Life Tool: Weekly Strategy Template
This post is part of a series. You can start at the beginning or see All of the Tools.
“The Weekly Strategy Template is the tool to make the weekly reflection actionable.”
If the previous post convinced you to set up a Weekly Strategy Time, you’re probably asking, “how can I make that time as effective as possible?” Good question!
For me, the answer is a Weekly Strategy Template. It is a paper tool to make my weekly reflection actionable.
Key Features
Its key features include:
- A list of my Objectives and Key Results for that month.
- Two “Top Priority” boxes to identify things that are most important for the week on my core projects and in my personal life, respectively. If I only get those two items done, the week is a success.
- Blank boxes to list Action Items — events or tasks that require work on my part that week.
- Pre-populated boxes for Recurring Priorities — tasks against longer-term projects. These include my core projects, my wife, my kid, board service, health strategies, etc. The goal is to make sure that for each of these items, I ask, “What do I need to do against…?”
- Blank boxes for Wait Items — events or tasks those that do not require action on my part. This is a good place for items I need to track in the background.
The template itself has evolved over time, but the design principles have remained constant:
- Highlight top priorities;
- Focus on outcomes, not just inputs/tasks; and,
- Personal priorities on par with professional ones.
When I have changed template in the past, it was typically due to questions like these:
- Are the goals the right ones to have?
- Am I making enough progress on core goals?
- What barriers to reaching my goals or being productive have been getting in my way recently?
- Are there priorities in my life that are not represented (e.g., new family members, new projects, new types of projects)?
How I Use the Template
I have found that there are several important parts of using the template effectively.
First — and this should be no surprise, since it’s the organizing principle of this post — start with a blank sheet each week. Only after fresh thinking about my current priorities do I look back at the previous week’s template to make sure that I have not inadvertently missed something important.
Second, avoid listing action items that you could get done quickly. If it takes just about as much time to complete the task than it would it write it down, it’s worth just doing it now. David Allen recommends a two-minute benchmark for this decision. If the task can be done in two minutes, just do it.
The weekly strategy template is something I revisit each morning when developing a to-do list for that day. Hence, I like to avoid cluttering it with mundane tasks, which makes it harder visually to focus on what’s already done and what’s left to be done, and to effectively prioritize the latter.
Getting Started
In case it’s helpful to you, I’ve posted several generic versions of templates that I’ve used in past to this Google Drive folder. From there, create your own!
If you want to start simple, just write it out with paper and pen, and edit as you go along.
I want to hear your thoughts!
This is a “living post,” in that I’d like your help to add to make it more valuable. What have you tried that is similar? Have any stories about the impact of using a tool like this? Please share!
See All of the Tools for other posts like this.
