Speaker 1: 0:31

Welcome back to Productivity Hacks. In past episodes we’ve covered long-term and medium-term planning, but today we’re zooming in on short-term planning, the kind that ensures you’re not just busy but actually productive. I’m also trying something a bit new today, and I will now have video versions of this podcast available on YouTube, so check it out. The link is in the show notes. But before we crack on with this episode, I want to do some shout outs from some new locations. So Frankfurt in Germany. Malaysia, is creeping up as one of my most popular locations at the moment, which is incredible. It’s currently the fifth most popular country for listeners for the last five episodes, after UK, usa, canada and Germany. So thank you. A few more places I’ve googled are Cornwall in Ontario, royce City in Texas, and I’ve had my first listener in Azerbaijan. Also, I’m so excited to have someone listening from Las Vegas. New South Wales in Australia, which which is actually somewhere I’ve been and Auckland in New Zealand. I hope one day to maybe visit some of these places that I’m googling, so send me a message if you want a shout out in a future episode.

Speaker 1: 1:46

Okay, back to today. Have you ever felt like your week slipped away from you? Your to-do list never seems to end or, despite being constantly on the go, you’re not making real progress towards your goals. If you feel like you’re spinning on a hamster wheel, this episode is exactly what you need. I’m going to be sharing my own tried and tested weekly planning process, the one I personally use each week to set myself up for success. You will also learn how to create a daily planning routine so that you can stop winging it and start leading your day with intention. We’re going to dive into the psychology behind why this works and explore common blockers that derail planning, plus give you actionable steps that you can implement today. Do you remember that metaphor that I shared with you last week about the champagne fountain? I want you to think of your planning like that champagne fountain at a wedding, your big dreams are at the top and each quarter, each month, each week trickles down to the next, creating that smooth flow towards your goals. You started that flow with your long-term dreams and plans. You kept that cascade going with your medium-term planning, and now we’re focused on that flow into the actual stuff that you’re going to do this week and today.

Speaker 1: 3:02

If you haven’t listened to my last two episodes, make sure you check them out, because I would probably suggest you pause this now. Listen to the other two, don’t worry, they’re short and then come back to me here. Short and then come back to me here. So why does short-term planning matter? Big, bold goals are fantastic, but progress only happens through daily action.

Speaker 1: 3:25

One of the biggest productivity myths is that being busy equals being effective, whereas in reality productivity comes from bridging that gap between long-term goals and short-term actions. So short-term planning is so powerful for a few different ways. Number one it provides clarity. When you plan your week and your day, you know exactly what you need to focus on. Without this clarity, it’s easy to get sucked into tasks that feel urgent but don’t contribute to your long-term goals. You’re on that hamster wheel, running as fast as you can but getting nowhere. Number two it reduces overwhelm. Uncertainty breeds stress. When you wake up with a clear plan, you remove that mental load of constantly deciding what to do next. Imagine knowing what tasks need immediate attention and what can wait. It is a game changer. Number three it boosts motivation. By completing these small, achievable tasks, you get that dopamine hit which increases your sense of progress and keeps you motivated. Each win builds on the momentum and gives your brain, evidence that you can and you will do what you intend to do. All this, then, builds confidence. Following through on your plan reinforces the belief that you’re capable of managing your time and priorities. Even if one day doesn’t go as planned, the next day is a fresh start.

Speaker 1: 4:53

There are some common blockers that you may have experienced in the past. I certainly have. The first one is perfectionism. Is this you Feeling like your plan has to be perfect before you can act? Remember, a good plan executed today beats a perfect plan never started. Those who have listened to previous episodes of my podcast may have heard that I don’t actually believe perfection exists, or if it does, it is momentary and fleeting. We change too much and the world changes too much that something that was perfect can no longer be perfect even a week, a day or a minute later. Aiming for a good plan that can be flexible to the ever-changing world that you are in is exactly where you should be aiming.

Speaker 1: 5:42

Another blocker is decision fatigue. Without a clear structure, you’re constantly making decisions throughout the day, which drains your mental energy. A solid plan reduces this fatigue by front-loading those decisions. Have you heard of the concept of being your future friend by planning and making those decisions in advance about what is important. You are being a friend to your future self and saving him or her countless decisions down the line and the mental energy that that takes. I love this concept of being your future friend. It is the thing that drives me into doing loads of things, even down to making my bed in the morning, because future Jasmine then gets to climb into an inviting bed at the end of the day not a crumple of sheets, and also I don’t have to look at that said crumple of sheets all day.

Speaker 1: 6:30

Another one is distraction. Overload notifications, emails and social media can pull you off track. Short-term planning helps you to create boundaries and focus on what matters. Our phones and devices are basically competing for all our attention, often winning the battle for our time and focus, but you can take back control. I personally think a lot about how I use my phone and other devices and, more importantly, about how I don’t. I made the decision to not have social media on my phone. I turn off all notifications for everything the noise, the alert buzz and even that annoying little red icon that’s on most apps, including WhatsApp, and I check them when I want, not when my friends and family know that if they need an immediate response, it is a text message or a phone call which still alert me. Another change I have made is to stop using my smart watch and go back to an old school simple watch for those watching the video. Hopefully, you can see that this has reduced my notifications about how many steps I’m doing or not doing, how it thinks I’ve slept, among other things. I now focus on how I feel when I wake up and what my body is telling me about how I slept. I enjoy walks without that buzz of how fast my latest kilometer was going, and I even enjoy going to the gym and not concentrating on how my watch is telling me I’m doing. Okay enough on that tangent, but it is a really important subject and if this is something that you want to think about your phone, use your notification. I recommend you read Digital Minimalism by Cal Newport or the Attention Fix by Dr Anders Hansen, both of which have made me more aware and able to make some important decisions in this area for me and my kids in the next few years. I’ll put them links in the show notes Okay, time for my six step weekly planning process, if you’ve ever felt like you’re just reacting to your week instead of leading it.

Speaker 1: 8:40

Short term planning will help you regain that control and here is a step by step breakdown of how I plan my week. And I usually do this on a Sunday evening or, better yet, a Friday afternoon. Friday is my preference because then I’m not thinking about it all weekend, but doing it before the week starts helps set you up for the week. Step one brain dump. Get everything out of your head onto paper or a digital tool Things like work tasks, life, admin, personal goals, to-do lists, everything that you have on any floating scrap of a to-do list everything your mind is keeping, bringing to your attention everything you think. I must do this and look at your monthly plan. What do you need to do this week to keep on track of your monthly and quarterly goals and therefore your long-term plans. This works because our brains are wired to hold on to unfinished tasks, which creates cognitive overload. Writing them down externalises these open loops and it frees up that mental bandwidth.

Speaker 1: 9:43

Number two decide your priorities. Review your brain dump and identify two to three key priorities for the week. Everything is not equally important. You have to make a decision about what is the most important. You’re not saying the other things aren’t important, but they’re not the most important right now. So ask yourself the question and be really honest if I could only complete one thing this week, what would it be? How about just three things? If you could only complete three things this week, what would it be? Prioritization forces you to focus on what’s truly important rather than what feels urgent. Doing this when you’re set apart from the week ahead, like on a Sunday or Friday, gives you that clarity to look at your week whilst not in the midst of its pressures, which can skew our decisions.

Speaker 1: 10:42

Number three is check your time. Look at your calendar and note any fixed commitments so meetings, appointments, events and firstly, ask yourself are all these commitments necessary? Can anything be rescheduled or cancelled? This works because awareness of your time limits over scheduling and the inevitable feeling of falling behind. I personally use a Google Calendar to mark all my meetings and appointments in and then, when I do my weekly planning, I transfer these to a paper planner. This helps me really visualize the week ahead and see the space between the commitments. If I have little space and lots of things I can’t move or cancel, or even things I can’t shorten the time of then. I know I can’t have lots of things on my to-do list. I also write important things like the gym or walks in my diary, like meetings, or maybe you could schedule in weekly planning as a meeting as well. Try not to book back-to-back meetings all day, because when are you actually going to do the work if you’re spending all your work time talking about or planning the work? A good rule could be that for every hour meeting you block out an hour of non-meeting. Or you could try and reduce an hour meeting to 50 minutes or even 30. Can you get the same thing done in less time?

Speaker 1: 12:14

Number four is block out work, personal and family time. Physically block out dedicated time for focused work, personal activities, family and rest. This works because time blocking helps create boundaries so you’re not constantly switching roles and feeling overwhelmed helps create boundaries so you’re not constantly switching roles and feeling overwhelmed. I use highlighters to do this in my planner, which makes it look visually appealing and again, it gives me awareness of the space I have or the lack of it. It helps me make some shifts if I can, or if I have a day with little time for rest, I can try and make up for it the day before and after. If you’ve got meetings in, try block out some day before and after. If you’ve got meetings in, try block out some time before and after meetings, even 10 minutes, so you can grab a quick drink, nip to the loo before a meeting and also write down any inevitable action points after that meeting.

Speaker 1: 12:58

If I constantly feel like my life is full of commitments, I know I need to make some bigger decisions about how I’m choosing to spend my time, and this might be where you’re at now. Do I need to stop doing something? Do I need to ask for help with something to free up more time? Recently I’ve started using meal planning boxes again, as this frees up loads of time in planning meals, shopping and cooking them. I’ve got a code you can use for a discount off your first box in my favorite meal planning service. Check it out in the show notes. Could you invest in a cleaner to free up that time? Can you stop doing that commitment you started before work got busier? Can you stop doing as much extra work on weekends and evenings and prioritise rest? Sometimes these questions are really hard to answer, but it is important that you ask them and doing. Weekly planning can help shine a helpful torch onto how you are spreading yourself in different aspects of your life and if that is still what you want. Sometimes our life has a habit of filling up almost without us knowing.

Speaker 1: 14:07

Number five is turn your brain dump into your to-do list. Select the essential tasks from your brain dump and assign them to specific time blocks on specific days. Start with those main priorities and then in any other spaces you have put them in Work and personal. Need to send that birthday card. Put it on your to-do list for the day. Need to remember to order your gusto box. Write it on the day you intend to do it. This works because it ensures that your key tasks have dedicated time and anything that doesn’t fit can go on a next week list and if it is important to do that next week, you will find time for it. I tend to have an overflow list, which are the brain dump things that haven’t made the cut for that week. If a miracle happens and I get done more than I thought I would, or a meeting cancels and frees up some time, I have this list ready to crack on with.

Speaker 1: 15:11

Number six daily focus. Each day, identify your one thing, the most important task you must complete that day, sometimes referred to as the frog that you need to eat. And if you’re not familiar with that concept, google, eat the frog and I’ll share more about it next week. You’re not familiar with that concept? Google, eat the frog and I’ll share more about it next week. Why this works is that research shows that starting your day with a clear, singular focus improves productivity and reduces decision fatigue. Just knowing what your important task is for the day and doing as soon as you can, gives you a significant uplift and makes you so much more productive on the important things. I do all this weekly planning, all these six steps in my planner, which has a space each day for the schedule, the to-dos and the main priority. So weekly planning sets the stage and daily planning ensures you stay on track.

Speaker 1: 15:54

And here’s a simple two-step daily planning process that will honestly take you a few minutes. Number one start with your one big thing. Like we’ve already done, you’ve identified that frog Before diving into emails, social media, anything else you’ve decided on that top priority of the day or, if you haven’t, pick it, write it down, highlight it. Is it still the main thing you decided when weekly planning. Your frog might have changed, but get on with this task before anything else. Get that done straight away, because making high impact decisions early in the day, when your energy is highest, helps set that productive tone. And number two just review your weekly plan, check your pre-planned weekly to-do list and adjust for any changes, asking yourself what’s urgent, what’s important, and if a task feels overwhelming, break it down into smaller steps for your to-do list. So short-term planning is one of the most effective tools for turning intentions into action. By taking 30 minutes to plan your week and just five to ten minutes each morning to plan your day, you’re setting yourself up for less stress, more clarity and bigger results.

Speaker 1: 17:06

So a quick recap of the six-step weekly planning process. Number one brain dump. Number two decide priorities. Number three check your time available. Number three check your time available. Number four block out the work, personal, family time, anything else. Number five turn your brain dump into your to-do list. And number six highlight that frog, that daily focus For daily planning. Start with that one big thing Constantly review your plan and block out your time. So what’s one thing that you’re going to implement this week to sharpen your planning? I’d love to hear how you’re using these strategies. Please message me. Connect on social media. I honestly love hearing from you. Next time, I’ll be talking about a lot of common things that I’m asked about planning, such as the paper versus digital debate and why I personally love a planner. I’ll see you then.