My Weekly Reset to Improve Productivity and Wellbeing

byTheCatherine

14K followers

Updated 3 years ago

One of the things I have learned since trying to increase my productivity and profitability of the daily basis is that it's all about the small stuff. It's not whether I'm going to reach my goals, it's more about what I am doing right this minute!

Don't get me wrong I have goals for the next 12 months, but these will move you forward if you're not managing your time daily. If I can't make effective use of my hours then I'm never going to bring my reality into my expectations.

With this in mind, I have started a weekly reset to bring together my goals and the execution of the tasks needed

"You can’t build a reputation on what you’re going to do".Henry Ford

Many paid people fail to hit my goals because they're overwhelmed in the first instance. I used to be a procrastinator and if I thought I could do something next week or in 6 months and the chances are I wouldn't get it done at all.

Weekly reset makes me work out the best possible use of each day. It's about getting my tasks done in a timely manner to leave more time for other activities.

Task 1 Create a Template For You.

1st of all I start with the results of a potentially imperfect week! I have been handicapped in January because I built a new computer in December and the graphics card didn't work. I am still waiting for a new graphics card so the moment I am handicapped because I can't make the videos I need to make. Not that the graphic cards make videos but my new computer had plenty of storage place and my old one even with 4 external hard drives is quite literally full.

My template is just the hours I am awake. There is no necessity to make a really complex planning template. Managers like a big A4 diary. In fact, I do have a big A4 diary to do this in. On Sunday I recap on what I have done and completed in the week and give myself a pat on the back and then work out how to reschedule the tasks that still need doing. This keeps the reset pretty simple I don't want to create a situation where I work the whole weekend creating another to-do list!

Task 2 Clear your Desktop

Clear my desktop every week. I tend to put things I'm working on my desktop so that the end of the week I file whatever is finished and only leave outstanding folders open. You are never going to necessarily get a clear desktop or maybe you can if you more organized than I am. I have my planners in a folder so I have content planners, social media planners etc.

Task 3 Inbox Zero

I only read my emails once a day, if that! I should but the end of every week clear out my inbox but for me, that's not very important. For some people, this is a critical step towards the organization. They start each week with a new inbox.

Task 4. Sort out digital documents and receipts and get my ledgers up to date.

This allows me to file my tax returns quickly. At the same time, I pay invoices and get rid of anything in Evernote that still needs filling.

Other ideas that you may have which will help your planning is meal planning. Some people become more productive when they have a meal plan for 7 days. They then create a shopping list. Because I am my own restaurant for some many years doing that for the family I can do my head, but I can see why some people might want to write that down.

Task 5 check the calendar for the coming week

I make sure that things are written down in my diary on my desk have actually been transferred to Google calendar. I set timers for the really important stuff such as zoom meetings and events.

I also write down and specify four tasks I want to prioritize in the week. 1 of those is always a word count I set the number of words I want to write in a week. Other ideas is you may want to have a movie night with the family. Make sure you prioritize this in the reset. It might include fitness goals such as do 30 minutes Pilates every day.

Task 6 Collation

Collate any thoughts, new ideas, great ideas I have gained from other sources such as podcasts and courses. I scribble us down in a notebook often, as there is no point in taking a screenshot of a podcast. I make sure these are filed at the end of every week

I tend to split all of these tasks over a 2 day weekend. Sometimes I want today off on a weekend in which case I do an end of week assessment on Friday and Saturday morning. If I have to do all of these tasks in Mongo I do get overwhelmed. So I tend to do each task and then forget it. Some of you may want to block often entire morning or afternoon and get more done in one go. Whatever works for you

These ideas will give you some thoughts about how to organize your weekly reset. There will be things you will need to add that are not relevant to my life such as pick up the kids from kindergarten.

At the end of January, I also added in monthly add-ons. I added on a weekly meeting with my partner so that we can assess whether we are up to date in our business goals.

I have to be honest and say that I didn't expect this weekly reset to last much beyond the 1st week in January. I have surprised myself it has been useful and it has saved time because when I sit down to work I know what I'm doing.