How to ‘lazy plan’ your week (in 4 simple steps)
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:
- Must do this week
- Should do this week
- 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.
Tired of drawing up weekly spreads? This printable bundle of 52 different 1 page weekly planners (you can mix and match to create 2 page spreads if you prefer), is available in my Etsy shop and online store. It comes in US letter size and Happy Planner classic page size.
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