The Key to have a Productive Week

Each Sunday, I get up early and take care of my two little children by preparing them breakfast. After I drink my 1L of water, followed by breakfast, and by the time I get to my coffee, I start to plan my new week. This is something that I've been doing for a long time, and I find it natural for me. For sure, this is the key to a great productive week ahead. But this Sunday, I started to think, what other habits help me have a productive week?

So I took a coffee and picked up pen and paper, and I came to the following steps:

1- Sunday is planning day

Sunday is the perfect day to plan the following week. Why? Because we had Saturday to relax from a busy week and enjoy the break and Sunday, we woke up fresh and with more energy. Also, Monday morning is full of stress, and you will not have time or the will to take 30min to organize your week. So in my case, I use Sunday morning while drinking my coffee to plan the week.

2- Check your week ahead

Before we start making plans, we need to see what exists in our calendar already. When planning the week, we need to consider what we have already blocked and designed to do.

3 - Prioritize

Now that you know what you have already planned and which slots are available, you can start making a list and prioritizing. I like to begin with the challenging tasks first since I feel more energy at the beginning of the week. After achieving the difficult goal, all the other tasks will seem easy to accomplish.

4 - One thing at a time

During the week, you need to follow this Rule strictly. We women can multitask, but to be more productive, we need to focus on what we are doing to finish faster and pass to the next one.

5 - Reserve "Do not Disturb" Time Slots

Some tasks require complete focus, or else we will fail. I cannot be doing an excel full of numbers and be interrupted in the middle. I need total focus on that time. So in our house, I announce the DO NOT DISTURB moments, and husband and kids are aware that for the next 25min I cannot be disturbed. And I must say it works like a charm since it's only 25min even my kids can follow the Rule.

6 - Revise your To-do List Daily

This is something that I believe 110%, and this is the only way to react on time to save the week if needed. If you don't check daily what was planned and what was accomplished, you will reach the end of the week with many things not done. And after, you will feel inadequate and frustrated and say - This week was not productive at all. So keep track of the weekly progress daily.

7 - Follow the 25+5 Rule

I already talked about this Rule in another post, and here I am again talking about it, which proves that this Rule is fundamental. 

For those you don't know yet, here it goes.

The 25+5 min Rule is: 

you work without distractions for 25m, and no matter what, you do a break of 5 min after.

It's difficult for our brain to keep focus for more extended periods, but for 25m, it's easy. Even me, I'm able to be 25m working without looking to my social media or by email. 

8 - Keep distractions away

During the work moments, keep all distractions away. While you are writing a document, investigating a subject, or reading an email, you don't need to see your email, Social media, or any other distraction type. Today the world arrived at a global connection, and even our watch is a source of distraction. So what I do is I put my phone in silence and turn face-down, and for the next 25 min, I will not look at anything rather the task in my hands. 

Believe me when I say it, "This is magical." 

These are the steps I find essential and I follow to make my week productive to the max. But it's also important to say, don't beat yourself up if one week doesn't go as planned. My weeks are full of undone tasks that I couldn't achieve even with all my planning. I try to look back and understand why. Sometimes, I see that I was asking more than I could give, and other times I fail because I'm human, a mother, and a wife. 

Remember, try to improve every day but don't overwhelm yourself because Wonder Woman is a Heroine of a comic book and is not married or has children.

I wish you all a very productive week, and I must say, it's time for me to start planning mine.

Lots of love