Weekly Work Priorities Planner

Who this is for

The working week planned before it starts. Three priorities at the top say what the week is for; each weekday then has a must-do, a should-do, a could-do and a notes column, so the important things are placed before the urgent ones arrive.

Anyone with a working week to shape — an employee, a manager, a freelancer — who reaches Friday and cannot say where the week went.

What this helps you track

• The three things the week is really for
• What must happen each day, what should if there is time, and what could
• The meetings, deadlines and travel that fix the shape of each day
• What was left over, so next week starts with it rather than forgets it

How to use it

1. Write the week's date and, before anything else, the three priorities — the things that, if done, make the week a good one.
2. Fill the notes column first with the fixed points: meetings, deadlines, travel, time out.
3. Give each day one must-do, and make sure the three priorities appear somewhere among them.
4. Add the should-dos and could-dos around them — the second column gets done on a normal day, the third on a good one.
5. At the end of the week, write what was carried over in the notes at the foot and move it onto next week's sheet.

Formats

• Printable PDF (A4 and US Letter)
• Fillable PDF with form fields
• Fill in online, saved in your browser

The printable is laid out inside a box that fits both A4 and US Letter, so the two files are identical and neither one is scaled. The fillable PDF has real form fields. The online version keeps what you enter in your own browser and builds the completed PDF on your device.

How to print

Download the A4 or US Letter file to match the paper in your printer, open it in a PDF reader and print at 100% — not "fit to page", which shrinks the writing space. Both files leave a 14 mm margin, which clears the unprintable edge on home printers. To print the online version with your entries in it, use the Print this sheet button, which prints only the sheet and none of the page around it. More on printing.

Questions

Why only three priorities?

Because a list of ten is a to-do list, not a set of priorities. Three can be held in the head on a busy Wednesday; if you genuinely have more, the must-do column takes them day by day.

What is the difference between must, should and could?

Must is what the day fails without. Should is what a normal day gets to. Could is what a good day gets to. Sorting them beforehand means a bad day still gets the must-dos done.

Is there a weekend?

Not on this sheet — it is built for a five-day working week. The weekly planner in the personal planning section has seven days.

Can I plan a day in more detail?

The time blocking day sheet takes one day and divides it into blocks you label yourself. Use the weekly sheet to place the work and the day sheet to do it.