Monday Motivation: Planning your week

2009 June 22

by Kate O'Neill

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I don’t know about you, but I have weeks when I’m incredibly disciplined about planning my work and accomplishing big things, and weeks when I slack off and allow myself to react to whatever comes up. The problem with the latter approach is that I invariably spend my time doing less important stuff, like constantly struggling to get my inbox to zero, or trying to keep up with my workload and meetings and all the other demands on my time.

I’ve now started scheduling time first thing on Monday mornings to make good decisions about where my time is allocated. (Hint: I know that fellow Corporate Idealist Sam Davidson takes this approach, too.)

The reason this is more than a productivity tip is that striving for excellence at work sometimes does take a little longer. Not much, a lot of the time — sometimes the difference in time and effort between doing sometime the mediocre way and doing it the way that delights people is negligible. But if excellence is your aim, it’s best to allow the time to let yourself feel you can make good decisions, and not feel pressured into “just getting it done.”

So, if you haven’t already, why not take a little time this morning and carve out some time in your week for going above and beyond? Maybe carve out an extra personal review period on Wednesday so you can re-organize yourself and re-prioritize mid-week. And maybe schedule a little extra time for next Monday morning so you can do it all again, only better.

What are you going to do this week that will make your company better off?

What are you going to do this week that will make your customers better off?

What are you going to do this week that will make you better off?

Happy Monday!