How I create a plan of attack for the week – even if it’s hectic!

Having an organized and dedicated plan of attack for the week can be life changing. No, I’m not being dramatic. The best way to prepare for the week is to have a rough idea of what is in store for you. You’ll feel prepared, even if life doesn’t go exactly as you plan.

Frequently, I am asked, “how do you do it all.” I work multiple jobs, run a business, and occasionally throw a blog post out. So, one of my most frequently asked questions is how I manage to fit all of my work in to a “normal” work week and how I balance work and life.

The truth is, I’m not very good at it… but I try. Once a week I sit down and write out a rough plan of attack. I utilize my planner (Lilly Pulitzer – jumbo), my phone calendar, and a small daily dry erase board that’s on my fridge.

Lilly Pulitzer planner contains: EVERYTHING. Literally, everything for the week goes in to my planner, but with greater detail than my calendar or dry erase board. My main focus is my daily work load and deadlines. I’m the queen of lists (if you can’t tell by now), so my planner is full of tasks, reminders, and general ‘wouldn’t it be nice if I did this’ information. My workload is primarily contained within the planner. Things I need to get done for various jobs and rough content mapping. Don’t get me wrong, I love my Google calendar as well (which is synced to my phone), but when I plan content out, especially for The Violet Veranda, I really love having a physical paper calendar to look at for scheduling releases, sales, and general content. You can use any type of planner or bullet journal, I just prefer my LP Jumbo because it has a monthly and daily layout as well as sections for notes and reminders for each week.

Dry erase board contains: meal plan, tasks for the hubby and general reminders for him, and a shopping list. Though I do have the “All Out Of” check list from Knock Knock (which I LOVE by the way) for our heavy grocery shopping, I do add little things to the dry erase board that we may need for dinner that night, or random odds and ends that need picked up before our usual shopping day. Post it notes on my fridge also work well in a crunch.

Phone calendar contains: Important events that I need a physical reminder alert for (i.e. work events, deadlines, etc.) Some of my events are reoccurring (radio on the first Thursday of every month), but I still like to have that “ding” and reminder from my phone so I’m extremely sure that I won’t forget these events.

Honestly, this system may not even work for you at all, but that’s the point. Find what works for you and USE IT, even if it is unconventional. By organizing everything on one set day of the week, I feel like I have a bit of a roadmap for the week ahead. I love planning my meals out, it keeps us from saying “What do you want for dinner?” a million times and then just ordering pizza. That is a big bad habit of mine! By organizing out our meals, deadlines, events, etc. I at least feel like I’m starting the week off on a good foot. Honestly, my weeks never go as planned, but c’est la vie.

What do you do to keep organized?