How To Create A Weekly Plan & Get Things Done!
If you have a planner, you might wonder how to create a weekly plan that helps you get organized.
As a working mom who is homeschooling, using a planner is the only way I’ve managed to keep track of all the tasks in my life.
A weekly plan helps me see the big picture of exactly what is going on in my life and allows me to manage my time wisely.
A weekly plan is the best way to track social activities for kids, your work schedule, and any appointments or deadlines that you have coming up.
I have free planning pages that I use to create my weekly plan. You can sign up below to get your own copy.
When you know what is on your calendar for the week, you can plan your week accordingly, making the best use of your time.
Why Should You Weekly Plan
The goal of your weekly plan is to help you stay organized, be more productive and know what needs to be done that week.
Creating a weekly plan allows you to juggle the demands of your job, homeschool your kids, organize your goals, and take care of the home and other tasks all in one place.
You should plan each week because very few of us have the exact same schedule week after week.
Even if you have a 9-5 job, the kid’s activities, cleaning schedule, family obligations, and appointments no doubt change.
Weekly planning, done well, helps you organize these tasks so you won’t miss the important ones while still giving you downtime to rest and recharge.
What Is Included In A Weekly Plan?
What is included in a weekly plan will depend on what works for you.
Some people need to have every single detail written out, others can use one word to represent many tasks.
For example, I can write “Homeschool” in my weekly planner to know during that time block, I am homeschooling the kids.
You might need to write, “Math-1 lesson, Read aloud 30 minutes, Spelling one page…” and so on to feel organized.
Remember to plan in a way that makes sense for you.
I created the Homeschool Planner For Working Moms, shown in the image below, to include different layouts depending on what you want in your weekly plan.
A few things you could include in your weekly plan are:
- Work hours
- Work projects, deadlines, or tasks
- Homeschool hours
- Homeschool activities (group and family)
- Homeschool projects
- Meal plans
- Self-care
- Top priorities
- Weekly Review
- Habit Tracking
- Notes
The best planner is one you can customize to include the things you want and leave the ones you don’t.
How To Create Your Weekly Plan
Now that you know what you want to include in your weekly plan, it is time to create the plan for the week.
Step 1: Gather Your Supplies
The first thing you need to do is gather your supplies.
Along with your planner, you will need all the schedules for the week.
Schedules might include:
- The work schedule for you
- Spouse’s work schedule
- Homeschool schedule
- Extracurricular events
- Appointments: Doctor, Hair, Clients, etc
- Trips or vacation days
- Special events or social events
- Date nights/game nights etc.
You will also want your favorite planning supplies, such as pens, sticky notes, highlighters, stickers, washi tape, colored pens, page markers, paper clips, and more!
Disclosure: I may receive commissions for purchases made through links in this post.
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I created a list of some of my favorite planning things here. You’ll want the planning and time management list!
2. Review Last Week
The next step is to consider how last week went.
With homeschooling especially, I find what worked one week may not work the second week. Take some time to consider how the last week went and what adjustments need to be made.
A few questions to ask yourself when you are reviewing your schedule are:
- Do I need more time for a few activities?
- Did my work schedule change?
- At what point do I feel overwhelmed?
- What can be moved or adjusted to lessen the load on me?
- What is working great?
- What isn’t?
Taking note of these things will allow you to adjust your plan for this week.
Reviewing and adjusting are key to making your weekly plan work for you.
3. Choose Your Priorities
What are your goals for the week? What are tasks that must get done this week?
One thing to keep in mind about working and homeschooling is that you need to “juggle.”
Juggling is not “balance.”
When many think of balancing their career with homeschooling, they think of equal amounts of time and energy spent on both tasks.
But you can’t divide your life into equal parts, or you’ll run out of hours in the day.
For example, if you work 8 hours, homeschool for 8 hours, sleep for 8 hours and commute for 2 hours, you ran out of time a while a go, and you have no time to eat, shower, do errands, and self-care.
That is not practical or sustainable.
When you juggle, your priorities change as needed.
One day your focus might be on homeschooling, and your work and house cleaning may take a back burner.
The next day, work might need to be in first place, and homeschooling is on the back burner.
This is where identifying your priorities is vital and one of the best productivity tips for working moms.
Take some time now to see what needs to be a priority this week and what days they need to come first.
4. Fill In Your Planner
Now the fun stuff!
Start with any tasks that include a time or deadline. These are tasks you can’t miss!
Next, add items you can’t move, such as live events, kids sporting events, or work meetings.
Then you can add more flexible tasks such as homeschooling, grocery shopping, field trips, and park days.
Don’t forget to add in time to recharge, we don’t want to be burning out.
Below is my personal weekly plan as an example for you. You can see here that some homeschool tasks (light blue text) overlap some work tasks (pink text).
This works because I have teenagers who can work independently.
That may work for your family or not. Be sure to keep your unique needs in mind when planning your week.
5. Create White Space And Buffer Blocks
As you fill in your planner, you may notice that some of those non-priority tasks just aren’t going to fit into the weekly plan.
I call them “nice to do” tasks. For me, it is usually decluttering or some household project that I’d love to do but if it doesn’t get done, no one is going to go hungry, you know?
I jot them down in my notes section. If something get’s moved or canceled, I can tackle one of those projects.
Also, make sure you have time between tasks to transition from one task to the next. I like to have anywhere from 5-15 minutes, depending on if I am working at home or at the office.
If I am running errands, I include travel time.
Make sure you scheduled in buffer time for travel distance and traffic and time to eat and change your clothes.
Along with getting ready in the morning and having downtime at night.
White space is important.
Don’t fill in every single little space you have available if possible. Allow space to accept that spontaneous cup of coffee with a friend, hike in the woods with your kids, or long chat on the phone with your mom.
Weekly Planning Tips
If you need help figuring out how to organize your life to get things done, check out our free planning email course.
Make sure to block off time each week to do your weekly planning. I like to create a reminder in my phone.
Don’t fill up every space on your weekly plan. You need space to adjust and be flexible.
Have fun with your planner. Your planner is only a tool but a pretty tool or one that is fun you are more likely to use!
Create Your Weekly Plan
You are now set to create a weekly plan that works with your working homeschool mom life.
I hope you found this guide helpful.
Creating a weekly plan will help you be productive, more organized, and less stressed.
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Hi, I’m Jen. I help working moms juggle their career and homeschool their kids by providing support, systems and tools. You are warmly invited to Join the Online Community Here!
