Weekly Checklists and Reviews for Productive Folks
Hi there! We’ve been talking a lot about benefits of planning and setting goals. To make your flow even more efficient, conduct some periodic analyses to track progress and fix errors. Once a week is the best time for you to see the result and it’s not too late to reconfigure next steps.
Weekly Checklist
Let’s imagine you already have set ambitious goals to achieve and even have a plan on how to do that. It may be a plan for a year or less, we recommend to break long-term goals into baby steps. Some of them may take you hours and other may require even a day or two! That’s why weekly intervals are best to plan and measure results.
Why You Should Have a Weekly Checklist:
- This gives you a quick grasp of free and busy time slots. You see where you can place another meeting or a small task.
- This provides you with the impression of progress on your targets. They no longer seem far away and can be divided into actionable steps.
- You become focused on your plans and don’t get distracted too often. If something takes your attention away, you get back to important things asap.
- This gives an opportunity to control every process planned. Also, you analyse everything soon, not once a month or so, that gives you a chance to be more flexible, adjust to the current situation and keep track of what is important.
Making a Weekly Checklist
If you’re a Collabio Spaces user, you can use the Weekly Planner template from the built-in “Planning” folder to write down your goals for the near future.
If you’re not, get Collabio from the App Store right away! ;) Okay-okay, we aren’t forcing you.
No matter what you use to create a weekly checklist, outline the following things:
- List your weekly milestones and ambitious goals.
- Plan daily tasks that require regular execution and specify time for them. We mean something you do every day, for example, for Collabio Spaces team this is a brief morning meeting in Zoom at 11:30 AM.
- Specify all the other situational tasks that need your attention according to the days in the left column. Specify the time for that to make your own schedule.
When filling in the template or listing your plans in a paper notebook, ask yourself these questions:
- Will you handle one project or more? Which ones are there? Distinguish separate things and keep in mind breaks. Multitasking will only exhaust you.
- Do you need extra time to rest? Whether some tasks are monotonous or, on the contrary, energy-consuming?
- Are you going to mix business tasks with some leisure activities? You may also add them to your plan. Actually, you can add anything to it — even getting some pizza from the nearest pizzeria or cuddling with your pet!
- Are you going to dedicate a separate spot for daily short-term, planning? It’s a great practice that keeps you on track.
By the way, keep in mind actionable recommendations on planning every day! This will keep you focused on what you need and even the biggest dreams might come true! ;)
Weekly Review
If you created a plan or an initial weekly checklist, compare what was done and think of what could be improved. If you just created your first checklist, get back to this article in a week, so that you can use all these tips!
How to evaluate results at the end of the week, using Collabio template:
- Open the template you worked on in your notebook. We recommend using an iPad or MacBook/Mac for that, as you’ll see all your goals and plans on one screen. Anyway, an iPhone will work too but be ready to scroll a bit. :)
- Scroll to the bottom of the document and find the “Weekly Outcomes” section. Fill in every field:
- Your week in three words. Write down three words (not obligatory adjectives) that fully describe the current week.
- The happiest moments. Recall everything that made you smile and what you would like to repeat in the future.
- The biggest challenges. What was the toughest one? How did you deal with it?
- New discoveries. This is the field for things that surprised you. Didn’t you know that your company provides extra days off for Christmas? A great discovery, isn’t it?
- Things you’re grateful for. These may be similar points you list in “your happiest moments” but don’t forget to pay attention to challenges as well. Difficulties mean opportunities!
- Things to improve. What was done wrong and what can be improved next week?
Feel free to go into details as much you like. The more you explore situations, the more ideas you’ll get!
What To Do Next?
Repeat this “planning and reviewing” exercise every week for at least a month. Try to keep your focus on unimportant things, and keep your eyes on the prize! And we’re 100% sure that everything is achievable! So, keep going and you’ll reach the peak and learn all the benefits of planning! ;)
