This past Friday I was co-working with my friend Sheetal and before we headed out for the weekend, I told her I had to do my end of week routine. I showed her the steps I take to organize my outstanding tasks, inbox, and files, and how I clear my mind for the weekend. Though to be honest, most Saturday mornings I still end up working, but it’s usually on a few key items and I already know what has to get done Friday at close of business so I can enjoy my Friday night.
She suggested I do a blog post about my Friday wrap up and I was like “perfect, now I don’t have to brainstorm Saturday morning,” so thank you, Sheetal!
There are three key steps I go through at the end of each Friday to ensure that I’m set up for the weekend and can pick up right where I left off on Monday.
Step One: Notes
Step Two: Emails
Step Three: Updating To-Do Lists
Below is an example of what a Trello board looks like. I blacked out my notes because they mention my clients, but you can see that I have five main lists: To Do, Doing, Done, Kudos/Wins/You’re Doing Just Fine, and Personal To Dos.
It’s pretty self explanatory. On the first three lists I keep track of where I am on work tasks. Each item can be opened up and you can add more detail to what needs to be accomplished, like check lists and notes. The fourth list is where I put small and large wins of what I’ve achieved throughout the week, and the last list is where I keep track of my personal to dos.
At the end of the week I make a copy of the board, change up the background, and reshuffle the tasks to the appropriate list for the next week. I also add any other tasks from my email clean up. I take the wins from the week and move them to a separate “wins” board, which is sort of like a work journal/place for me to keep my accomplishments to see how I’m progressing.
Step Four: File Cleanup
Do you have an end of week routine? Is there any step that you find super helpful?
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