(If you don’t have a vision board yet, check out our guide on how to create one, download the free vision board template and check out our Vision Prompts!)
Okay, you’ve created a vision board. Now what? How do you put it to use? In this series, we discuss how you can use your vision board to live your best life. Today… ‘How to Use Your Vision Board to Plan Your Week?’
You’re going to learn how to create a planning that feels good and works for you.
Start with tasks that need doing
Living your best life is what we all want, but there’s also the small matter of things that just need to happen. These things aren’t always fun, but they are part of life. When we say ‘they need to happen’ it basically means: if you don’t do them, you’ll regret the consequences.
What these tasks are depends on you. Maybe cooking is on your ‘need to do’ list because you need healthy food to stay sane. Maybe your ‘need to do’ is finish a project at work (or even just go to work). Or file your taxes.
So before you even take out your vision board, make a list of everything that needs to happen this week. Don’t forget these three types of tasks:
- Tasks you need to do daily or several times a week (like groceries or taking your vitamins)
- Tasks you need to do weekly
- One-time tasks with an upcoming deadline (that you’ve scheduled for upcoming week)
Don’t worry about prioritizing these tasks yet. Just make a list!
What else can you do?
To this list, add the things you don’t absolutely have to do but you want to. Maybe it’s friends you want to see. Or a hobby you want to engage in. A place you want to visit. Time you want to spend with your partner or family. But it’s not just fun things. Sometimes, the things we want to do are chores that will make our life more pleasant.
Again, we’re not talking about all the things you want to do ever, only about the ones you’d like to do this week. So, your task list may look something like:
Need to do:
- Groceries
- Cancel trial
- Pay incoming bills
- Walk the dog (3 times a day)
- Cook (daily)
- Order present for Jake’s birthday next week
Want to do:
- Clean the bathroom
- Unpack & Reload the disher (daily)
- Photography class
- Swimming
- Date night with my partner
- Coffee date with Gemma
You get the idea.
Note how things like ‘Clean the bathroom’ are on the ‘want to’ list, not the ‘need to’ list – we often push ourselves to do things that aren’t strictly necessary. While we’re all in favor of clean bathrooms, we’re also adults: it’s okay to set our own boundaries for how messy our home gets to be.
Use your vision board to finetune your schedule
Now that you’ve made this list, it’s time to take a look at your vision board! Take the time to look at every aspect, from personal growth to your relationships, health, and finances (you’ll find all 9 topics in the vision board template). For each topic, ask yourself: “Is my vision reflected in the things I want to do this week?”
For instance, if hanging out with friends is important to you, is seeing your friends part of your week? If you want to make promotion at work, what are you going to do to get closer to your vision? If your vision board says you want to exercise weekly, is this reflected in your planning?
Use the insights from your vision board to tweak your planning. Maybe you need to cancel that night out to practice some much needed self-care. Maybe you need to postpone that bathroom cleaning until the week after so you have time for a movie night with your kids. Maybe you simply need to add ‘writing for 2 hours’ to your list to make sure you don’t forget to finally finish your book. And maybe you need to say no to that client because serving them takes you farther from your vision.
Plan for real life
Truth is, most weeks you won’t get around to your entire vision board. You’ll end up doing some things you don’t want to do. You won’t get around to doing everything you want to do. If an important project comes along, you might temporarily put in more time and postpone one of your other plans. But if you’re noticing that it’s yet another week where you don’t get around following your vision, it’s time to pause and ask yourself:
Do you need to adjust your priorities?
Or has your vision changed since the moment you created your vision board?
Your day only has 24 hours
You can’t create more time. So take this long list of things you need and want to do and select the ones you’re actually planning to do. Sure, you can try and cram your entire vision board and all things that need doing into your planning, but this will mostly just leave you stressed.
Instead, get realistic. Try following your planning for a while and pay attention:
How many productive hours do you have in a day?
How much actually gets done?
How much time do you need to decompress?
Planning is a skill
Don’t get discouraged if your first few schedules end up all over the place or don’t get finished. Planning is a skill like any other and the more you do it consciously, the better you become at it. Set aside 10 minutes a week to reflect on your previous schedule so you can improve your next one. (In fact, put those 10 minutes in your schedule). With time, you’ll master planning your week in a way that’s productive, realistic, and aligned with your life vision.
