I am so excited to share with you my process for how to plan your week like a CEO. Each business is going to be different, and you’ll have to walk through these steps to make it your own. Let’s start with just three simple steps.

Step 1:  Map Out Your Availability

We all have different schedules, different aged children, different commitments, different businesses. Everyone has a different amount of time to offer to their business. The first thing that you need to do is actually write out what days of the week you’re available and what hours you’re available. You need to map out what your work blocks look like and how you’re going to find time to actually get that work done.

Step 2: Write Tasks by Category and Focus

If you’ve listened to podcast Episode 33, entitled “The One Woman Show – What to Outsource in Your Business,” you might already have this master list put together. This list is an ongoing master task list of all the things in your business that you are responsible for. It is not your to-do list. Things on your list could include client work, social media planning, email marketing and other tasks.

Anything you do on a daily, monthly, or weekly basis needs to be on this master task list, separate from your master to-do list. In other words, the task list has stuff that you are always responsible for, but the to-do lists are things that are more specific to your business. Once all of these tasks are written down by category and focus, put them in a Google Doc so that you can easily review and amend as necessary.

Step 3: Start to Group Your Days and Time Blocks by Category

This ensures that you know when you’re going to be working on specific tasks. In my free Productivity with Purpose Masterclass, I talk about this time-blocking concept. I talk about everything in regards to creating that list and then mapping out how to get everything accomplished. I also talk about handling distractions, so if you are interested in learning more about this concept then click on the link above.

Here a personal example of my time blocks.

I have shifted my CEO day to Monday, and I focus on CEO activities and content creation. On Tuesdays, I work on everything related to The Purpose Gathering Collective and email marketing. Wednesdays, I focus on self-care and my podcast and Thursday, I focus on my photography and my photo booth business. Fridays are for my self-care, and I often meet with my friends, tackle household projects, and grocery shop.

This sets your week up for success because you know going into the week, what tasks you’re going to do on what day.  I find it so easy to be able to plug in those to-do list tasks under each of those blocks and its make me feel really productive.

What Does my CEO Day Look Like?

1) Track Metrics

I track metrics using a spreadsheet that documents my platform’s statistics. So these include things like my podcast downloads, my active email list, subscribers, the number of mamas in my  free group, and the number of Instagram followers I have. I then write notes next to them so that I can remember what I did that particular week and how that may have impacted my metrics.

2) Evaluate Growth

I evaluate the growth of each of those numbers from the previous week and then I start to see the patterns of what’s working and what’s not. This helps me to formulate a plan of action of what I am going to focus on. I then review my goals and my focus plan for the quarter in order to ensure that I am on track with what I want to accomplish. So if I’m off track, I devise a plan of action to get back on track. It’s important that you carve out time every week to have your CEO day. Having one is so crucial for your business as it helps you to take corrective actions when things go wrong.

3) Look for Visibility Opportunities

I recommend participating in summits as I think these are a great way to be featured and for you to have exponential visibility. You’re able to reach completely new audiences when you participate in a summit, and it’s a great opportunity for you to share and teach on your area of expertise.

4) Look at Your Budget

Look at your budget to make sure that you are on track for your financial goals and actually paying yourself a salary out of your business. Next week on the podcast, my guest Brandee Gaar will be talking about how to get paid what you’re worth and the importance of knowing the value of our time in order to pay ourselves a real salary. So if you’re not already, make sure you’re subscribed to the podcast so that you will be alerted when that episode comes out next Wednesday.

5) Tracking your Time Spent on Tasks

I Learned this important tip from working with my assistant Sara. She recently came on board in October, and she takes care of so much behind the scenes activities for The Purpose Gathering.  I have seen her track her hours working with me and this inspired me to start tracking my own hours, as if I had to submit a time sheet to my employer in order to get paid. 

So I encourage you to start doing this and start tracking how much time you really spend on different tasks in your business. Observe any patterns and determine if these activities are the best use of your time in order to drive your business forward.

6) Setting Timers

My last tip for you is that once you’ve started to track how long things are taking you, start setting timers and giving yourself only a certain amount of time. The more time we give a task, the more time we’ll actually take to do it.  So the thinking is, if we start to give ourselves a time limit, we will be able to instantly begin to streamline our processes and systems as we are allotted a certain amount of time.

The tricky part is that you have to stop when the timer goes off and move on to another task. This takes a lot of discipline, but if you want to become more efficient, you will have to do things in a different way.

Recap

Start planning your week like a CEO. Map out your availability, write down those tasks and categories, and then group your days and time blocks by category and begin to have a plan in place for your week instead of just winging it. As busy mommas, it’s so crucial that we budget our time, just like we budget our money and use it wisely.

I hope you enjoy today’s post and feel like you are ready to conquer your week and your to-do list like a boss. I would love for you to share this with other mamas and follow us on Instagram. That way more mamas like you can begin to put a system and a process into place that will help them own their time with intention.

 As always mama, I am here rooting for you and you are not alone on this journey.

Resources:

• Join our Facebook Community
• Find me on Instagram: @thepurposegathering
• Website: thepurposegathering.com
• Free Download – Productivity with Purpose Masterclass
• Episode 33 – “The One Woman Show – What to Outsource in Your Business”