How to use this template
Print one sheet on Sunday evening or Monday morning and keep it where you can see it all week. The value of a week on paper is that it shows the shape of the whole week at once, which is the only way to notice that Thursday is already full before you promise someone Thursday.
- Write the Monday date on the week-of line, and the day number in the small blank at the top right of each column.
- Fill in fixed commitments first, in every column, before you plan any work at all. Appointments, travel, deadlines that belong to other people.
- Write the week's three priorities in the row underneath. Keep them to outcomes you could tick off by Friday, not ongoing areas of responsibility.
- Assign each priority to specific days in the columns above. A priority with no day next to it is a wish, and it will still be there next Sunday.
- Use the next-week box during the week for anything that arrives and does not fit. It turns "I should do that" into a written decision to do it later.
- On Friday, cross off what is done and copy the rest onto next week's sheet by hand. Copying things repeatedly is a useful cost: it makes you drop what you were never going to do.
A worked example: a week with "ship the pricing page" as priority one gets two Tuesday lines and two Wednesday lines reserved for it. Thursday already holds a day of interviews, so nothing else goes there. When a colleague asks for a review on Wednesday, the sheet answers for you: Wednesday is spoken for, and the request goes in the next-week box with a note to reply on Friday.
For a version that tracks projects and estimates rather than blank lines, see the Tasks tool.