How to Plan Your Week as an Entrepreneur

May 9

As an entrepreneur, it's incredibly important how you plan your time. I often say that planning your time, planning your activities, isn't restricting what you do, but it gives you a roadmap that actually reduces the overwhelm. It creates less guessing in your day to day, in your week to week and in your month to month activities.

Today, I am going to share with you how I plan out a week in my business.

I often say that all the branding tips and all the marketing tips and the overall success of those different areas, come back to how you structure your schedule.

How are you planning your life?
How are you planning those activities?

So today I want to break down for you exactly how I plan an entire week in my business. I've got four points that I want to share with you and a bonus tip that's just going to help you with preparing for the week ahead.

PLANNING YOUR WEEK TIP #1: HAVE ONE AREA OF FOCUS

The very first tip that I have for you is to have one area of focus. Now in multiple videos that I have shared, I've got a six month video, I also have a brand new, quarterly planning video, I talk about reverse engineering.

The idea is that you take your end of the year goal, you then break that down into quarters, you then break that down into a month to month focus. And yes, you even break it down into a weekly focus. This has helped my business tremendously because I've got a lot going on.

We're worried about marketing, we're focusing on branding, we have our day to day activity, we've got our admin work. We've got to look at our money. We've got to look at our budget. We got to look at all the things. And those things are going to be happening week after week after week.

But we also need to be creating new things in our business. Maybe you want to launch a new funnel, maybe you want to create a new program, maybe you want to take on more clients. Whatever it is that you are doing, you need to make space for that. That's where the weekly focus comes into play.

This is something new that you are focusing on that steps away from the recurring task; admin work, client work, checking your email, all those fun activities that you've got to do. And it focuses more specifically on something new that you are creating.

So again, it's really important that you understand the bigger picture of the year goal, the quarterly goal and the monthly goal in order to figure out how you should be spending your energy and your focus this week.

For instance, maybe my focus this week is to update some trainings on the back end of my program, Brandmerry Academy, something that I need to do.

It's incredibly important for the success of my business, as well as client retention and my clients having success in their marketing and their branding. So that's something that I'm going to be focused on this week.

PLANNING YOUR WEEK TIP #2: BIG 3 GOALS

The second thing that you want to do when creating your weekly plan is write down your big three goals. This could carry on your main area of focus. For example, my area of focus this week is going to be updating the backend of Brandmerry Academy, my program for entrepreneurs, looking to market themselves without the pressure of social media.

But the reality is I still have other things that I need to do in my business. It's unrealistic to think that that's the only thing that I'm going to need to do all week. So I look at those different projects that I'm working on, I look at my prior commitments, maybe I'm hosting a workshop this week, maybe I've got a bonus call, maybe I'm doing an interview, whatever it is, And I write down my big three areas that are pretty much non-negotiable.

So number one is going to be my area of focus. This is something I want to get done, it's a priority and I have a specific deadline for myself. The other one might be a workshop that I'm hosting. So if I'm hosting that workshop, that's a big focus. I need to make sure that I'm mentally prepared, I have my materials and I'm ready to go for that. And then my third thing is going to be creating a piece of content.

So what you want to do is you want to think, okay, if at the end of the week, all hell breaks loose, what are the three things that if you got done, you would be well on your way. You would feel like, yes, it was a productive week, I got my big three done.

Oftentimes you're going to get your big three done and additional things as well. But again, this gives you a solid start to the week, a clear focus for the entire week, as well as the confidence that you are going to get things done and that you are doing well in your business.

I find that when we start the week with a massive to-do list of all of the different things that we could possibly get done, we get down on ourselves when we don't achieve all of those things. So choose your big three and start the week off with major confidence.

One thing to know is that your big three do not always have to do with business. In fact, maybe one of your big three is that you have a birthday party for your kiddo this weekend and you want to prepare for that.

You want to also look at the things that are happening in your life and your business. I like to plan those cohesively inside of my planner because I think it's important to have this harmony between life and business.

Okay, back to our main things to focus on every single week.

PLANNING YOUR WEEK TIP #3: COMMITMENTS AND DEADLINES

Number three are going to be your commitments and your deadlines. We talk a lot about boundaries, we talk a lot about scheduling. Sometimes there are things that happen in your business that are on specific days and specific times that you need to work around; doctor's appointments, dentists, kid activities at school, all of the different things.

I love to write these down so I can visually see them. I've got them in my Google Calendar, but I also have them in a planner. So I can know that these are the things that I need to honor.

So when I'm going in and I'm figuring out what I am going to do on a day to day basis, I have a big picture of the things that I absolutely need to do that week. You’ve got an oil change appointment, you’ve got a doctor appointment, write those down. You're hosting a workshop, you've got a call with your clients, write those down so that you can see them.

Those are commitments, those are deadlines that you need to honor.

PLANNING YOUR WEEK TIP #4: BUSINESS DEADLINES

Number four is all about specific deadlines in your business. So one of the things that I have noticed as an entrepreneur and I'm sure you have as well, is that there are a lot of ongoing projects. You might be working on something for 30 days at a time, you might be working on something for 90 days at a time, you might be preparing to launch something which takes a long time to prepare and then launch.

There are a lot of recurring things that are going to be happening in your business. So I love to have a section in my weekly planner that tracks the progress of those different things.

Are there any deadlines that I absolutely need to honor this week in my business? Is there a deadline that's coming up the next week that I might need to do something this week in order to meet that deadline the following week?

When I'm planning my week, it's really looking at these four areas so that I can better strategically map out my day to day. So we're looking at the main area of focus. What is the one thing that you want to be working on this week that is part of your project, your bigger project tracker for your business? What are your big three things that if nothing else happens this week, but you get those three things done, you feel like it was a success. Writing down your commitments. Your priorities, things you've already said yes to so that you can start to build your business around that. And then finally, really having a finger on the pulse for any projects that you're working on, any fast approaching deadlines.

Those are the four areas that I am focusing on every single week when I am mapping out what I'm going to be doing in my business.

PLANNING YOUR WEEK BONUS TIP: WEEKLY DIGEST

Okay, time for that bonus tip. One of the things that I do to help me better prepare for the following week is to actually do a weekly digest. This weekly digest is basically a check in with myself on how I felt the week went.

This check in, this audit process is something I talk about a lot at Brandmerry. In fact, we had a recent podcast episode, episode 40 on the Brandmerry Podcast, where I share exactly how I audit my business every single quarter.

But this is something that I'm doing on a weekly basis as well. This is how I believe we build sustainable businesses because we're constantly checking in with how we're feeling, what we accomplish, what we love and maybe what we don't love.

So one of the things I love to do at the end of every week is answer the following questions.

Number one, I would describe this week as... How would you describe the week? Give yourself a few minutes to freely write about your feelings over the past seven days.

This week, I am most proud of... What are you most proud of this week? We never take time to really honor the things that we have accomplished. We're always thinking about the next thing that we need to do. This can be incredibly helpful, especially as an entrepreneur, to take note of all of the things that you have achieved and really tap into the things that are continuing to motivate you to build your business.

Number three, one area that I could pick up momentum in... This is so important. We need to be honest with ourselves as business owners, as entrepreneurs, nobody's going to do it for us. And we need to check in with ourselves. Were you slacking a little bit this week? Was there something that came up that maybe you should have said no to but you said yes to, and you had to pull yourself away from your business? Was there something that you knew that you needed to do in your business, but you just kept avoiding it over and over and over again. Why is that happening?

Doing this every single week can help you get closer and ultimately achieve your goals rather than waiting and waiting and waiting and being like, "I didn't do this thing. It just kept getting postponed. I just kept not feeling like doing it." Address the issue as it comes up so you can fix it, change course, do whatever you need to do in a timely manner.

And finally, what is your focus for next week? What are you going to be doing next week? Start to think about that now. At the end of the week, you ask yourself, what are you going to be focused on next week? And then you can head into the week with a clear focus and alignment with who you are, how you want to run your business and what you need to achieve.

CONCLUSION

So there you have it. This is how I plan out my entire week from a big picture strategy. This then allows me to be more strategic with my day to day. If I see that I've got a lot going on, on let's say a Wednesday, maybe I've got an appointment, I'm going to the chiropractor, I know I need to go grocery shopping, I'm not going to make a heavy workload on that day. I'm going to give myself a little bit more freedom because I've got a lot of prior commitments.

This allows us to create a more fluid business, a more sustainable business, and one that doesn't constantly deplete our energy.

P.S. Ready to get your brand seen and paid without the pressure of social media? I'm teaching my top strategies inside of my new free class, "How to Build a Brand That Gets Seen and Paid!" You're invited to tune in and learn my signature 3-part framework for a sustainable 6-figure brand. Sign up to watch for free at Brandmerry.com/class