Weekly planner template
Seven columns and three kinds of work: must, should, if time.
A week you can finish
A weekly planner template, weekly agenda template, or weekly plan format is a row or column for each day and a way to tell required work from optional work. The version that survives a real week uses three labels: must, should, and if time. Must is what has a deadline inside the week. Should is what moves a longer goal. If time is what you will not mourn.
A Gantt chart is for several people and dependencies. This page is for one person's week. A goal that never appears as a 'should' on this sheet is not scheduled. A vision board caption that never becomes a block on Thursday is still a picture.
Example week
Must: Wednesday, submit the lab; Friday, present for four minutes. Should: Monday and Tuesday, 25 minutes of trial notes; Thursday, print the board. If time: reread the chapter introduction. Put the must items on the day they are due, and also on the day you will actually do them if those differ. A planner that only shows due dates is a calendar. The work block is the point.
Steps
- Lay out seven days. Monday through Sunday, even if the weekend columns stay short.
- Write musts first. Deadlines and commitments with other people. Cap them. A day of only musts means the week was planned too late.
- Add one should per day. Tied to a goal you already wrote down. Skip vague improvement.
- Leave if-time unmarked until midweek. Filling every cell on Sunday night produces fiction.
Questions
- What is a weekly planner template?
- A one-week sheet with a place for each day and a way to separate required work, useful work, and optional work.
- What is a weekly agenda template?
- The same idea, often used for meetings: the week's days, and under each day the items that must happen. An agenda emphasizes commitments to other people.
- How is this different from a Gantt chart?
- A weekly planner is one person's time. A Gantt chart is task duration across a project, often with more than one owner.