A week is a formal period of time. A day is defined by nature and a week is set by a purely social agreement. You owe nothing to week and it does not to you. You can work on any day and have a rest on any day. And remember that your colleagues and clients can do the same.

A week is a good planning tool as you have enough time to make something big and you can plan your tasks more or less evenly without looking too far into the future.

We recommend planning your work for four days a week. No doubt, at first you won’t manage to do everything in these four days and you will need the fifth day and sometimes the sixth and the seventh ones. The good thing is that you will manage to keep up with your plan, which is important for your projects and for yourself. After some time you will learn to plan better and to do more, so you will have an extra day for relaxing.

Advice: work from Monday to Thursday and leave Friday for rest and maybe meetings. You can set any day as your extra day off, but this is more complicated as nobody has to remember about it. It means that on this day you will get all the new tasks, emails and questions. Moreover, a day off in the middle of a week will most likely be in advance, and on Friday you know for sure if you are keeping up with your plan. When you have a day off on Friday, you are not disappointing anyone’s expectations.

You can plan and re-plan your week in any way you like. You do not have to discuss it with anyone.

Plan four important tasks a week and make each of them “the task for the day”. When your day does not go as planned, you should remember that the main thing is to complete the task for the day.

There is no much sense in writing the detailed plan for a week as it will change anyway. Write down main tasks, planned meetings and some success criteria. For example:

The best time for weekly planning is Sunday evening. Planning your week on Monday morning is a bad habit as when you have written a plan, you have a feeling that you have accomplished something. You have not completed any tasks yet, but feel like you have. It is not the best mood for working. Moreover, on Sunday you can ask someone a couple of important questions and maybe get responses. Sunday is the best time.

It is OK if for the several first months your “week” turns into a constant unearthly fight with tasks 24/7. You can become a winner only through excellence.

Do not forget to ask for help. Being independent and responsible does not mean to leave, close up and then return with triumph and delight everyone. On the contrary, being independent and responsible means to ask for help when you need it and when it will not hurt anyone. You do not need surprises.