My Weekly Review and Planning Ritual
IN THIS POST, YOU’LL LEARN:
A simple way to do a weekly review to foster self-appreciation and peace of mind
A simple way to do a weekly planning so you feel inspired and motivated
Journaling prompts to help you harness clarity
The importance for business owners to cultivate awareness
I prepared something that hopefully will get you excited about your week!
When someone asks me to design a marketing strategy, I start with: Why is this important to you? Suppose you had this; what would become even more important? What do you already know about it? And then, I will present some options to move forward, and we will create theirs together.
The keyword is "together." My approach is business mentorship with a coaching approach, meaning that I share strategies, systems, and frameworks drawn from my experience starting and running a business and what I’ve learned coaching other clients. I partner with my clients in a thought-provoking conversation to co-create the outcome. They're in the driver’s seat!
I believe that by taking 100% ownership of your decisions, you’re building your leadership and entrepreneurial skill-set. You’re also connecting to your incredible resourcefulness and inner voice. You are the expert in your life. Only you can do the work. Cultivating this awareness can be transformative.
Here's a practice that will help you see that you already have all the answers. It's the ONE thing I encourage you to do at the end of every workweek before you shut down your laptop: A weekly review and plan.
It’ll take no more than 30 minutes to turn chaos into calm, and I promise you that it’ll help you clear your mind before the weekend and start your week with more intention, motivation, and focus.
“Routines are concrete repetitive actions that help us develop skills while creating continuity and order. Rituals are routines elevated by creativity, driven by intention, and imbued with meaning. ”
The weekly review
I usually use pages from my work notebook to journal the answers to:
Where did I invest most of my time? I look at my schedule and literally check my hours. This helps me allocate time more accurately when scheduling tasks.
What important tasks did I complete? I can write the tasks I completed and if I had my yoga practice, that’s a win too, worth celebrating!
What didn’t I get to start or complete? I’ll write them down and think about whether I do want to reschedule or delete them.
What worked well and I want to repeat? How did I improve? What did I learn? For example this week, I did good meal planning and I want to continue doing this. I learned that this kind of preparation helps me with momentum during the week.
What could be streamlined? How could I still improve? If there’s friction in a task and I want to streamline it, I’ll note a question such as “how can I improve the client onboarding flow?”, and I’ll ponder over it.
The weekly planning ritual
I make a bullet list of the most important things I want to achieve, personally and professionally.
What do I want to focus on? I take a glance at my month’s goals.
What are my top 3 priorities?
And then I prepare my paper planner to schedule my tasks and activities:
I use two distinct colors to clearly define my office hours and my intentional family time.
I block and designate themes for each day - the major focus such as “admin”, “clients support and coaching”, “writing” etc.
I schedule my recurring events such as yoga practice, live training, and other activities.
I check my coaching calls and other meetings and copy them from my digital calendar.
Schedule occasional personal errands and social activities.
“It’ll take no more than 30 minutes to turn chaos into calm”
Finding a soft “closure” with work
The end of my workweek is marked by the gesture of clogging my laptop and me saying out loud: “Shutdown complete!” - which makes my husband laugh.
We, business owners, tend to work all the time, everywhere, steal every minute we can. This helps me draw a line and switch roles.
CONCLUSION
What part of this article resonates with you?
What would give you even more peace of mind and satisfaction when you end your workweek?
I invite you to comment below and share your insights.
Rituals are unique to your personality, your lifestyle, and the outcome you’re pursuing. There is no right or wrong; start small and edit along the way!
About Maika
Maika mentors heart-centered, impact-driven entrepreneurs to build the foundations of their business with her signature Intentional Business Building™ method. Her approach is holistic and integrates the entrepreneur mindset, marketing strategies, and systems to help create sustainable changes and long-lasting results. A lifelong passion for the human psyche, healing arts, and personal growth brought her to mentorship and coaching. She’s French-born in Japan and currently lives in Istanbul with her family. She’s an Epicurean and enjoys cooking Asian, dining out with curiosity, and sophisticated cocktails.
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