Cal talks about creating a weekly template that holds your default weekly plan for a quarter, in order to help you achieve the plan you set.

  • Protect time
    • reserve specific times each week (ex. writing in the mornings) for specific work
  • Daily themes
    • assign a specific type of work or role to a certain day each week (ex. meeting days, teaching days)
  • Rules & limits
    • Set limits for things that normally encroach on your time (ex. only film 1 podcast per week)
  • Autopilot scheduling
    • Preschedule recurring tasks and work blocks

Then at the end of each quarter, you reflect on your weekly template:

  • What went well? What was effective?
  • What frustrated you? What was hard to maintain?
  • What do the above say about your preferred work style when it comes to your job? How would you want to adjust your role/job expectations?