Monday morning, off to work and your mind begins to think about what you need to get done this week. At the office, 50 unread emails, teams' messages popping up, scheduled meetings, follow-ups, phone calls, more emails and suddenly several hours wasted without accomplishing your initial plans – Sounds familiar?

Hi everyone – My name is Randie and I have over a decade been working in high-paced positions within Banking & Finance. Things are always happening at a fast pace. I juggle multiple projects and tasks with tight deadlines and at the same time I’m prepared to take on new challenges with only a moment's notice.

With young children on top of that, passion for exercising, hanging out with my friends, colleagues and extended close family – I make sure to get a lot of things done throughout the week and keep it as productive as possible on all aspects.

How? In this article I will share my take on how I structure my weeks. You are free to use this information as you wish. It's not defined by a law or something, but if you like it, feel free to try it out.

The best days for me to start a productive workweek with a good plan are:

Mondays: I set goals and projects (not to-do lists) in a weekly planner, adding those later to my calendar - ~10-30 min

If you don't know your goals or visions, it's hard to plan a workweek. I decide what my (work) goals are in a weekly planner and set off time in my calendar so I get working on those.
Key for achieving big goals is breaking them down into smaller projects and scheduling blocks of time to do each. This differs from to-do lists where tasks need to be ticked off throughout the day/week and where not all tasks matter equally. The projects can benefit from becoming SMART (recommend good article on goals in Business & Dreams to learn more)
My calendar doesn’t only include scheduled meetings. Sometimes I free up time after each meeting for follow-up. But before setting up additional follow-ups to planner, I review that they're aligned with my goals and projects so I focus on things that will further my most meaningful work.
I don’t fill up my calendar to 100% - But I fill it up before others do it for me (Exception: Key stakeholder service, that goes first!). Nevertheless new tasks, messages and phone calls will be popping up and I need to be available and leave out free time for unexpected activities throughout the week.

During weekdays: Staying focused and organised, checking planner ~5-10 min

I set my status to “do-not-disturb/busy" time when I need to focus. Multitasking can actually make us less productive so I let people know I value focus time and will respond ASAP.
Saying NO or re-prioritise. When having a visual weekly plan set out with prep-work, tasks and review-time scheduled – it’s visually easier to see if I’m able to take on more work into my workweek. This also helps me to evaluate and prioritise if there are new tasks that are more critical than the ones I have set up.

Fridays: Looking back at current week, making sure nothing has fallen between chairs ~30 min

If so, I move tasks for next week. If this happens repeatedly – I evaluate the importance of the task, delegate or delete it! I’m also getting better at understanding and estimating how long my projects may take and perhaps the uncompleted tasks need escalation or an additional plan.

Inbox Zero – There're tons of tips on how to reach Inbox zero – but basically, I remove clutter, use labels and folders and only keep a few mails in my inbox that I need to follow up. I keep ~30 mails each week - (Recommend to read David Allen’s GTD methods if interested in inbox management and/other cool ideas how to get things done)

Sundays: Good day to review and plan personal time ~30 min

If I don’t firmly plan for personal time, that time may never occur. So I set plans for family activities, exercising, friends hang-outs, self-care etc. Filling my weeks up with energised and motivational activities that I look forward to gives me the chance to do my best at each aspect of life and keeping my upcoming personal and workweek productive.

Picture of a weekly/monthly planner sample in one-note. I usually separate my work planner from my personal planner. P.S dreams, objectives, goals, projects – nothing is forbidden.

Do I end up with a filled-up calendar and a week full of activities? Yes, but I am making real progress on getting closer to goals that stimulate me, motivate me and help me grow on a personal and professional level. I'm not just busy with getting things “out of the way”.

One truthful aspect about getting a lot done in a week is that you have to have passion for whatever you´re doing because if you don’t, you will probably put it off and try to avoid it, and that’s not getting it done. I make sure that anything I invest my time into, I enjoy doing.

Hope you can find some tips on creating your own system where you find it easier to work through tasks and deadlines and still be able to make time for the things that matter.

Thank you for taking the time and reading this article! If you want to connect and discuss professional or personal growth further, feel free to add me on LinkedIn.

How I Structure My Workweek by Randie Atto

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