WORKLIFEDESIGN

Ahh, Monday morning. How I love thee…

I rarely check my email over the weekend so by the time Monday morning rolls around, my Inbox is full to the brim with fascinating things that could suck at least 28 hours of the day away. Combine this with a rapidly expanding to-do list in my head and a sense of anticipation that “this week I’ll actually get a substantial slab of work completed” and things start resembling chaos.

So taking some time-out on Monday mornings to organise my week is essential.  I’ve found that I need to move beyond a to-do list of things that need my urgent attention and check in with what’s important (goals and priorities), what I need to do to realise these priorities and scheduling it into my calendar.

For this worthy, weekly task I have my handy Weekly Actions Worksheet. It’s fairly straight forward:

1. Check-in with my overall goals (eg beautiful home, work I love, etc).

2. Determine what this week’s priorities will be (depends on where I am, what needs attention, what I feel like doing this week).

3. Write down the ‘next steps’ or actions for each of the priorities and/or goals. Plus anything that may be floating by that needs attention but is part  of a greater goal (such as ‘feeding myself’, ‘having hot water’, etc). I keep the actions easy, small, managable. I can always create new actions later in the week if I complete them.

4. Work out what I’ll do on what days, and perhaps when (AM, PM, or specific time)

5. Transfer whatever reminders I need to my iCal

6. Refer back to the worksheet every morning during the week. Add, delete or change as necessary.

Download Monday Morning Weekly Actions Worksheet (MMWAW!)