How to Get Stuff Done

Want to figure out how to get stuff done and plan your week productively?

• So you can accomplish your goals
• Stay focused on the right things
• And knock out your to-do list

Ready for this simple method to plan your week?

Let’s do this!

I’ll show you in this post how to use the super simple weekly method to get things done. And as a thank you, you get the free PDF printable – you can download it at the end of the post!

Disclaimer: This is an “ideal process” for planning your week. I would advise learning the steps and applying them as much as you can. Sometimes life throws a wrench into your weekly plans, sometimes a child get’s sick, sometimes you just feel like watching Netflix all day – it happens. Life is tough. Motherhood is even tougher.

I try to follow this process as closely as I can. Some weeks I’m on fire and other weeks I’m barely staying afloat. But if you do your best, decide to be stubbornly optimistic and focus on the positive, you can do this!

#1: Brainstorm all of your ideas and tasks

If you’re trying to get stuff done, you need to first figure out what this stuff is, right?

Make a list of everything you need to accomplish for the week. Personal things, necessary appointments, work stuff or blogging tasks.

You can use the printable to help you brainstorm.

If you need some help knowing what types of things can help your blog move forward, you can grab ideas from these helpful posts.

• 83 Ways to Make Money with a Blog
• How to come up with endless ideas of what to write about
• 40+ Tasks that Skyrocket Your Blog Growth

#2: Categorize your tasks

Do you want to feel accomplished at the end of each week? Who doesn’t? Many times you don’t “feel good” about what you did the week because you missed a major category in your life. You may have done a few workouts, but completely neglected your blog or business.

I recommend taking all of the tasks that you need to do in the week and assigning them to a category.

For example, your list may look like this:

• Take kids to the park
• Date night with hubby
• Coffee with mom
• Go to mass
• Doctor appointment for toddler
• Workout
• Send pitch for guest post
• Laundry
• Order Instacart
• Create Freebie for Blog
• Write blog post
• Publish blog post
• Go to Post Office

Now let’s put them into the right categories. Major categories include:

• Relationships
• Social & Fun
• Faith
• Health
• Intellectual
• Maintenance
• Business

You can add more or less as it suits your life.

#3: Color Code your Categories

In this weekly plan method, I encourage you to choose a color for each category.

I’ve divided my “business” category into three colors since it’s a pretty big part of my life.

• Blue = creating content
• Red = traffic and promotion
• Yellow = growing my email list
• Green = monetization

I’ve also added colors for other major categories in my life, such as faith, relationships, health, etc.

If you use the printable, the colors are already there for you to use!

When you’ve gone through each step in this method, you’ll see why the colors are so important!

Prioritize Your Tasks

After you have each task in the right category, you’ll need to prioritize them.
You can use the Eisenhower technique to do this simply and efficiently.

Use the printable to get the template so you can fill it in. Each quadrant is a different priority.

DO – Top Left

Urgent & Important = things I need to do this week, like laundry, finishing a guest post or getting a post ready for next week.

SCHEDULE – Top Right

Urgent & Not Important = things I can delegate, such as Thank You cards. Maybe I can send a personal email instead?

DELEGATE – Bottom Left

Not Urgent & Important = these are things that are important, but they do not need to be done right now. Like buying a birthday gift for a friend, or calling to catch up with grandma.

DON’T DO – Bottom Right

Not Urgent & Not Important = these are things that can be deleted or scheduled for a much later date, such as starting a new craft.

Here is my example below.

Ah, bliss! Everything is nicely prioritized, on to the next step of setting limits.

Set Limits

Your to-do list can be miles long and you’ll never complete it. Use the Prioritizing step to eliminate the unnecessary tasks, schedule the right ones, and delegate those that can be done by someone else.

Then choose 2-3 tasks from each category that are both urgent and important (top left corner) to plan your current week.

These are the tasks that you need to get done this week. They are both important and urgent. They will help you move forward in your business, life, and health.

Plan Your Week

Now that you have all of your tasks nicely categorized and prioritized, you can finally add them to your calendar.

Be sure to leave “wiggle room” between activities. If you’re a mom with kids, getting out of the house can take a crazy long time, so give yourself grace in your schedule.

There are multiple weekly planning schedules below. Choose the one that works best for you, and what you can stick with (most importantly). I use a mix of all of them 🙂

Printable Fill in the Blank Weekly Calendar

What I like most about the printable fill in the blank weekly calendar is that everything is color-coded by category.

From a quick glance you can monitor where you’re spending your time.

Are you working just on creating content for your blog and never promoting it? Are you taking time to focus on your health? faith? relationships?

Google Calendar

For my tech-savvy readers, you can easily apply this method to your Google calendar! Just use the little color picker to categorize your tasks.

Post It Note Weekly Calendar

Want a super simple method? Take a big white poster board, write the days of the week at the top and the hours on the left side. Then use different color post-it notes for each category.

If you want to take baby steps, then don’t too specific with the hours, and just put “morning, afternoon, evening” on the left side. Simple and easy. It’s a method you can implement and follow without a lot of fuss.

List & Categorize

Use the system above to brainstorm, list and category all of your tasks. Any excuse to use #allthecolors right?

Prioritize & Schedule

The post-it note system is simple to use. Divide up your days into three blocks (morning, afternoon, evening).

Don’t schedule more than two notes per time block.

Schedule tasks for each category (color) to balance out your week.

Overbooking yourself is just going to cause stress. Keep yourself accountable with realistic goals.

Bullet Journal

And of course, for my journal junkies, you can apply this method using the stickers in the printable, small post-it notes, or pretty colored markers in your journal!

Bonus: Habit Tracker

I included a bonus habit tracker in the printable so you can stay on top of those little habits you want to form.

As they say, change your habits and you can change your life.

Free Printable: The Weekly System

Download the templates and guides below so you can plan, prioritize and get things done!

How to Get Stuff Done

The most important thing to remember when creating a plan for your week is to not get stuck in the planning phase.

If you use a sheet of paper, a fancy online calendar, a beautiful journal – that is not the most important part.

Choose a system that is easy to maintain and that works well for you.

And then focus on actually DOING, instead of just planning.

You got this! Stay positive, listen to good music, give yourself a pep talk. I’m right there with you trying to get everything done while raising a little army.

You may not get everything done on your to-do list, but at least you’ll get the most important things done (like starting that blog ;).

Tell me in the comments, how do you plan your week to get stuff done?