In this episode of the Hayley Osborne Show, I walk you through what I do to plan for a EPIC week. I talk about what structures I put in place to make decisions fast and what planning is essential for achieving my goals and maintaining a work-life balance. Learn what has become a non-negotiable part of my routine for achieving balance and success.
Summary
0:16 – Topic introduction: Framework for building a successful week as an entrepreneur and mother
0:30 – Importance of planning on Sundays to prepare for the week ahead
1:15 – Reviewing calendar and ensuring balance of work and personal time
2:10 – Using a Word document to track tasks and take notes each week
3:15 – Starting the week with hindsight and reflection on accomplishments
4:20 – Sections of the plan: hindsight, current week, habits, priorities
5:30 – Color-coding calendar and printing plan for easy reference
6:35 – Achieving more through effective planning and structure
7:45 – Maintaining balance while running a business and raising children
9:00 – Making fast decisions and continuously improving
10:05 – Reflecting on progress towards long and short-term goals
11:15 – Setting goals for where you want to be in 10 years
12:25 – Example of a highly planned and structured work day
13:43 – Maintaining habits like setting out clothes the night before
14:50 – Using a weekly checklist to track progress on goals
16:05 – Conclusion and recap of planning framework
Hayley Osborne
Hello, and welcome back to another episode of The Hayley Osborne show. I am really glad that you are here. And we’re up to episode 95 of the podcast. I honestly can’t believe it 95. Again, I said this last week, I think teetering on the edge of 100 episodes is bloody awesome.
So today, I wanted to talk to you. And we’re still obviously at the beginning of the year. So I wanted to talk to you about my framework for building a successful week. Because I think that we can all learn from each other tips and tricks about what we do what each of us do to help for a streamline week to help us achieve our goals to help us achieve our yearly goals, weekly goals, yearly goals, and then you know, 10 year kind of goals, and more importantly to that building a successful week as me for me as an entrepreneur, as well as a mum of two small humans.
So it takes a bit of gumption and a lot of organisation. But I thought that I would walk you through what I do to plan for a successful week and how it works. I agree through a pretty specific process, actually, to plan for my week.
So this is usually on, usually on a Sunday. And sometimes it’s on a Monday, but not very often. Usually it’s on a Sunday, because I can, you know, just spend a little bit of time alone. Monday is usually not my work day. So I don’t really do it on a Monday because I really want to be prepared and planned for the week ahead. So usually it happens on a Sunday. So that I know what I’m doing.
And I look at you know, what’s working and what’s not working. And I know that Monday isn’t my work day. So even if it’s Sunday night, I have to do a little bit of work or whether that’s admin work or whatever that looks like to plan well for the week. So be it, I do it. And I have a really clear, a really clear pathway on what I need to achieve that week, where my priorities need to lie, I think that’s important.
I do believe that I do a lot, not do a lot. I accomplish a lot of things in a week, probably more than the average person just because I obviously have two small children in tow. And I have big goals as a business owner and entrepreneur. And I think as well, just to preface this, I wouldn’t be good at either thing if I didn’t have either thing.
So I’m about a mum, because I have my business and I am a better business owner because I am a mum. And I do think that to align real similarly, like as a business owner, you do have to think fast, make decisions fast and be quite reactive, because things change quite quickly in your business. Same as with little kids, they’re just like little hurricanes, and you have to be really reactive and fast moving. My reflexes have had to get much faster since number two, because he’s a bit of a crazy character, and just likes to be very reactive. So I do believe that the two are very aligned. And, and you know, that’s like, I have to have these specific plans in place so that I can keep moving fast on what my bigger goals are. So making fast decisions is one of them, I don’t tend to sit on things very long.
So what I do is, I use a bit of a hybrid model, but first of all, I look at my calendar, and I have it specifically colour coded into different sections, like strategy work, marketing, strategy, work, social media strategy work, private coaching, the superhero marketing, my membership, outside meetings, I have colour codes for the personal appointments and things that I have on during the week as well. And I have an overall look at that to be able to see if I have few gaps in my day where I can actually move the needle and do work on my business.
And if I don’t I make adjustments accordingly because I think it’s important to be able to have a balance and I feel better too when I have a balance. So that’s something that I start with is looking at my calendar and making sure there’s a balance of whitespace and do you know, meetings. If there’s too many meetings, I will remove some and push them out to the next week because I know that that’s what makes me a happy person.
And I only have a finite amount of battery for you know, for those external things and where I have to really use my brain power, so I just prioritise and move things around. So the second thing that I do after I look at my calendar is I actually have a Word document that I keep up to date every single week. And I find that this works much better than having a notebook because I don’t like messy writing, I like short, really cursive messy writing. And I prefer it to be really structured and easy to read. So I do use a Word document. And then I print it out.
And what I do every week is I have it on my desk, and then I cross off the things that I do. And then I may make notes on the piece of paper as well, which is fine, because they sort of sit down on the side every week. And then on a Sunday, I’ll come in, look at the notes from the week that was and then I’ll cross off what I did and add on what I didn’t finish or what came on there with my handwriting.
And then it just gets updated and printed. So I always start the week with a clean piece of paper, which makes me feel very organised. And it also gets out of my head and onto a piece of paper what I need to do so then I can really, I like to call it a blend. I blend my personal life with my business. But I can really compartmentalise what’s happening in my business. And I don’t actually miss anything, because I forget, right. So everything that’s in my head is out of my head, and on to this Word document.
So I’ve actually labeled a triple A write in capitals, so it appears at the top of my list. Now, you can have these documents in the, you know, programmes like Monday, or Asana, but I like it in a Word document just because it sits on my computer, it sits on my desktop. And it’s really easy to print out and be accessible.
And I like to look at it. And I do also like the tangible element of having something in my hand. So one thing that I’ve got that I had to have started to do this week that I actually learnt from someone that I really admire, is starting off the week with some hindsight and gratefulness and writing it down.
Because what I found as a business owner is that you don’t you do not realise how far you’ve come in a week and what you’ve achieved and your accomplishments. And it’s something that I go through with the members inside superhero marketing . Every Wednesday, I have a weekly win Wednesday, where I put two things that I have and am proud of the last week.
And I encourage the members to do so as well, because I feel like as small business owners, we don’t celebrate ourselves enough. And it’s really nice to get on that positive bandwagon of celebrating your wins. So every week I do that. And I’m just going more granular.
And I learned that through listening to a podcast of someone I admire. And so that’s what I am implementing into my business. And I thought that I would share it with you because this may also help you to move the needle. Remember why you started. And you know, remember how far you’ve come in a week because business owners we tend to do a lot, you know, we tend to make faster decisions than the average person and accomplish a lot more. So I think that that is worth celebrating. And I think that is worth a nice reminder every single week because, you know, you can get caught up in that shiny object syndrome and it’s not healthy.
So I’ve started off with four parts of answering questions that will remind me how far I’ve come when I go through prioritising and setting up myself for an awesome week. So the first one is what am I grateful for? What have I done rating wise, what have I maintained in terms of being healthy? How much exercise did I do? That kind of thing. So what am I grateful for? So one of them might be I’ve read a couple of pages every night of the book that I’m reading, it might be that I exercised three times last week, it might be that I had a really healthy breakfast every day, which I do anyway. But I limited the sugar and made a smoothie like that kind of thing, being grateful for those things.
And the next one is you know, the happiness factor. So what made me happy, what makes me happy. And so I’ve written down here that I have a pink lipstick on my desk, it is Chanel, and it was the one that I had for my wedding. And I have it on my desk, and I put it on all the time. Because it makes me feel good and makes me feel happy. So this is happy, not grateful. And I also have hand cream on my desk as well, which is the live hand cream, which is designed by two South Australian girls. And I love it. I love the smell of it. I love everything about it. And that’s on my desk, too. So those two little things make me happy. And they are always on my desk.
And then the next one is what did you learn? So I feel like this is so powerful. What did you learn last week, either about yourself or about someone else? And that’s a nice thing to write down? And then what can you leave behind? So something that you can let go of something that you might have done that’s wasted your time? But what can you let go of so it could be okay. Last week, I spent too much time on social media. So this week, I’m not going to go on my phone and just randomly scroll like it could be last week, I really got deep into binge TV. This week, I’m not going to watch any TV and I’m just going to read, go to bed early, get up early and train. So it could be something about that.
What can you leave behind? Then? Next in the next section is what do you want to do the coming week? Right? So what do you want to read? How much more of your book do you want to read? What podcast Do you want to listen to? What do you want to try? That’s new? What kind of apps do you want to add into your life to make your life easier? That kind of thing? What can you do to automate your life a little bit more? Which is, you know, this week I want to and then also, who are you going to connect with? So this week, I want to reach out to two different podcast hosts to pitch me appearing on their podcast, right?
And so that is in your weekly goals. Because if you have a goal of being on 24 podcasts in 2024, then you need to bite off these things in small chunks every single week. So who are you going to get in front of? And are you going to write any media? Are you going to do any top of funnel activities that will help you to do one, one thing and reach way more people? Okay, one too many. So who are we going to connect with? So this week, I want to, which is a nice section too. And then the third part is habits. So what kind of habits do you want to continue to have this week coming? So is it to make sure your documents are filed properly? Is it that you want to make your Canva super neat and all in files and boards? Is it that you want to maintain your exercise regime?
You want to maintain the habit of eating, not eating after 8pm? Is it that you want to find it difficult to get dressed in the morning? Like what kind of habits can you do that will make your life easier that you want to really like to add into your life. And then the fourth part is priorities. So priorities the link you to your to do list.
So there are four things that I learned that I have started to implement into my ritual of creating a killer week because I think when you start with positivity and having those positive affirmations that kicks you off to a really high frequency to start the week and feeling really abundant and that you’ve already kicked goals and you haven’t even started so it might take a little bit of time to get used to so I’ll just reread that first part is one is hindsight.
Okay, so like the week that was the second one is the week that is what you want to do? What do you want to achieve? Who do you want to be? What do you want to try? Who do you want to connect with? What do you want to do this week?
The next one is habits. So habits I don’t know if any of you have read atomic habits. I only actually got halfway through that book and I couldn’t finish it because I found that I was doing a lot already. So if I wanted to train in the morning, I would have my gym ready to go. And that’s the hardest part. So you just step into them and get out the door.
If I wasn’t, if I struggled to pick out clothes in the morning, then I would get them out the night before. And I actually do this because it just makes my morning so much easier, especially having two small humans. So I set out everything the night before, and then it’s just straight into what I’m doing.
If I’m having a mum day, then I don’t tend to do that. It’s a bit slower paced, but if it is a work day, it is so structured and ready to go that I make sure that there is nothing getting in my way of ticking off all of the things that I have to do. And I could probably fit a whole week into one work day. I’m not even kidding you. That’s how structured it is. And so today is one of those days, for example, where, because we’re ready, I have a very strict time that I’m working. I know that, for example, this has to be finished, like very soon because I know my cleaners will be here and then I can’t have them coming in while I’m doing this. And like as I’m recording this podcast, I just know that everything has to be done to a finite time, the days that I don’t have my children, and I get it all done, which I’m super pumped about, I might be really tired at the end of the day. But then you know, I reward myself by having you know, relax, have a nice cold drink, a beautiful dinner, and rest and read a book. And or listen to an audio book. And I absolutely love it. And it also helps if you love what you do, which I do.
So then after I’m finished with that beautiful part of planning my week, we then go on to priorities, right. So that means I have the next part of this document, I’ve got client work. So I’ve got a list of things that are high priority, because my clients come first, that I need to get done. First and foremost, then under that I have the Hayley Osborne brand. And so all of the things that I’ve got a must do, a medium due. And I am nice to have, I know that I need to do those things and add them into my business. So for example, I want to start a news, a newsletter in LinkedIn, which I haven’t done yet. And I wanted to do that before the end of January. So that is something that I have to move the needle on today, basically, and so, so on and so forth.
There’s so many things in there as well that are nice to have. I’ve got a list of who I want to pitch to in terms of media, who I want to pitch to in terms of podcast guests. It’s all in the one document where I want to be published. So who I want to write and submit feature articles to.
I also have personal tasks there. And there’s a few in there as well that I need to get done. And then I have future Haley. So what I want to do, and I just put all my notes in here as well. And then right at the end, we’ve got new ideas that I just got in here. And like I said, you can either use something like this or a Monday board. I just love this because it’s fresh every week, I don’t need to keep rewriting my to do list, it just is all in one place, I cross off and delete what I have accomplished. Or I save a new list. So every week is data different because then you can see how far you’ve come as well.
And then at the very end, I’ve got books to read. So I add that in all of the books that I really want to read. And that is what I do. And then I’ve got a separate document which covers my 2024 goals. So I go through and I have a look at the goals that I set out to achieve this year. And then I compare my action plan list. The list is actually called Hayley Osborne seven figure business weekly checklist, right? So it’s not called a to-do list. It’s called a weekly checklist. And yeah, so then I cross check with what my goals are, and am I working closer towards that and moving the needle on those things. And in that goal 2024 goals are business and personal. So I look at a cross check of all of it, and it might take me maybe half an hour, 45 minutes. I’ve got really good at this.
And then another thing that I’ve started doing this year is who I want to be in 10 years time. Where do I want to be because in 10 years time I don’t even want to think about how old I’ll be but I want different things. And so I cross check to make sure that my daily and weekly tasks are in aligned with my yearly and 10 year goals. And I know this might be like oh my God, Haley, you’re just so crazy, but it actually works and it’s actually beneficial and it actually helps to move the needle, right. And my motto is definitely Done is better than perfect. And it has served me so well in my business, especially having two small children.
So don’t forget, like, I’m, I’m making big decisions, and I’m moving very, very fast as a business owner, and I’m continuously moving the needle. And I have a one and a half year old and a three year old. So that is my life. And they take up a very big chunk of my life, but you might think, Oh, my God, Haley, I am exhausted listening to you talk about this. But when you are super planned, and you are, you know, structured and set out, you will be amazed how much you achieve. And like I said before, I do think that I achieved more than most, but that’s okay, because I make decisions fast. And I’m okay with that. So that is pretty much my framework for building a successful week as an entrepreneur as a business owner that is super driven, and wants to achieve big things and make a massive impact in this world and a mom of two little humans.
So I hope that that has helped you come up with some more ideas or ways of working in your business and setting yourself up for a killer week. Because you need to make sure that you know what’s working and what’s not, and to get rid of the things that are not working and get really clear on what your priorities are. So that when you set out your goals at the beginning of the year, which you probably have already done, you can measure and cross check that those things are getting ticked off and getting you where you want to go. And then yeah, that’s a wrap up guys.
That’s the end of this episode, Episode 95. I hope that you’ve enjoyed this and I will see you next week.
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