It’s the time of the week for Stephen Covey ‘disciples’ – a term he would vehemently hate – to set about planning their week (assuming that the weekend is their starting day, and not the beginning of the working week, as occasionally it may be).

Weekly planning allows not only planning of events and appointments, but also for their preparation, something many uninformed planners forget to consider in their daily, crisis-management paradigm. Traditional, daily planning means everything comes upon you at the last minute, with only hours or less to prepare. That’s the failure of the to-do list, which leads us into doing the easy while leaving the complicated until the last reasonable or justifiable minute. Weekly planning, core principle of Habit 3, allows for things to be organised properly.

I’ve been planning my weeks since 2006 when I attended my Seven Habits course with UK FranklinCovey consultant Steve Smith (excellent trainer, BTW). Since then I have generally planned on a Friday, when the past working week is over and I can plan the next one based on my evaluation of that week, what it has caused for the next period, and my Mission Statement.

Lately, in preparation for my soon-to-be-unemployed status I have started planning on a Saturday, instead. Why?

First of all, it’s peaceful at home and in my office (third bedroom, 6’ x 10’ – there are bigger cells where I work). Next, all my diaries, Mission work, hobbies and interests surround me. This means that I am in a zone that is both comfortable yet imposing – imposing because it reminds me of what I ought to be doing to justify my self-proclaimed status as a personal development and time-management blogger. At work my focus is planning work goals: at home is where LIFE should be planned.

The only issue I do have with weekly planning is that I plan some goals and tasks with the nagging feeling in the back of my mind that by the time I am expecting myself to perform them I’d have lost interest in doing so. Funnily enough, that mainly relates to exercise goals!
Is it like that for you? And if so, I’d love to know what you do about it.
For me, I need to remind myself of the first part of my Three Resolutions Mission Statement, which reads:

“I commit to the First Resolution”

I resolve to exercise self-discipline and self-denial in order to overcome the restraining forces of appetites and passions.
I will proactively live in a fashion that is healthy, active, congruent, and demonstrative of the unified truth that is Principle Centred Leadership. I will do so in the physical, mental, social and spiritual capacities. Most of all I will do the things I do not want to do that do serve me, and I will not do the things I want to do that do not serve me.

I’d love some support………….