Definition of an Ideal Week
An Ideal Week is what your week would look like if you had 100% control over your time. It’s intended to be a template for how you’d want a typical week to look.
It can be very complete and detailed or not. Some people have very complex and busy schedules. Their Ideal Week covers almost every hour of each day with ideal time blocks. Others, with less complicated schedules, may use a simplified form of an Ideal Week with only a few time blocks.
I don’t have a complicated schedule, but I do have certain things I do every week on the same day and at the same time. So, for example, in my ideal week, Saturday morning is when I do household chores. I do my weekly review on Sunday afternoon and finalize my mind map for writing my blog post. Monday mornings are when I write the first draft of my blog post.
So, on my ideal week calendar, I have a two-hour “Household Chores” block on Saturday mornings, “Weekly Review” and “Mind Mapping” blocks for one hour each on Sunday afternoon, and a “Write Blog Post” block from 8:00 a.m. to 11:30 a.m. each Monday morning.
How an Ideal Week Can Benefit You
1. It ensures that the most important work gets done. The most important work I do each week is mind mapping, writing, editing, and publishing a blog post. After doing this for several years, I have a process to get this done. I do the same type of work on the same day each week to ensure I’ll have a new post ready to publish each Tuesday morning.
By having an Ideal Week, I know that on Sunday afternoon, I’ll finalize my mind map and write the first draft of my post each Monday morning.
2. It reduces mental bandwidth When you determine in advance what you’ll be doing and when you’ll be doing it, you don’t have to make those decisions.
I don’t have to think about or decide whether I will write my blog post on Monday morning; it’s already decided as a part of my Ideal Week. My mental bandwidth can focus instead on actually doing the writing.
3. It helps you have a more realistic view of your available time. Typically, when you plan your ideal week, you do so on a calendar. You take activities and assign them to specific blocks of time.
Because you’re filling out time blocks on a calendar, you get a sense of how much is possible. You know you’re trying to do too much if you have more activities than time blocks available. A calendar forces you to be realistic about time.
4. The ideal week is not written in stone. You can modify it when needed and change the elements as desired. An ideal week offers a lot of flexibility. It’s just that—an ideal. It’s not necessarily the reality.
Using Themes With Ideal Weeks
Some people combine themes for a week or a day with their ideal week. Mike Vardy writes in The Productivityist Playbook, “Daily Themes are used to give you an overarching focus for each day. The key to daily themes is that you give each day a theme no matter what. Saturday becomes Family Day. Monday becomes Writing Day.”
Although Mike Vardy feels every day should have a theme, not everyone does. You don’t have to give an overarching focus for each day unless you want to. I only have themes for the days when I have a primary focus.
Every Monday, my main activity is to write my blog post. So, I think of Mondays as Write Blog Post Day. On Saturday, reminders of all of my household chores come up on my task manager. So, I think of Saturday as Household Chores Day.
You can use theme days in your ideal week in any way that works for you.
Conclusion
Adopting the ideal week concept can simplify your planning and enhance your productivity. You can ensure that important tasks are consistently accomplished while freeing up mental bandwidth for focused work.
Remember, the ideal week is a flexible tool meant to serve you, so don’t hesitate to adjust it as needed.