Stage 5: Intentional Living | Weekly Planner

The week is where life design actually happens. Monthly goals set direction, but the week is the unit where you can see patterns, adjust course, and make meaningful progress on things that take longer than a day.

This planner gives you a simple weekly structure: set your intention, map your priorities against your energy, check in on your experiments, and reflect at the end. The whole point is to keep your daily actions connected to the bigger picture you're building.

How to plan a week well

The weekly review

David Allen's Getting Things Done system (2001) introduced the weekly review as a core practice. Allen's version takes 30 to 60 minutes and involves clearing your inbox, reviewing your active projects, and deciding what matters next week. You don't need to follow his full system to benefit from the principle: a weekly pause to look up from the daily grind and ask "am I working on the right things?"

The review has two jobs. First, close out the current week (what happened, what didn't, what needs to carry forward). Second, set up the next one. Do both, and you start Monday already knowing where your energy should go.

Energy-based scheduling

Most people plan their week around time slots. But it's better to plan around energy. Tony Schwartz's research at the Human Performance Institute found that managing energy (not time) is the key to sustained high performance. His book The Power of Full Engagement (2003) showed that people who match task difficulty to energy levels outperform those who just fill time slots.

You already mapped your energy patterns in Stage 1. Use that data here. If your sharpest hours are 9 to 11am, that's when your hardest experiment work should happen. Routine tasks (email, admin, errands) go in low-energy windows. This isn't complicated, but almost nobody does it.

Time blocking

Cal Newport popularised time blocking in Deep Work (2016). The idea is that instead of keeping a vague to-do list, we should assign every hour of our day a specific task or category of work. People who time block report getting 20 to 40 percent more done in the same hours, mostly because they eliminate the decision fatigue of constantly asking "what should I do next?"

For life design purposes, you don't need rigid hour-by-hour blocks. A looser version works just as well: divide each day into 3 or 4 chunks (morning, midday, afternoon, evening) and assign a focus to each. Leave some buffer, of course. The goal is direction, not a prison schedule. :)

Implementation intentions

Peter Gollwitzer's research on implementation intentions (1999) found that people who specify when, where, and how they'll act on a goal are 2 to 3 times more likely to follow through. It's a simple format: "When [situation], I will [action]." For example: "When I sit down at my desk on Monday morning, I will spend the first 90 minutes on my experiment prototype."

Your weekly planner is the perfect place to set these. For each priority, write a specific implementation intention. Remember that vague plans fail - and specific ones stick.

The Sunday reset

Pick a consistent time each week for your planning session. Sunday evening works for most people because it lets you start the week with clarity, but any consistent time works. The consistency matters more than the day. Spend 20 to 30 minutes reviewing last week, then mapping the week ahead. That's it.

Your weekly planner

Access your Notion workbook here.

Complete this at the start of each week. Refer back to your monthly planner for context.

Week overview

• Week of:

• This week's intention: what would make this week feel well-spent?

• Connected to monthly priority: Which of your 3 monthly priorities does this serve?

Top 3 priorities this week

These are the 3 things that, if you accomplish nothing else, would still make the week a success. Be specific.

Experiment check-in

What are you actively testing this week? What's the one thing you'll do to move each experiment forward?

Day-to-day plan

Next, map each day loosely. Try to match your energy: hard work in high-energy windows, routine tasks in low-energy ones. Use this structure:

• Morning Focus/Themes: loose to-do list

• Midday Focus/Themes: loose to-do list

• Afternoon Focus/Themes: loose to-do list

• Evening Focus/Themes: loose to-do list

Energy mapping

Rate your expected energy for each day. Mark your protected deep work blocks. This takes 2 minutes and saves hours of fighting your own biology.

For each day, note the expected energy (1-5), deep work block, and what you need to protect from.

End-of-week reflection

Complete this on Friday evening or during your Sunday review. 10 to 15 minutes.

• What went well this week?

• What didn't go as planned? Why?

• Did I work on my top 3 priorities?

• What did I learn about myself this week?

• What will I do differently next week?

AI companion (optional)

How to use: Share your monthly priorities, your active experiments from Stage 4, and your energy patterns from Stage 1. The AI will help you build a specific, energy-matched weekly plan. Best done during your Sunday reset. 15 to 20 minutes.

Copy and paste the prompt below into Claude, ChatGPT, or any AI assistant:
You are a weekly planning coach helping me design an intentional week. I'll share my monthly priorities, active experiments, and energy patterns. Your job is to:
(1) Help me identify the 3 most important things I should focus on this week based on my monthly goals and where I am in my experiments. Push back if I'm trying to do too much. Three is the max.
(2) For each priority, help me create a specific implementation intention: when exactly will I do it, where, and what's the first physical action? Vague plans don't work.
(3) Look at my energy patterns and help me map tasks to the right time slots. Hard creative work goes in high-energy windows. Admin and routine go in low-energy ones.
(4) Ask me what derailed last week. Help me identify one specific thing I can do differently this week to prevent the same pattern.
(5) Check if my week includes buffer time. If every hour is scheduled, I'll fail by Wednesday. Help me build in at least 20% unscheduled time. One question at a time.
Be practical and specific. If my plans are vague ("work on my project"), push for concrete next actions ("write the first 500 words of the landing page").