Having a Sunday night planning system helps us focus on our big goals, as well as, allows us to prioritize what’s most important to us! The best part? You can have your whole week planned out in just about 15 minutes!
We use Darren Hardy’s Sunday Planning System because of how easy it is to use! You can get a copy of it here or using a link throughout this post.
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How do I plan a week ahead?
On Sunday’s, we take about 15 minutes to look over our calendar and plan out our 3 main SMART goals, as well as, our downtime, meal plan, workouts, and sleep.
This allows us to focus in on what is most important and honor our goals throughout the week. Plus, it keeps us from agonizing over choices or over extending ourselves because we have a plan we commit to each Sunday evening.
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What is the Sunday Planning System?
We follow Darren Hardy’s Sunday Planning System to outline our week.
If you’re unfamiliar with Darren, he’s the best-selling author behind The Compound Effect and The Entrepreneur Roller Coaster. He also is the former publisher of SUCCESS magazine.
So we figured — if it’s good enough for him, it’s good good enough for us!
Plus — it’s super simple, quick, and easy to use!
How the Sunday Night Planning System Works
Each week, you’ll sit down and write out your top 3 goals. Then, you’ll write down the biggest tasks you can do to move towards it, as well as, any distractions or temptations that may slow you down.
For example, if your goal was weight loss you’d want to meal prep for the week and plan your workouts.
You’d also want to avoid skipping lunch and hitting Happy Hour after work a few times a week.
This seems simple, but writing out your intentions helps you follow through all week long.
What the Sunday System for Success Can Do For You
- Provide CLARITY on what you need to do
- Increase your FOCUS & reduce distractions
- Boost your PRODUCTIVITY
- Build your CONFIDENCE & MOMENTUM
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What should I do on a Sunday night?
1. Print the Sunday Planning System
We highly recommend using the Sunday Planning System if you’re setting goals for yourself. This tool allows us to set our big goals and our weekly goals.
2. Look Over Your Calendar
Once you have your goals outlined, it’s time to plan out your week. We like to use a planner like the one below, and we also use our phone’s calendar to schedule future appointments.
Each week, we’ll transfer any appointments we have, as well as, list out the biggest tasks that move us towards our goal and our off-hours with our family.
We love this Smart Planner because it also has places to write in your goals, weekly reflections, and more!
3. Time Block
Time blocking is our favorite time management hack of all time. This is where you look at your daily calendar and block off 60-90 minutes of uninterrupted time to work on a task.
During these 90 minutes, you are completely focused — no bathroom breaks, phone is in airplane mode, and no one is allowed to knock on your door. After that block, you get 20-30 minutes to re-energize and tackle anything else. Then, you do another time block.
We like to get in 3 time blocks a day, but even one block per day can boost your productivity and improve your focus.
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4. Make Good Habits Easy
With any goal or habit you’re trying to make, you want to make it easy to follow through. Each Sunday we like to set ourselves up for success.
Following the weight loss goal example, you’d want to make sure it’s easy to eat right and workout.
So you may stock your house full of healthy foods and vegetables and keep junk food out of the house. Another idea would be to put your workout clothes at the end of the bed so that when you wake up, you can throw them on and get to work!
5. Focus on Your Priorities
As you outline your weekly plan in your planner, you should also make sure you’ve scheduled time for the things most important to you like your faith, health, family, friends, sleep, and goals.
We recently did a podcast on priorities and the Wheel of Life you may enjoy!
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How do you plan your day and stick to it?
Now that you have planned out your week, you need to stick to your intentions!
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Give yourself time to plan every Sunday.
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Put your appointments and to-do’s into your calendar.
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Time block your time to get these tasks done.
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Don’t forget schedule in time to rest.
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Leave some wiggle room in case things run long (15 minutes works well for us).
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Review your calendar twice daily – 1x in the morning and 1x in the evening.
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Keep at it — remind yourself WHY you’re doing this!
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What are other things successful people do on Sundays?
Along with planning out their week, successful people also will do these things on Sunday:
- meal prep
- clean up the house
- spend time with family and friends
- relax and enjoy time off
- unplug from social media and their inbox
- volunteer
- reflect on the past week’s wins and losses
- budget for the next week
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3 More Tips to Maximize Your Productivity This Week
We’ve given you a ton of ideas and tips to help you create your own Sunday planning system.
But here are 3 more tips to maximize your productivity this week:
- Work from your calendar to prevent distractions (inbox, calls, etc)
- Follow your plan even when you don’t feel like it
- Schedule the most dreaded tasks for Monday to get them over and done with!
You may also like:
- Best Morning Routine Ideas for Success
- Insane Productivity Review
- Get Your FREE Copy of The Compound Effect
- Get Your FREE Copy of Entrepreneur Roller Coaster