If you’re anything like me, you probably loooove learning about all things productivity, planning and turning those plans into action.

That said, in today’s episode, I am walking you through how I prep for a faith-fueled focused week in my business.

Basically, I am walking you through exactly what I do every single week to remain intentional and faithful in both my life and my business. Because truthfully, that’s part of what it means to embody & steward your role as a faith-fueled CEO well.

To be intentional and faithful in your actions on a day-to-day basis.

And with the society that we live in, to be fully intentional and faithfully focused in our week, it’s important to take some time and actually prepare for the week ahead. That’s part of being a good steward, right?

And that’s not to say that things always go according to plan… they almost never do.

BUT it is important to have a framework so you aren’t just going into the week without direction or intention. 

In addition, it’s important to consider in your weekly preparation that things aren’t going to go according to plan and to prepare for that as well.

What You Will Learn:

• My 2 favorite tools I use to prep for a faith-fueled focused week in my business
• How I reflect on my prior week with growth mindset and sense of gratitude that helps me prep for the upcoming week (we aren’t reflecting on our week with any kind of disappointment here)
• My step-by-step process to mapping out my week and staying aligned with God’s will
• My daily planning routine and how I bring my weekly plan to life (& how I plan for things to NOT go according to plan)

Story Time

There is just something that you just have to know about me. I have always loved planners, planning, goal setting and vision casting. That has just always been my thing ever since I was in school. Even in elementary school, back when they gave us those little agendas.

And then as I got older, I just loved it even more!

I have probably tried out most planners, because I just wanted to find what worked best for me. And I just honestly loved experimenting with different methods and productivity tools. And then on top of that, I would watch YouTube videos of planner reviews.

Still to this day, I like watching planner reviews and planner hauls, even though I already have my tried and true planning system that just works for me. Especially once I got into the entrepreneurial space about six years ago. Not only did I love the planner space, but I loved the productivity and the time management space.

I loved learning about different methods and I loved trying them out. I loved trying all the different tools to really learn how to be very efficient, effective and steward my time really well. 

I say all this to say I have tried a lot of different methods and I’ve used a lot of different planners.

I’ve tried a lot of different tools, and it really comes down to this specific system. This works really, really well for me (at least in this season), and with this particular method, there are two tools that just work really, really, well. 

And those two tools are the Full Focus Planner (my physical planner), and Google Calendar. (Psst, you can receive 10% off your Full Focus Planner by using the code HANNAH10 at checkout)

I know it’s very simple, but these two tools are together are like a match made in heaven. I love it. 

And honestly, I have been using both of these tools together for a hot minute. You know, if you have listened to any of my podcasts or even just followed me on social media, this is not the first time I have mentioned these tools.

And so the way that I use these tools and the way that I prepare for the week is really broken down into two distinct phases, and the first phase is the weekly preview, while the second phase is day-to-day planning. 

The Weekly Preview 

With the weekly preview, the very first thing that I do before I even look at the week coming up is spend time reviewing and reflecting upon the prior week.

And what I love about the Full Focus Planner is that it has such great prompts to guide me through its weekly preview section. They actually have a prompt called the after-action review, which basically just lists out the top three to five wins from the last week.

Miracle Moments

But if you’re a student of mine in any capacity, you already know that I like to refer to these wins as miracle moments. So that said, I really take time to list out my three to five miracle moments from the week, and miracle moments are essentially wins, results, or experiences that indicate a confirmation from the Holy Spirit that you are on the right path–His path.

I feel like when you take the time to reflect on these moments, this actually helps you embody a state of gratitude. And I know you probably already know just how important embodying a state of gratitude is, but just in case you are going through a really difficult season of entrepreneurship, I want to go ahead and let you know that I did record a podcast episode all about it.

It’s titled, How to embody gratitude during difficult seasons of entrepreneurship, so if you are needing some support around that, then I highly encourage you to tune into episode 45 of this show as soon as you finish this one. 

After Action Review

Now that being said, after I sit down and record the Miracle Moments from the week, I move on to something called the After Action Review.

To do this, I take a look at how my week went by journaling through some questions that are in my Full Focus Planner. And some of the questions in my planner are, “How far did I get on my weekly Big Three?:

The weekly big three are essentially the three major goals or intentions that I had for the week.

And then another question is, “What worked, what didn’t, and why?”

And then finally, “What can I continue to change? Basically, what can I stop doing? What can I improve upon or start doing that will shift my week for the better?”

Once I answer those questions, it’s time to actually start looking at and planning for the upcoming week.

Weekly Preparation

Once I have finished reviewing the week prior, what I like to do is I like to spend time in prayer before I plan out the week because the Holy Spirit just always reminds me what is truly important.

I ask Him to help me keep my eyes on Him and His will instead of my own because it’s just way too easy to get distracted by goals and to get distracted with the plans that we create. And even though you know these goals and plans aren’t necessarily bad, sometimes we can romanticize these goals and dreams so much that they can become an idol in our lives.

I just say that because this is what I’ve done in the past and I know that if I’ve done this in the past, and if I’ve done it, then other people probably have too. 

Setting goals and creating plans are good, but we also just have to make sure that our heart posture is pure and it’s looking towards the Lord and not towards gratification here on Earth. 

And again, there is nothing wrong with good things being here on Earth. That is not what I’m saying. Those things are good and the Lord wants to give them to us, but it’s when we put these things above Him that it becomes a problem.

So basically, I just take the time to pray to help keep my eyes on him and for spiritual protection before I plan out and strategize what my week’s going to look like and what I’m working on in my business this coming week. And once it’s time to actually plan the week, here are the steps that I follow.

#1 Determine what habits I want to focus on this week (I use the streaktracker in the weekly preview section to keep track of my habits)

What’s really cool is that the Full Focus Planner actually has something called a streak tracker, and it’s essentially a habit tracker inside the weekly preview section of the planner just to help you keep track of your habits.

#2  Brain dump personal action items

Now, the next thing I like to do is to brain dump any and all personal action items that need to get done that week. 

That could look like grocery shopping, getting my oil changed, or doing laundry. I just brain dump that into my personal action item list.

#3 Brain dump professional action items

And then I will brain-dump all professional action items as well, which is totally separate from my personal action item list. So I have two different lists. 

#4 Pick 3 intentions for the week (these correspond to the weekly big 3 in the full focus planner, and are essentially 3 action items that have the priority for the week)

And then for the fourth thing that I do I like to pick three intentions for the week. Even though I just spent time brain dumping all those things, I like to get that out of my brain so that I can actually think about what is the most important.

What’s the thing that’s going to move the needle forward in both my business and in my life?

What are the things that are actually important? 

And so that said, these three things actually correspond with the weekly big three. And again, they are essentially the three action items that just have priority that week.

Does that mean you can’t do anything else on your list? No. It just means that those are the priority and that is what you are making sure you need to get done that week. 

#5 Brain dump everything I need to do that week to ACCOMPLISH the weekly big 3.

The fifth thing that I do is that I then brain dump everything I need to do that week in order to accomplish the weekly big three.

Because essentially for me, when it comes to the weekly big three, those are typically larger projects and they involve a lot. Smaller tasks need to get done in order to complete that action item. 

So, basically, once I pick my weekly big three, I will then brain dump all of the smaller tasks that have to do with those three things. 

Day to Day Planning

Now, once I have brain-dumped everything that needs to get done and I’ve chosen my habit to focus on and my weekly big three, I will then move into the next phase of the planning process, which is day-to-day planning. And what I do is I then pull out my Google Calendar because I use Google Calendar to plan my day in advance.

But just like I only have a weekly big three, I like to keep in mind that I only want to have three focuses each day as well. So, all of these smaller tasks that I listed under the three weekly focuses, I like to make that one of the focuses for the day each week. And in order to really bring my weekly plan to life each week so I can actually get these things done, I have to make sure that I assign my to-dos, and especially these smaller tasks, according to the weekly big three.

I like to make sure that I’m assigning these things to the week, to a certain day and time in the week, and I use Google Calendar to do this. I’m essentially time-blocking inside Google Calendar. I do not like to time block inside my Full Focus Planner, even though it has hourly time slots.

There are five steps that I do in order to truly plan out my week inside of Google Calendar. 

#1 Add in appointments

First things first, I like to add in all appointments. This looks like adding in any calls that are scheduled, going to your full-time job,picking up your kids from school, going to church, or meeting a friend for coffee that’s already set in stone or doctor’s visit. 

These appointments need to go in your calendar first. 

#2 Add in non-negotiables as a time block

Then I like to add in my non-negotiables. My non-negotiables look like time with Jesus workouts, my meals which are breakfast, lunch, and dinner. Also my morning and evening routine, time with family, and taking my dog for a walk.

These are non-negotiables in my day-to-day life, and I like to add that next. So, then step three is to add in my business work blocks as a time block. 

#3 Add in business work blocks as a time block

Any time that I’m going to work on my business, I am putting that in a time block. 

#4 Differentiate your business work blocks accordingly: admin, creative, ceo & calls

What I mean by this is that I have different types of tasks that I do in my business. For example, I have admin tasks, I have creative tasks, and then I have calls. 

And that’s typically client calls or coaching calls in any capacity, podcast interviews, that kind of thing.

I really like to color code the different types of work, so I have one for admin, I have one for creative, I have one for CEO time, and I have one for any type of call. And that’s how I like to basically help my brain distinguish my schedule.

When I’m planning out what my work blocks are, I really like to take into consideration two things. 

First thing I like to take into consideration is that my creative juices flow the best in the morning.

I make sure that I get my creative time in the morning if it is at all possible.

The next thing I take into consideration is that most of the time things are not going to go according to plan. I might wake up with a migraine one day and not be able to work. There might be a family emergency one day, or I might need to take the dog to an emergency vet.

There might just be days that things just take a lot longer than expected.

That said, I like to use Friday as a catch-up day. I don’t really plan things on Friday anymore for this reason.

And if I did get everything done, then I just take Friday off! 

#5 Use Google Tasks

Now, the fifth thing that I do when it comes to planning out my week on Google Calendar is that I use something called Google Tasks, which is actually located inside of Google Calendar.

It’s kind of like their to-do list feature, and I like to input all of the tasks that I want to get done that week into Google Tasks. And I actually like to drag and drop the action items into the correct time block.

All these little tasks can be put into Google tasks to get things done. And then basically, I will drag it to the time block that I want it to be assigned to.

That is how I prep and plan my week, but what do I do on a day-to-day basis? And what do I do with the daily planning pages inside of the physical planner? 

What I do here is every single morning I will look at my Google Calendar and I will readjust my schedule and my tasks as needed.

Things don’t always go according to plan, so we need to readjust things and that is one reason why I really don’t like using a physical planner to plan out my week (just because I shift things a lot.)

Since I use Google Calendar to plan each day, I like to use the daily planning page in my planner to write out my three focuses for the day, and I like to keep track of how much time I spend on each action item in the hourly planning section.

This planner has a daily spread that’s two pages long. The left side is the daily planning page. The right side is the note page, and I just like to use that side to take notes or even just randomly check off daily action items too. 

I’ve tried a lot of different systems, and this is my favorite at least in this season of my life. If you actually wanna try out the Full Focus Planner which I highly recommend, it’s been my top choice for a couple of years now. You can actually use the code, Hannah10 to get 10% off your order.

Next Steps

If you loved this blog post and you know you are being called to CEO by God and you want to make sure you’re getting the support you need, you’re being held accountable to live out the call He’s placed on your heart, AND you want to do it fueled by your faith and not by your flesh…

Then I want to invite you to just join us inside of the Called to CEO Collective.

The Called to CEO Collective is a community-driven membership for faith-based business owners, creators, dreamers, and leaders who know it’s time to take bold and obedient action on their God-given callings and ultimately steward their roles as Faith-Fueled CEOs.

I have absolutely no doubt it is what you’ve been praying for!

Why?! Because I’ve been praying for something like this for an awfully long time. 

This membership has been totally designed by the Holy Spirit to help you cultivate a deeper relationship with the Lord. We will also go deeper on topics and faith, life, and business that you learn about because honestly, it’s time to say goodbye to overconsumption and say hello to implementation.

And it is also time to work from a place of overflow from the Holy Spirit versus overwhelm and stress. And it’s also time to finally overcome these spiritual battles against the enemy that has been keeping you stuck in your life. 

Basically, it is a faith-based, community-driven membership where we go deeper on topics in faith, life, and business.

And the thing is, I have known for a really long time that business owners, creators, and leaders really need a place to process and share what they’re going through in their life and business in a safe space to receive feedback, support, and accountability… 

All without the high ticket price point.

The Lord has just pressed this on my heart for a really long time and I know you’re probably wondering…

Is there any coaching involved? 

Absolutely, there is coaching involved. 

Not only will you be with other like-minded individuals, but you’ll have an experienced and Certified Life Coach and Faith-Fueled Business Mentor at your fingertips (that’s me, btw lol)… You will have a group of other talented individuals there to support you too!

And yes, we are going to go deeper on topics together, but I’m also here to help you grow your business or whatever God-given call you have right now. You can get coached by posting inside the community or on our live coaching calls happening twice a month. 

That said, if you want to learn all the nitty gritty details or go ahead and join us at the current rate, you can do so by heading to www.hannahbrindley.com/membership