How I Standardized My Weekly Schedule

On a good week I have about 12 hours a week to work on my business. (And that's if school isn't closed, no one gets sick, and no house project is in the works!) Because I'm so short on time, I have to be incredibly focused and intentional with how I spend my time. This is exactly why I've always been a fan of having a weekly schedule!

In fact, I've shared about creating a weekly schedule this in at least 3 separate pieces of content (How To Plan Your Week Effectively, My Weekly Schedule: How To Plan Your Work Week, and My Weekly Schedule for 4-Day Workweeks) but in this season of life I needed to simplify how I was planning my week even more.

Because even though I had clear blocks for calls, errands, or content creation, I found that this system was no longer working for me. Every single week I felt like I was planning from scratch and trying to fit all of my priorities in a small window of time. It never felt like enough and I always felt like I had more to do than I was capable of accomplishing. 

So I decided to make a change and standardize my weekly schedule.

Now I know exactly what my priorities are each day of the week and hardly have to "plan my week" anymore. I already know what to do AND know that I have made time for everything that's truly a priority.

Here's a quick snapshot of what my weekly schedule looks like right now:

Standardizing my weekly schedule has been life changing, reduced the mental load of running a business, and has relieved that sense of pressure and urgency I was feeling of always being "behind" on my to do list.

Breaking my goals into recurring outcomes:

In order to standardize my week, I needed to approach my goal setting and planning process a little differently. 

Instead of focusing on projects and one-time action steps, I needed to focus instead on the recurring tasks and action steps I could take to get closer to my goals each and every week.

This meant instead of focusing on the individual "one time" tasks (like writing a sales email for an upcoming launch) I was going to view it more holistically as part of a larger system. That allowed me to identify that I needed one day a week to write ALL upcoming emails and that would include weekly emails like my newsletter AS WELL as any promotion or one off emails I wanted to send. 

So I'm just looking at next week's content plan and getting ahead gradually.

Here's an example of how I would integrate a launch with my standardized schedule where I’m enough ahead on podcast episodes where I don’t need to record new ones:

This allows me to make continued progress towards my goals and projects without planning from scratch when it will happen! 

Identifying my work blocks:

The next thing I did to standardize my schedule even further, was to identify key work blocks in my day. 

Based on my overall responsibilities (household management, kids activities, AND business) it was helpful for me to carve out time for what I call "Quick Tasks" where I could do things that take <10 minutes that are easy for my ADHD self to procrastinate on. 

Now I do "Quick Tasks" two times each day: once during lunch and once write before I leave to do school pick up. 

Here's my current work block schedule:

Do I follow this perfectly each and every day? Of course not! But I do more times than not and now I have a very realistic sense of how much time I have for my main work priorities each day (3 hours max).

This helps me keep my to do list focused and my actions on track.

Batching content:

You may have noticed that my standardized weekly schedule doesn't account for batching content. 

That's on purpose.

I've basically decided to stop putting the pressure on myself to do large batches of content creation... because it just wasn't something I've been able to keep up with during this season of life!

Instead of always feeling like I'm "behind" and "should" be batching my content, I've set up my weekly schedule to account for regular content creation that feels sustainable, manageable, AND helps me gradually get ahead on my content. 

That's why on my weekly schedule you may have noticed it said to record 2+ podcast episodes or to focus on "next week's" content:

Instead of saying I'm going to batch record 10 podcast episodes in one sitting, I've decided that I'll plan on recording 2 episodes per week. This means I will gradually get ahead of schedule and will be able to skip a week of recording a podcast without any issue. It also means that I'll easily have enough podcast episodes batched for my maternity leave WITHOUT having to stress about a major "batching" project. 

It's been a huge relief to view it this way! 

And as a bonus, I often find myself recording MORE than 2 podcast episodes but it isn't something I expect myself to be able to do. For example, last week I recorded 5 podcast episodes and was able to go ahead and skip recording podcast episodes this week to focus instead of a private podcast series I want to record. 

This is what sustainability looks like to me.

The benefits:

Overall, the benefits of creating a standardized weekly schedule have been astronomical.

Weekly planning takes me less than 5 minutes each week. 

The mental load of running a business and staying on top of all of my responsibilities has been minimized drastically. 

I no longer feel a sense of urgency and pressure to get everything done today because I know each priority will have its time. 

It has really challenged me to spend LESS time planning (and procrasti-planning) and more time taking action on what I’ve already decided is a key priority.

And overall it has given me a greater sense of clarity on what really matters to me and my business during this season of life!

Your simplified business:

I hope this has shown you a simpler alternative to your weekly planning process! 

If you decide to create your own standardized weekly schedule, I’d love to hear from you! Send me a DM on Instagram or tag me in a post on Threads and let me know. 

The standardized schedule is one of the components of my 6S Framework for a Simple Business.

Soon I’ll be releasing a new private podcast series, How a Simple Business can make you R.I.C.H., where I’ll break down what it means to feel R.I.C.H. in business, the entire 6S Framework, and more! 

Click here to get on the waitlist and be notified once the podcast series is live!