The CEO’s Secret to More Productive Workweeks: Establish Weekly Goals & Track Your Progress

Every week brings with it a host of unique challenges that can be hard to foresee ahead of time. That’s why making it a practice to plan each week and outline weekly goals is so important for CEOs looking to maximize their time. According to the leading CEO advisory consultants, here are the best ways to take back control over your weeks and show up on Monday morning focused on results – no matter what happens next.

1. Carve out time for planning time on Sunday. Though the weekend should be considered sacred personal and family time, setting aside even just 30 minutes on Sunday evening can help you start your week off powerfully. Based on what was accomplished the previous week and what needs to be accomplished the upcoming week, helps you to pinpoint the most important things to focus on, how you can schedule in time to get things done, and what gaps may exist that require further support. In this way, you’ll arrive at the office on Monday with an action plan of what should get done and where to start.

2. Identify at least one weekly goal. The brain is a goal-oriented machine and when we have a goal to accomplish, it helps to keep us motivated throughout the week. Once you’re able to plan your week (i.e. on Sundays), then you’re in an optimal position to identify at least one work-related goal. From there, you can create subtasks that have to be accomplished during the week to keep you on track.

3. Assign deadlines to each task for the week. With a list of tasks that must be achieved by the week’s end, you can start to set intentional deadlines and allocate the necessary time in your schedule to meet them. Whether that means setting aside a chunk of time each day or regulating meetings to later in the week, it’s important to treat these deadlines as fixed and not move them.

4. Build in time to address ‘emergency issues’. As with any part of planning, you have to plan for the unknown. It’s best to avoid over-scheduling yourself with back to back meeting or with a host of time-sensitive tasks. This way you can allow yourself time to address any last-minute requests, emergency meetings, or other unexpected things that may come up without derailing your entire week. Generally, it’s best if you can set aside an hour each day for “miscellaneous tasks” and then you can use this time as needed.

5. Reflect on what worked and find ways to improve. By Friday, you should have achieved your week’s goal and be in a good position to springboard into the next week from a powerful place. If you find that you’re consistently not hitting your goals or that your weekly plan is somehow not being fulfilled because you’re running out of time every week, then it’s time to re-evaluate. The important thing is to give yourself time to reflect and consider what’s working, what’s not, and what you can do the following week to hit your weekly goal(s).

Once you can get in the routine of weekly planning, it becomes much easier to fall into a predictable and time-efficient flow to keep yourself (and your teams) on track without unnecessary overwhelm or confusion.