If you’re short on time, I have a quick and easy ‘shortcut’ method for planning your week:

How to ‘lazy plan’ your week

A 7″ wide x 9″ high notebook works best for this, as we’re going to add 2 columns to the page. I used skinny washi tape to create the columns but you could just add a line with a ruler.

I used one of my custom Agendio notebooks but any notebook works.

Step 1: Brain dump – write your to do list

It doesn’t matter if topics are clustered together, just get everything out of your mind. I usually stop at 3/4 of a page so I have a bit of space for extra things that pop up during the week.

I was quite organized with my thoughts for this brain dump and topics were naturally grouped together, but I’ve used highlighters to color code by category in the past.

I add the days for anything with a fixed time e.g. I had a dentist appointment this week.

Step 2: Number the tasks in priority order

I used this code:

1. Must do this week
2. Should do this week
3. Only if I have time

And wrote the numbers on the left side of the washi tape.

Step 3: Assign estimated times

This item is option but it’s helpful if you usually have small chunks of time in between doing things. E.g. if you have 30 minutes before I need to head off somewhere, then I’m not wondering what task I can fit in where, I just look at the tasks that I’ve added a dot beside.

I used a Zig dot marker to mark the tasks that should take 30 minutes or less. However, you could use a stamp, or just draw a circle, asterisk or any other symbol you like using a normal pen.

You could also choose to add another column for the estimated times and categorise things into 15 minutes or less, 30 minutes, more than 30 minutes etc. but I chose to keep it simple this week.

Step 4: Allocate the priority tasks to a day of the week

I only bothered allocating my priority 1 and priority 2 tasks to days of the week, but you could go ahead and allocate days to every task if you like.

I’ve been stuck doing a lot of overtime at my day job recently which means I’m constantly moving around what tasks I had allocated to what day – so I used the Frixion pens for the days of the week.

If you’re short on space and / or want to save time, just write the first 2 letters. The only repetitions in the letters are Sat / Sun and Tue / Thu.

The other tasks can be done on any day, when you have a few minutes spare.

… If you’re thinking, ‘but Rachael, isn’t this just a glorified to do list?’ Yes it is – sometimes simple is best!

I stuck to a pink theme for this spread, but you could easily create a rainbow color theme by color coding the dots for the estimated times, days of the week, or highlighting entire tasks to color code them to a category.

Supplies used this week

• Custom Agendio notebook
• Pink Happy Planner skinny washi tape (available in my sister’s shop).
• Frixion erasable black pen
• IKEA Mala marker pens for the week / heading at the top of the page
• Zig Kuretake clean color dot marker

Would I use this spread again?

Yes, I’ve been using this ‘lazy’ method of planning for the past month and it has been working well. It’s quick, and I can easily see the priority items.

I wouldn’t want to use it every week though, as it’s not very pretty or decorative – it’s practical but a bit boring to look at. It’s a good weekly planning method when you’re time poor and don’t have a lot of tasks or appointments that must happen on a particular day.

More spreads

• Keeping work and personal in the same planner plus pie chart blog planning
• Pink & Black themed spread in the Clever Fox Weekly Planner
• Weekly spread in the Golden Coil custom planner – is it worth the money?

Planning tips

• How to make a printable chore chart using Microsoft Excel (including video tutorial)
• Favorite brands with functional sticker books for planning and bullet journaling
• Favorite washi tape for planning, planner decorating & color coding

Browse 200+ past week spreads.

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