Friday morning is the most productive time of my week. I got a simple idea from a course in 2017 that changed how I close my week.

I’ll give you the gist here so you don’t have to take the course.

There are two ways to wrap up your week:

1. TGIF’er mailing it in.
2. Strategist taking the time to move the pieces around for next week.

Here’s the thing: it doesn’t take much time to lay out a strategy and become more effective.

I do two things each Friday that have elevated my output:

• 10-minute goal review
• 20-minute weekly planning

Goal review:

Write down your goals for the quarter on an index card you keep at your desk.

Review these each Friday. Note what you have made progress on and when you need to focus on items where no progress has been made.

Weekly plan:

The weekly plan is how you move from reactive, just managing your inbox as your to-do list, to strategic Jedi.

Block off time on your calendar for your most important priorities in the coming week. Set reminders on any thing that needs your attention later in the week (this relieves cognitive burden of having to remember everything).

Gentlemen’s agreement 🤝🏻:

Let’s make a pact – a gentlemen’s agreement if you will. If you’ve found something useful in this post, do me the kindness of sharing it with a friend who you think would appreciate these insights. While I’ll never know if you actually do it or not, think of it as a token of gratitude for keeping this site ad-free and full of delightful wisdom. Deal?

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