Make Thursday Your Day To Plan The Week Ahead!
Review next week’s calendar on a Thursday? Yes!
It sounds so premature doesn’t it – but it works!
For years, I used to review my Director’s week ahead on a Thursday. I still do this with my own Virtual Assistant business and my Clients.
Why?
Because it breaks the back of it. It reduces ‘surprises’, and it cuts down on the time you need to spend running around like a headless chicken on a Friday or a Sunday. Work an extra 30 minutes if you have to, but the time saving in the long run will be worth it.
…and Friday’s?
Friday’s are great for dotting the i’s and crossing the t’s when planning your week ahead. See it as a ‘fine tuning’ opportunity.
For example, your car needs its MOT, but you know it needs to have x, y and z fixed in order to achieve that. You take time to correct those things and then put the car through its MOT, with more likelihood of success. Planning your week ahead can be approached in rather the same way. It’s about increasing your availability the following week and reducing any nasty surprises.
Isn’t increased availability worth achieving? It’s great for you, your clients and family. It gives you choice.
If I don’t plan EARLY?
You significantly reduce the opportunity to book ahead of everybody else when you leave it until Friday. If you plan groceries to be home delivered, book early. Lots of people will login to home shopping on a Friday to see if there are weekend slots left. If not, they will likely book for the week ahead.
The principle is still the same whether reviewing your personal or business calendar.
Here’s how:
- Review your calendar (Business and./or Personal) for the week ahead, starting with Monday.
- Create a simple chart, as seen below (columns Mon-Sun).
- Have a pen to hand and look at am to pm, Monday-Sunday. For each of your appointments, write down any actions that arise from each, in the relevant day column.
TIP:
Download a Scanner App.
You can scan your paperwork as if you were taking a photo and upload it as a pdf.
Once you’ve done that, add it to your calendar appointment and shred the paper copy.
USE YOUR CALENDAR MORE EFFICIENTLY:
Are there any files, bookings, emails, links etc that you could paste into the body of your calendar appointment?
Don’t forget, if the meeting becomes rescheduled, all the information moves with it.
If you would like to get in touch, and have me support you with your to-do list or getting you organised for the week ahead, please drop me a line at: shirley@virtualofficebox.com
Shirley
Some of The Tools I Use
Asana, Adobe Pro DC, Buffer, Canva, Dropbox, Evernote, Gmail Calendar, Microsoft Office (Word, Powerpoint, Excel, OneDrive), Hootsuite
Invoicely, LastPass, Linkedin, Outlook,