had to do some journaling and some deep reflection. And when I dug deep, I realized my why was that I want to be more present and patient with my family. And planning each week is how I can achieve that. So now, every time I want to skip my planning session, I think about my why. I think I want to be more present and patient with my family. And then that kicks me into action and then I actually do the planning.

Now, another thing that I’ve struggled with at times is identifying what those big three should be or essentially what my priorities are. Every time I go through periods like this, I’ve realized that it’s when I am not clear on my goals and the vision I want for my life. Now, even though I set aside time each year and each quarter to set clear goals, sometimes my goals will change. Maybe I’ll learn something new and need to pivot my goals. Usually this is apparent when I do my weekly planning and really struggle to come up with my big three for the week. When that happens, I then schedule some time to look over my goals, revamp my goals. And then once I do that, then all of a sudden my weekly big three becomes so much clearer. So overall, I cannot stress enough how helpful it is when you just take a little bit of time each week to reflect and plan. I will say at the beginning, this will probably take you about 30 minutes, maybe even longer, but you will get faster. There are plenty of weeks I could do this in 15, 20 minutes.

If you don’t already have a weekly planning session, open up your calendar right now and schedule your first session. Now, if you’re driving, please don’t do this. I want you to be safe. But when you get to your destination, open up your calendar and schedule your first session. Make this a recurring appointment in your calendar and stick to it. Now, I personally do it on Saturdays because I work Saturdays and I do this at the end of my work week because I don’t want to have to think about anything on Sunday. But some people do this on Sundays. Some people like to do this Monday morning to kind of start off their week. Other people like to do it Friday afternoon because maybe that’s the end of their work week or Thursday afternoon because maybe they have like a four-day work week. So you have to decide when is the most ideal time for you, but put it on the calendar. Make this a priority. Do this every week. It may take some time to find a system that works for you, but just get started. You will adjust and develop your own process over time. So give it a try and let me know what you think. Please DM me at the Blissful Mompreneur on Instagram and let me know how it goes. I read and respond to every message and I really, really love connecting with you. So definitely reach out.

Thank you so much for tuning in to today’s episode of the Blissful Mompreneur podcast. I hope you found the information valuable and inspiring. Remember, you have the power to step off that hamster wheel, reclaim your time and find balance in your life. If you enjoy today’s episode, please subscribe and leave us a review on your favorite podcast platform. Your feedback helps me continue to provide valuable content to mompreneurs like you. Until next time, keep pursuing your dreams, finding joy in the journey and creating a life and business you love. Take care and I’ll see you in the next episode.