How to Plan Your Week + FREE Weekly Planner!

Knowing how to plan your week effectively can transform how you stay organised, get stuff done and are more relaxed!

This post will help you plan for the week ahead in a way that’s effective, works for your schedule and is also fun.

Fancy grabbing a free printable weekly planner template? You can get my free weekly planner printable below.
Affiliate links below.

The Basics of Effective Weekly Planning

1. Find a Planner you Love

You might love the versatility and prettiness of Erin Condren LifePlanners like me or you might even prefer a plain piece of paper or a diary. I’ve found LifePlanners the best weekly planner for me and have stuck with them for a few years now.

What kind of a Planner are you? How do you plan for the week ahead now? Do you love to be creative and add colour and doodling? Or would you prefer to write a ‘minimalist’ list of everything that you need to do?

Do you think you will stay more organised by making your plans on paper or online?

To test our your planning style, you can use my weekly planner print out – before investing in a paper planner.

Related: Erin Condren LifePlanner Review

2. Decide on a Day and Time to Plan

For me, I like to spend 30 minutes on a Friday afternoon completing the next week’s plans in my Erin Condren planner.

It’s my quiet ‘me time’ when my husband looks after the kids or at the end of my work day. Planning is my hobby, as well as an essential thing I need to do to stay organised!

I complete my planner for the following seven days adding in personal, work and family events and To Do lists.

You might prefer to plan first thing on a Monday to keep your weekend free! Find a time that you can fit in your schedule and have some time to yourself and a clear head.

3. Break Down the Days

Write down all of the important events and tasks happening on each day. I like to do this in order of priority.

I write down the main Events that day at the top: generally appointments and meetings.

Then I write down all of my Work tasks (I’m a full-time Blogger and Freelance Marketer).

Next, I have a To Do List for all of the “little things” or “nice to dos” I would like to get done that day if I find the time.

This makes it clear to me that when I look at my planner, I work from the top down. I tick everything off as I go.

This goes for the weekend too although generally, weekends are all about fun with family and friends!

4. Don’t forget the Fun Stuff!

We can get so bogged down with all of the things we need to do for work and for the kids. Don’t forget to plan fun events in your week too!

This might be taking the kids to the park, inviting friends over or having a date night! Ok, the latter might be tough if you’re a busy parent like me.

However, as we all know, by writing plans down we have a better chance of sticking to them. So plan for some fun or relaxing stuff too.

I go so far as to plan for ‘planning time’ in my weekly planner! You might like to plan for a movie night, reading a book or even painting your nails! Whatever you find fun that you want to happen in the week ahead.

5. Be Flexible

Of course, when planning ahead, you can only plan for so much.

Events might change and priorities might shift. So keep a space in your planner to write in new events as the week goes on.

I also like to keep a space in my planner’s sidebar where I can write important plans for the following week. It’s a quick reference I can go to when making my plans on a Sunday.

If you want to pick up some beautiful planner stickers, pop along to my Etsy store, Paper Planner Club, where you can view and purchase the range.

You can also purchase my favourite Erin Condren LifePlanners here.

How do you plan your week to stay organised?

Get a Free Weekly Planner

Want a FREE Weekly Planner? Grab your free Weekly Planner printable here. It’s a great weekly schedule template to help you stay organised before investing in a paper planner:

Read next:

• How to Use a Planner for Beginners
• Where to Find & Use the Best Printable Planner Stickers!
• Grab my FREE Weekly Meal Planner!
• Grab my FREE Monthly Planner
• How to Plan your Day
• How to Prioritise your To Do List
• 5 ways to be more Productive
• 30 Productivity Hacks
• How to be more Organised
• HP Sprocket Review
• 5 Ways To Work Smarter Not Harder and Get Organised!
• Are You Disorganised Or Doing Too Much? Learn From My Mistakes!

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Originally published on May 12th 2017.

Disclosure: this post on how to plan your week contains affiliate links meaning if you click through and make a purchase, I might get a small commission. This doesn’t affect the price you pay. I hope you enjoy using your free weekly planner template!