Awhile back, I used to share my weekly planners on this blog. I stopped sharing them because I felt ashamed by how rarely I followed through on my commitments. I started to see the same tasks, week after week, being left undone. I spent a lot of time doing things that didn’t matter.

Although the planner did help me (sort of) to organize my week, where I was going continued to feel a little bit fuzzy. I couldn’t quite identify what it was I was actually working toward. I mean, I had a huge grandiose vision of success, but I never quite figured out how to use the planner to break my days into tasks that would eventually lead somewhere different than where I already was.

In some ways, the planner was also blocking my ability to be spontaneous. By sticking so strictly to a plan, I think I probably missed a few opportunities. They weren’t in my line of vision. Big change was never on my “to-do list” for the day.

Our man-made version of time is circular. The year always returns to January, and the clock always returns to midnight. We’ve conditioned ourselves to repeat. We create paradigms where it makes sense to have the exact same job until retirement; where repeating the same day over and over again is normal. I’m beginning to realize how flawed this sort of thinking is. Time is, and always has been, linear.

So, I had a dilemma. I knew that planning my week was important, but I also knew that I needed to adjust the template I’d been using to make it more conducive to growth, spontaneity and accountability. Every day should contain a unique mixture of the three, but so few days actually do.

I got to work. I still felt like my original weekly planner template worked pretty well, but it needed to interact with something bigger. It didn’t really work as a stand alone system. Here’s what I’ve come up with:

The Base – Your Weekly Planner

This is where you actually plan your week. I fill out mine every Sunday (sometimes on Monday). Click on the photo to explore the google doc. I think you should be able to duplicate the above weekly planner and add it to your own google docs. If this is not actually possible, send me an e-mail and let me know.

I’ve left notes next to each of the sections to explain what they are and how you use them. This template is based off of the weekly planner from The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People by Steven Covey.

You can also decide what day you’d like the week to start on. In my own personal version of the planner (my weekly planner for September 8th-14th), I actually have it start on a Monday and end on a Sunday.

Goals: 1 month to 20 Years from Now

This came from my mentor Liz Levine.

Filling out the weekly planner every week starts to feel a little repetitive if you don’t have a clear sense of what you’re working toward. This exercise is a lot harder than I thought it’d be. Here’s what you do: set some goals for yourself for 1 month, 3 months, 6 months, 1 year, 2 years, 5 years, 10 years and 20 years. I found that this exercise works best if you tackle it backwards. Start at 20 years and work backwards to one month.

I broke mine into sections. I included career goals, but then also used it plan out the time I’d need to master a skill. I also thought about adventures that I had sitting on my bucket list.

Further Looking At Each Month

Next up is a closer look at each of your monthly goals. I took these right from my weekly planner, but then expanded on it a little bit. I added a “why” section to ensure that the things I was spending time on were actually moving me in the direction I wanted to go. In the weekly planning section, I provided an opportunity to reflect on your week. Here there is a further opportunity to reflect on your month.

Also, because the larger goal setting template will be continuously edited, this allows me to log what each months goals were, so I don’t lose track of my progress.

This is the first month that I’ve done this. I think it will feel good, when January arrives, to look back and be able to see exactly how I’ve grown both professionally and as a person.

Celebrate Those Accomplishments

I definitely don’t do this enough. Every time I accomplish something, this template gives me a place to log it. I think it will feel really good to see these columns grow. My sections include: acting, writing, other career accomplishments, travel, skills mastered, financial milestones, experiences, and personal milestones / breakthroughs. Naturally the columns/categories you choose are completely up to you.

Edit As You Go

Finally, I’ve allowed myself the freedom to edit all of these documents as I see fit. I know that what I want now might not (and probably won’t) be what I want five years from now.

In Conclusion

And there you have it. That’s how I’m staying accountable to myself, while also planning for growth and spontaneity.

I recently had an interesting conversation with a friend of mine about talent. He believed that talent wasn’t something you just have, he believed it was something you had to earn. You earn it by working.

“You’re not simply entitled to be an actor – you’re not an actor just because you call yourself one – you earn it. You earn it by working.”
– Larry Moss, Intent to Live

You need to consciously work to create progress in your life. Don’t rely too heavily on chance. Work to become so good that they can’t ignore. That, at least, has always been my mantra.