{"id":5579,"date":"2013-10-03T11:02:42","date_gmt":"2013-10-03T10:02:42","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.mentor.com\/colinwalls\/?p=5579"},"modified":"2026-03-26T16:41:39","modified_gmt":"2026-03-26T20:41:39","slug":"the-week-plan","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.sw.siemens.com\/embedded-software\/2013\/10\/03\/the-week-plan\/","title":{"rendered":"The Week Plan"},"content":{"rendered":"

We live in a stressful world. Do you know anyone [who is in full possession of their mental faculties and not dependent on some substance or other] who is not under stress at least some of the time? No, me neither. It was many years ago that I figured out exactly what stress really is<\/a>. But that did not enable me to eliminate it.<\/p>\n

However, I could take a look at some causes and try to address them …<\/p>\n

Having figured out that it is all about being in control [or, at least, having the perception that you are in control], I looked to identify areas of my life that were out of control and could be improved. My own management of time and work was the key thing that I concluded would be worth an overhaul. At that time, I read about and, in my own way, implemented the 4 Ds Principle<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>Using this technique has served me well. I mostly have a clear desk [as you can see] and my email inbox contains, at worst, a handful of messages. So far, so good. In order to manage my time, I have used two [obvious] tools – a calendar and a ToDo list – to which I refer constantly. Over the years, the specific technology that I have used has changed, but the principle of usage has not. Currently I use Google Calendar and Toodledo – these both have the advantages of being free, they are simple and work well and they are readily accessible from PC, iPad and phone.<\/p>\n

This traditional approach has always had a small problem: both the calendar and the ToDo list go on for ever [or, at least, for an indefinite period into the future]. This is a problem because just looking at them can be daunting – just so much stuff! That feeling in itself is a distraction and leads potentially to a lack of focus, so, a while ago, I came up with the idea of a Week Plan.\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

The concept is trivially simple. Each week [currently I routinely do this on a Friday], I draw up a plan for what the next week will look like. There are simply 7 headings, Monday – Sunday [Why do US calendars so commonly start on Sunday, which, for most people, is the last day of the week?]. By reference to my calendar and ToDo list, I fill in what is planned for each day. Then I just refer to this plan as I work through the week. I have included an example here [which probably gives you a greater insight into the mundane aspects of my life than you need].<\/p>\n

The Week Plan is a living document – things get changed and moved about or even deleted [although canceled things often get a strike-through, as this leaves a record of my plans]. That is just how life is. But, for me, this gives a feeling of containment [within a week] and some confidence that I will get the right things done at the right time.<\/p>\n

Sometimes I prepare a plan ahead of time – either completely or just inserting a few new things that are not in the distant future. I do not have a religious attachment to dealing with it on a Friday – that just happens to frequently be convenient. If new things come up for attention in the future [beyond this week], they go into my calendar\/ToDo and, hence, into my Week Plan in due course.<\/p>\n

My current tool for preparing Week Plans is Evernote [I have used other things in the past]. This fits in well with the way that I work and it supports check boxes, hyperlinks and attached documents. I can also easily access it from anywhere. The plans are in their own notebook with titles derived from the date – this week’s is called 130930. A spin-off advantage of this approach is that I have a historical record of what I have done and when. With Evernote’s very powerful search capabilities, I have a good way of locating and tracking past activity.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

We live in a stressful world. Do you know anyone [who is in full possession of their mental faculties and…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":71677,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"spanish_translation":"","french_translation":"","german_translation":"","italian_translation":"","polish_translation":"","japanese_translation":"","chinese_translation":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[370,302],"industry":[],"product":[],"coauthors":[],"class_list":["post-5579","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news","tag-evernote","tag-off-topic"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.sw.siemens.com\/embedded-software\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5579","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.sw.siemens.com\/embedded-software\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.sw.siemens.com\/embedded-software\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.sw.siemens.com\/embedded-software\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/71677"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.sw.siemens.com\/embedded-software\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5579"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.sw.siemens.com\/embedded-software\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5579\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":10209,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.sw.siemens.com\/embedded-software\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5579\/revisions\/10209"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.sw.siemens.com\/embedded-software\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5579"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.sw.siemens.com\/embedded-software\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5579"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.sw.siemens.com\/embedded-software\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5579"},{"taxonomy":"industry","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.sw.siemens.com\/embedded-software\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/industry?post=5579"},{"taxonomy":"product","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.sw.siemens.com\/embedded-software\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/product?post=5579"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.sw.siemens.com\/embedded-software\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=5579"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}