Weekly planner template.
Three outcomes beat thirty tasks.
Most weekly planning fails by being a longer to-do list. This template inverts it: decide the three things that would make the week a win, give each a day, and let everything else be negotiable. Plus the 30-minute weekly review that keeps the system honest.
The weekly plan
The "Not this week" section is the secret weapon: naming what you're deliberately not doing turns a vague guilt into an actual decision, and makes the next incoming request easier to decline.
Week of [Date] ## Three outcomes If only these get done, the week was a win: 1. [Outcome, phrased as a finished thing] 2. [Outcome] 3. [Outcome] ## The week Mon: [Main focus] | [Meetings] | [One small thing] Tue: [Main focus] | [Meetings] | [One small thing] Wed: [Main focus] | [Meetings] | [One small thing] Thu: [Main focus] | [Meetings] | [One small thing] Fri: [Main focus] | [Review 30 min] | [Loose ends] ## Waiting on - [Thing] from [Person], expected [Date] ## Not this week [Named explicitly, so saying no gets easier: .]
The 30-minute weekly review
The plan is only as good as the review that feeds it. Ten minutes looking back, ten clearing the decks, ten deciding the next three outcomes. Put it on the calendar as a recurring block; a review that lives in good intentions happens roughly never.
Weekly review: week of [Date] (30 min, same slot every week) ## Look back (10 min) - The three outcomes: done / moved / dropped, and why - What ate time that deserved none? - What worked that should become a habit? ## Clear the decks (10 min) - Inbox to zero-ish: everything becomes a todo, an event, or deleted - Calendar next 2 weeks: conflicts, prep needed, anything to decline - Loose todos: schedule, delegate, or delete. No third pile ## Look ahead (10 min) - Next week's three outcomes: [.] - The single hardest thing: which day and hour does it get? - One thing to say no to before it reaches the calendar: [.]
From template to calendar
The handoff point is where paper planners and note apps leak: the plan says Thursday carries the hard thing, but nothing holds Thursday to it. In Amie the three outcomes are just todos sitting next to your week, dragged onto the days they belong to, and the weekly review is a recurring event with its own notes attached. For the hour-level version of this, see the time blocking template.
Questions, answered
Related templates: time blocking, habit tracker, one-on-one meeting. Or browse all templates.