Plan Your Week for Productivity (and Sanity)

It’s not enough to set yearly goals or check progress once a quarter. If you want to stay productive and sane, you need to plan your week with intention.

In this episode, we share how to design a weekly planning routine that keeps you focused on the things that actually move the needle instead of drowning in endless tasks. From blocking time in your calendar to batching activities and identifying your “one thing,” we’ll walk you through practical steps that help you connect your big vision to your daily actions.

We cover:

• Why weekly planning is the missing link between goals and results
• How to connect your daily work to long-term vision and milestones
• Why sales and client acquisition should be the #1 focus early on
• How batching and focused work sprints save time and reduce overwhelm
• The importance of protecting time for family, health, and priorities outside work
• Why planning is only half the equation—execution is what matters most

If you’ve ever felt like your to-do list keeps growing while progress stalls, this conversation will help you take control of your week and finally see results that matter.

Want more structure and support in planning your week? Join the waitlist for Plandor, our new productivity tool launching soon, and get early access when it’s live. Or explore our Empower360 Coaching to build habits and systems that keep you focused and in control.

“Planning your week is the bridge between vision and results.” – Anna Angelova

Transcript for “How to Plan Your Week to Stay Productive and Sane”

The transcript below was automatically generated. Please ignore any errors or inconsistencies in the text.

Anna Angelova   0:04
Welcome to a brand new episode of More Than Just Task Management, your favorite daily podcast where we help you build a thriving business. I’m Anna Angelova, business coach and consultant and a co-host of this podcast. And together with me, Joris Minafant, my fellow co-host and business consultant. Hey, Joris.
Happy Tuesday, I believe.

Jores Minasvand   0:26
Hi Anna, happy Tuesday. It is the first Tuesday of September, isn’t it? Yeah, it is. Yeah, Christmas is just around the corner.

Anna Angelova   0:37
I love Christmas.

Jores Minasvand   0:41
Alright, yes, you do, even if, especially in July and August, when we go to the biggest Christmas store in the world.

Anna Angelova   0:49
Oh, yes, yeah.

Jores Minasvand   0:49
Yeah, all right. So the topic for today, how do we become productive, make sure we we complete our tasks and stay sane. And this is, I think productivity is one of your.
Specialties. Anna, I’ll let you jump in and I will chime in when needed, if needed.

Anna Angelova   1:13
Oh yes, the productivity is one of my passions and I’ve been reading about it, going through courses and and really figuring out how to stay more productive and for you’d say probably a decade now and it’s been fantastic. So how do you plan your week?
To stay productive and sane and.
The key operative here is plan your week, and actually I would say this is the missing piece and the one that so few people take the time to do. And The thing is that it’s not enough to.
Set goals at the beginning of the year. It’s not enough to look at your progress once a month. It’s not enough to have quarterly reviews. Having a weekly plan and review session, a session where you sit down, it can be 30 minutes, it can be an hour.
But you don’t need too much time to sit down, take a look at the week, what happened over the past week, like what happened in the past five days, 7, days, whatever it is, things that work, things that didn’t work, and then look at the week ahead.
What we will be doing the next week? Open your calendar and especially as you’re starting your business. The thing is that chances are you might also have a full time job or some kind of a part time job. So when will you have pockets of time to sit down and work on your business?
It’s really, really important that weekly planning, it’s really important. It’s the key and it’s that piece that allows you to connect what you do every single day with your bigger goals and and and bigger vision. And this is where of course caveat or assumption.
That you already have that bigger vision and that bigger goal that for you to be able to plan your week to stay productive and sane, you need to have that big hair, audacious goal. You need to know what you’re focusing on this month. Like it’s really important.
Because productivity, it’s not about doing more, it’s about doing the right things. And again, especially when we’re starting our businesses, if we tend to do a lot of work that doesn’t move the needle. And in the beginning, what we do and what we need is sales, sales, sales. We need to sell ourselves out of doing everything.
Else as quickly as possible. We need to sell ourselves out of doing marketing, of doing sales even as soon as possible so we can manage the business and we can lead the business. And it’s really important when you’re planning your week to make sure that you focus on things that move the needle and this.
This is why I really, really love breaking down your goals into ways that OK, so this is where I want to be three years from now. So this is what it means that this is where I need to be one year from now. Then this is where what it means that this is where I need to be at the end of this quarter.
Where I need to be at the end of this month. And this can really allow you. When you sit down and plan your week, it can really allow you to see that this week I don’t actually have to complete 100 things. I can complete 20 things and if I complete these 20 things, I’m on track to achieve my monthly goal.
Means that I’m on track to achieve my quarterly goal, which means that I’m on track to achieve my annual goal, which means that I’m on track to achieve that big, hairy, audacious three-year goal, so.
Breaking it down this way, and I know sometimes it’s really hard because we are conditioned to work 9:00 to 5:00, but when you really are able to plan your your progress, your goals, and when you focus on what really matters, it moves the needle.
You can easily work five hours today and that’s it. Because you know that this is what you needed to complete today. And then you can exercise. You can go out for an early dinner with your family. You can go to the park. It wouldn’t do something that’s not related to the.
Business and this is one of the beauties of also like having your own business, running your own business that the nine to five notion.
It is flawed in some ways. We don’t have to now. Some days you might actually need to work 9:00 AM to 9:00 PM. And again, the the perks of being your business owner. But anyway, I don’t want to go off topic, so Joris.
What else do you wanna add?

Jores Minasvand   5:58
Well, like I said, you’re the expert, so you didn’t leave much for me to add. You covered it very well. Very amazing short coverage of what needs to be done. To me, it’s like, make sure you have your tasks listed. Automate what you can.
Delegate what you can execute the rest because one of the things that I’ve experienced when you start your day at at 5:00 AM or 9:00 AM, whenever your start with 20 tasks by.
10 AM If you have executed five of them, now you have 35 tasks because things pile up, things come on, see things. You know it’s not like you have 20 and and then you’ll do the 20 and that’s it. So you need to be ready for the amount of work that is being piled up. And like I said, the three things automate, delegate, execute.
Thank you.

Anna Angelova   6:55
Very good point, which actually also reminds me. So as you’re planning your week, try to put those working sessions where you need to work on different things for the business. Try to put them in your calendar and block them and keep them sacred.
And it’s something where it that that’s why some of the recommendations are doing things before the work day starts. If you can do something before 9:00 AM, before the flood gates open and before fires start popping up.
This is amazing because you can achieve so much in an hour or hour and a half of focused work. You can achieve so much in that time and I personally I’ve been using those hour and a half Sprint in a way.
And it’s amazing when I sit down and and focus on let’s say marketing like so and this is where you can batch your your activities as well and it’s really, really helpful. Some of the clients that I work with, they also mentioned how much they love batching. So sit down and let’s say you want to contact people from your network, let them know what’s going.
On what you’re doing, ask them for introductions, referrals, things like this. Like instead of contacting 5 people a day, you badge this and and reach out once a week. Let’s say on Monday you reach out to 20 people or 25 people.
On Monday and that’s it. So definitely when you to look at your week, first of all look at looking in your calendar and seeing what’s there personally like seeing the what’s like what?
Appointments you have what things that are going on at school is starting here in Canada and some of the northern states in US school is starting and in some of the other states it’s already started. It’s already school is already in progress so.
Your kids are back to their activities, back to school. What does it mean for a schedule? Because ultimately, one of the things we want you to help you achieve is you’re not creating a job for yourself. You’re creating a business, a business that feeds in your life.
Not the other way around. That’s why I’m saying that when you plan your week, you look at what’s already there in terms of your appointments, in terms of things that are happening that are important for your personal life and for your health. And we’ve mentioned this before for ourselves, like one of the things that we do is we have.
Our workout scheduled and it’s non-negotiable. It’s there in the calendar and no one can book it. This is the time where we exercise. So what are these pieces of the puzzle of your life that are really, really important in terms of your health, of your family and loved ones?
And then put the business in whatever is remaining. And for the important parts of the business, those important meetings, those the important work that you need to do, make sure that you do it. Put it at a time where you know no one.
Will disturb you. Put an out of office. Do not disturb. It could turn off your phone because it’s really, really important to.
Move forward, stay focused and productive on on the things that move the needle. This is it. This is it. And some of the things that come up throughout the day, or as you were mentioning things that come up throughout the the day, some of them are actually not really like in the moment. They might sound urgent, but they’re not.
Most of the time these are things that you don’t have to read that e-mail immediately. When someone sends it to you, you can respond to it an hour later. That’s perfectly OK. So I know I’ve talked a lot and I’m actually curious if there is anything else you want to add.

Jores Minasvand   11:09
No, just to confirm what you said, I think half an hour of focused work is worth half a day of distracted work. And I remember, was it last week or the week before you came to my desk, you left some, put something there and you left.
And then I hadn’t even realized you had come and gone. Then later on you asked. I asked you about something. You said, well, I put it on your desk. And I said, when did you put it on my desk? I’ve never even seen you. And you were so surprised that that you I was so focused.
To what I was doing, I actually didn’t even notice your your your coming. Sorry, I’m running out of battery. I need to plug in my my laptop. So yeah, I mean that kind of focus allows you to #1 finish things faster #2.
To finish it completed properly that you don’t have to come back and revisit it and reduces mistakes. So what this does when you finish a task, you know it’s finished, it’s done. You will not have to two days from now come back and and have three more tasks just to to fix this mistake.
So it’s important to focus, important to shut everything down, shut down the. I think you mentioned this as well and I shut down the even your Outlook messages that pop up and say you have e-mail. I hate those. I hate those things.
Your e-mail is part of our our our work, part of our us collaborating, part of us receiving instructions, receiving opportunities even. But e-mail is not part of our jobs. e-mail is just a tool.
But unfortunately we have become so addictive. I think this is the cortisol part of our what cortisol does. It makes us have to answer the if I don’t answer this e-mail, I’m going to get fired. If I don’t answer this e-mail, I’m not going to get included. So it is our brains have been.
So badly damaged by on our behaviors, by technology and how we have become such slaves where we can’t even concentrate. We can’t focus for half an hour without you again. And I find myself sometimes do that and I just stop and forget it. But minimize Outlook and put it on a different screen so I don’t see it. Having multiple screens really helps.
Having your Outlook and not having the bar on the bottom, just push Outlook. Push your e-mail to the side. Don’t answer e-mail. You don’t have to answer emails. If it’s an emergency, they can call 911. That’s it. That’s the only emergency that you need to refer to. And you’re not a paramedic police, so focus on what you do. Do it best.
And close that task once and for all.

Anna Angelova   14:06
And one of the things is I think it was Tim Ferriss in the four hour work week. One of the things he was saying that I’m not using this and I don’t know at some point I might I I don’t know like you don’t have to implement every single thing that people recommend. But one of the things that he recommended in the book, I I I think it was in that one.
He was talking about putting reviewing emails once or twice a day, let’s say before lunch and before you you leave. So ultimately you have actually an autoresponder.
That goes out saying I’m reviewing emails once a day or twice a day. I’ll reach out once I review the e-mail. If it’s urgent, you know, you know whatever, you know my number, like call me or something like this.
And the thing is that for other like other people like Darren Hardy, he even recommends like once you have, especially once you have someone helping like an office assistant or or someone helping that when you when you actually do this kind of focused work where you don’t really.
Want people to bother you? The autoresponder can say if it’s urgent, contact this person like my assistant and then my assistant knows how to reach me in case of emergency or something like this. And again, as I said, most people it’s their emails for.
For example, it’s their priorities, it’s their urgent, their urgency and most of us are in in businesses that don’t don’t really require that urgent urgent focus and urgent urgent like for us to be available 24/7 and things like this.
Now of course it depending on your business, you need to be available for your clients of course and staying productive. Like we were sometimes we mentioned like plumbing business, right? Like if you’re in plumbing business and someone contacts you because like they have a flood, flooded basement or something like this.
Like, yeah, of course, like you want to respond quickly and go do the work, but productivity there comes like when when it is about doing that kind of work with client work, like when it comes to being productive with client work, of course productivity there comes a lot from your experience.
From learning how to do things better, faster, more efficient. So and it doesn’t just apply to plumbing jobs. We as coaches and consultants as well, we also as we.
Work with clients. We also find ways that we we find patterns, we find ways to do things more efficiently and and improve our own processes. And I guess this is a topic for for another day, but what I would say as to the highlight from today’s conversation.
Plan your week in advance so you can really focus and planning your week in advance actually can be what are you can start with what is the one thing if I achieve this week that it would be a successful week. What’s the one thing? That’s it. Not two, not 3.
You can start with this. What’s the one thing that I can achieve if I achieve it this for the next 5 days? This is it. Everything else doesn’t really matter. And make sure you put things in your calendar so you can achieve this thing. This is it. We get too overwhelmed with a lot of the small details that again.
It’s not like they’re not necessary, but whether you do them or not, it doesn’t really matter in the in the moment right now and even in the bigger picture. So again, focus, focus, focus on the things that matter. Plan your week and focus on the things that matter and move the needle and when.
When you’re starting your business, it’s sales, getting sales, getting clients. This is what matters.

Jores Minasvand   18:18
Very well put, Anna. Very well put. Beautiful session.

Anna Angelova   18:23
Oh, it is. And I love productivity and that’s why we are creating Plandor which will be launched in a couple of weeks actually. So I want the wait list if you are interested to so we can notify you for Plandor when it’s ready. And then the other thing I wanted to mention is if you have not planned your week yet.
Today, although it’s Tuesday here in North America, Canada and US, is the first working day of the of the week. So I highly encourage you plan, sit down for 30 minutes and plan your week. Figure out what’s that one thing and go do it.
And um, if you are.
Really like someone who’s struggling with productivity and and want more help, more more insights into how to structure your day better. We did mention in Power 360 yesterday. I highly recommend the the coaching program we have.
We have limited spots like we work with a few clients at a time and because again, it’s like our time, right? How many clients can we work with at the same time? So highly recommend check it. I’ll put this link as well. It’s it’s in the description as you’re listening. It’s in the description of the episode.
So you can go and check it and go, go plan your week, go plan your week and then go do the work. Planning is not enough and and then unless you actually do what you plan. So planning is one part of the equation, but then.
Doing the work is what matters, yes, yes.

Jores Minasvand   19:58
That’s it.
Executing a plan. Also, you need to execute a plan. Yeah, a plan is just a piece of paper. It’s a couple of words on a piece of paper if you don’t execute.

Anna Angelova   20:14
Well, this is it for today. I know it’s been a bit of a longer conversation, but I love this topic and tomorrow we are coming back with a bit of a different technology. Ultimately, we’re talking about technology tomorrow, Wednesday, and we’ll be discussing avoiding tech overwhelm.

Jores Minasvand   20:15
Alright.
Thank you, Anna. Bye, bye.