Your First Week With the Planner

The planner starts working once three things are in it: one written priority, five days of protected time, and one finished weekly review. Do them in this order. It takes about two hours across the week, and it works the same way for the Individual Planner, the Executive Planner and Focused Teams. The planner is undated, so start today or on your next Monday.

The three steps

  1. Write the priority: one 90-day outcome, why it matters, and the next step (day 1, about 20 minutes).
  2. Block the first five days: fixed meetings first, then one protected block a day for the priority (day 1 or 2, about 30 minutes).
  3. Run the first review: close the week, decide what carries forward, and block next week (day 5, 30 to 45 minutes).

1. Write the priority

Day 1 · about 20 minutes

  • Write one outcome. The result that matters most in the next 90 days, written as a result, not an activity. “Sign three new clients by March 31,” not “work on sales.” In the Executive Planner, this is the top outcome for the quarter.
  • Write why it matters. One sentence. If you can’t write it, run the goal through Neuro-Logical Levels before going further.
  • Write the next visible step. Something you can start this week without another meeting.

Stop at one priority. You can add more after the first review, once you know how much a week actually holds.

2. Block the first five days

Day 1 or 2 · about 30 minutes

  • Mark what you can’t move. Open your calendar next to the week’s pages and copy in the meetings and commitments that are fixed.
  • Protect one block a day for the priority. Put it before the reactive work starts, and treat it like a meeting with your most important client. Time Blocking for Leaders shows how to find the time when the calendar is already full.
  • Sort each morning in five minutes. Use the Eisenhower Matrix and ABC ranking on the day’s demands, so the important work gets done before the merely urgent work.

3. Run the first review

Day 5 · 30 to 45 minutes

  • Close the week. What moved, what slipped, and why. Be specific about the blocks you kept and the ones you lost.
  • Decide what carries forward. Keep it, reschedule it, or drop it. Nothing rolls over by default.
  • Set next week. Write next week’s priorities and place them into blocks before meetings fill the calendar.

Use The Weekly Review a Leader Actually Finishes as your agenda. Owners running a company can use the fuller 45-minute Owner’s Weekly Review.

If you bought Focused Teams

Run the same three steps as a team. On day 1, build the team’s shared priority board together: three to five priorities, one owner each. On days 2 to 5, use the 15-minute leadership huddle to keep the board current. At the end of the week, hold the first weekly leadership review from the board. The Team Operating System explains how the pieces fit.

After week one

Keep the rhythm: block the day, review the week, run the quarter. If the plan keeps breaking on the same habit, use 6-Step Reframing on it. The full method is on the Focused Systems Method page.

Want help setting it up? A 30-Minute Strategy Session ends with exactly what this page asks for: one priority and your first week of time blocks.