Daily vs Weekly Planning : Taming our to-do lists :)

Daily vs weekly planning?

Why does it matter, and what’s the conflict?

Can’t we have both?

Of course, we can.

And a bit of both is sure to be good for keeping on top of all we’d like to get done.

But for many of us, our days get far more attention than our weeks when it comes to intentional planning.

And because of that, we put ourselves under constant pressure.

Some of the links included in this post are affiliate links, meaning if you click through and decide to buy I may earn a small commission from the sale, at no extra cost to you. I am super picky about the links on my site and only share resources I believe will bring value to your life, most of which I personally use and love. Thanks in advance if you follow any of my links, I hope you find them helpful 🙂

Why daily planning lets us down in the long run…

Planning on a daily basis can be an endless source of frustration. There is so much we want to get done every day.

Yet as we all know, the days tend to fly past.

And it’s hard to fit it all in.

Maybe we’re zeroing in too close. We need to think bigger 🙂

Think bigger. And better. Bigger is better. And better is bigger. 🎵

Okay. We’ve been rumbled! My eldest daughters and I have been sharing the joys of High School Musical with my youngest. And I just couldn’t resist…a little bit is never enough, no, no, no…

But, seriously. Too much pressure on ourselves on a daily basis can lead to endless boom and bust cycles.

We’re not talking about intentional imbalance here.

Rather than a deliberate strategy this is often much more like the chaotic buffeting of a ship in stormy waters trying desperately to stay afloat.

Take exercise for example.

3 weeks seems to be a sweet spot for me.

Yet, after about 3 weeks of daily exercise, I often hit a wall. Sometimes it’s health-related, a heavy period or a pain flare up tend to be the usual suspects. Or somehow the space for exercise in my day gets squeezed out by other commitments.

And then it might take weeks for me to get back on track with a regular routine 😔

But daily practice is soooo beneficial…

When we do something every day, there’s a good chance we’ll get into a groove. As the momentum builds, we get invested in maintaining our streak.

The regularity of daily practice builds habits.

And with good habits we’re rocking and rolling our way to success, whatever a successful life looks like to you 🙂

Habits make our lives a whole lot easier than good intentions.

But there’s no consensus on how long it takes to build a habit.

And there are so many good habits we’d like to add into the mix.

Quality time with those we love. A healthy diet. Exercise. Drinking water. Carving out space for our hobbies and our friends.

Not to mention getting on top of the clutter and the cleaning, and generally creating the life of our dreams. Don’t you want it? 🎵 😊

Yet when we try to attend to all of these on a daily basis it can soon start to feel overwhelming.

Expecting to check off a giant to-do list every single day, hitting all these important boxes is exhausting. And sets us up to fail.

Unable to maintain those levels of attention and energy. Frustration. Misery. And Despair roll in.

And our stress levels start to rise. Fast.

Where weekly planning can help…

Yet when we pan out from a daily focus and widen our parameters to weekly planning we gain more space and scope to attend to all the different aspects of our lives.

We can slow down and relax a bit more.

And less stress in our lives gives us more energy for getting on with the tasks at hand.

Looking across a wider time span can give us a clearer perspective and help us see the bigger picture.

Think about small children and how some days whatever we feed them, it’s not enough. Constantly hungry and devouring their own body weight in yummies, we worry they’re eating too much and they’ll never be satisfied.

Yet the next day, food is the furthest thing from their minds. We can’t tempt them whatever we offer. And then the worry turns to fear they’re not getting enough!

Luckily there’s often a mama further down the line who calms us down. Reminding us it’s not so important what they eat in a day. If they’re eating a (mostly) healthy diet across the week, they’ll be fine.

And by my fourth child I started to believe them 🙂

Weekly planning gives us more flexibility. More wiggle room when our days veer off course. And more space to go deep and get into the flow.

So when it comes to exercise, I’m no longer trying to fit a workout into every day. I’m aiming for 3 times a week.

And along with some daily stretching and plenty of steps each day, this feels like a more sustainable habit. And better for my body and mind in the long run.

How about you? What can you let go of on a daily basis?

How might weekly planning take the pressure off in your life?

I’d love to know if any of this resonates with you, please share your thoughts in the comments below 🙂

More time management goodness…

Of course we can still benefit from planning on a daily basis.

I’m loving the 3 MITs and 2 TILs method right now – I’ll go into this in more detail soon with some upcoming posts themed around home ed planning.

You’re likely familiar with MITs – most important tasks. As for TILs… spoiler alert 🙂 Well, that stands for time is love.

You might also enjoy these posts –

Top 7 trusty time management tips I use everyday (home-ed mama of 4)

Finding the motivation to get started : 17+ tips to beat procrastination

A few resources helping me with more efficient planning on a longer and shorter basis…

Make Over Your Evenings course by Crystal Paine. I’m working my way through this one again right now, and loving it.

Crystal also has a Make Over Your Mornings course and they both have tons of helpful insights, daily objectives and whopping workbooks 🙂 I’ll be sharing reviews of both these courses soon, so look out for those. Or if you’d like to be sure not to miss them, subscribe to the blog in the sidebar and we’ll let you know each time a new post is published 🙂

Increase productivity by 300% with this small change! A fantastic video and free printable from Dawn at the Minimal Mom, this makes daily and weekly planning a breeze.

Asian Efficiency blog and podcast too.

Getting Things Done by David Allen. Also loving his blog and podcast too.

Atomic Habits by James Clear. One of my absolute favourite books and his blog is fab too!

Here’s to getting loads done and being kind to ourselves at the same time 🙂