Do you practice the #1 skill of skills?

Would you like to make your life easier?

Those who pre-week plan achieve 30-50% more, with 100% of study participants saying they have less stress, better health, and better relationships.

So, let's dive into how to pre-week plan and make life easier!

Making Life Easier

In a large study of 1,260 managers and leaders, 68% said that time management was their biggest challenge. It manifested as burnout, task overload, stress, and overworking at the expense of health and relationships. While they all had schedules (digital or paper), 80% of those same people did not have a process to prioritize what matters most.

Pre-week planning is a very simple process to first define your priorities and then schedule your priorities first. It allows you to define and do what matters most professionally. And, it allows you to schedule time for your health, relationships, and well-being without feeling guilty or stressed. Yes, pre-week planning significantly makes life easier!

How to Pre-Week Plan

There are four simple steps to pre-week planning. If you want to try them out, take out your Becoming Your Best Planner right now, and do your pre-week planning for the upcoming week (if you don't have a BYB planner, you can use a sheet of paper):

Step 1: Review Your Vision and Goals

Take a few minutes to review your vision and goals, and ask yourself, "What can I do this week towards accomplishing my goals?" Your vision is your compass and your goals are your path, so make them a part of pre-week planning and you'll know what matters most.

Step 2: Write Out Your Life Roles

Just like you did for your vision and goals, identify the 5-7 key life roles that matters most to you. Your "personal" role -- your mental, physical, and emotional well-being -- is already included as your first role. Write your other life roles into your pre-week planning table.

Step 3: Set Action Items for Each Role

Whether you call them action items, tasks, priorities, or weekly goals, the bottom line is to identify the 1-5 actions that matter most (what matters most) for each life role. Before you even look at your schedule, take these few crucial minutes to identify your priorities.

Step 4: Schedule Your Priorities First

Next, assign a time in your planner or schedule for each of your priorities. This is scheduling your priorities first, instead of simply prioritizing your schedule. The key difference is that you're assigning a time for all the tasks that matter most to you, your goals, and your personal vision. That's doing what matters most!

It Is Not About Perfection

Pre-week planning doesn't require perfection. In fact, it's expected that you'll only accomplish 50-80% of your weekly priorities. Life happens! There may be the occasional week when you forget to pre-week plan as well, and that's okay -- pick back up mid-week or the following week. It's about the process, and the process helps you achieve 30-50% more (even without all tasks getting completed) with less stress and better well-being. And that's becoming your best and leading a life by design!

"Right now, think about the time that works best for you to pre-week plan and set an alarm or reminder on your phone. Title the alarm, 'Pre-Week Planning.' The alarm will connect the intention with the development of the new habit."

~ Rob Shallenberger ~

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