Plan Your Life in Weeks (Friday Planning)
Plan the week on Friday afternoon, then pull each day's short list from the weekly priorities.
- Difficulty
- Easy
- Time to result
- ~weeks to results
- Steps
- 5
- Confidence
- 84%
Vanderkam plans her life in weeks because the week is the real cycle of life. She reserves Friday afternoon for planning the coming week: reviewing every project like spinning plates — what needs a push, what spins on its own, what stops without her, what new plates to add — and building a weekly priority list. She then pulls each day's three-to-five tasks from that list, typically firming up Monday through mid-Wednesday and leaving the rest open for what comes up. Friday beats Monday morning (which should be spent on high-energy work, not planning) and Sunday night (when collaborators aren't at their desks), and it doubles as time to plan the weekend.
Origin
Vanderkam built this from her broader practice of planning life in weeks, and settled on Friday afternoon after reasoning through the opportunity costs and logistics of Monday morning and Sunday night alternatives.
Core principles
- 01The week, not the day, is the real cycle of life; plan at that level.
- 02Friday afternoon is often wasted time, so repurposing it for planning has near-zero opportunity cost.
- 03People are still at their desks Friday afternoon, so you can set up next week's meetings and requests.
- 04Don't fully pre-schedule every day — leave space for what will inevitably come up.
- 05Friday planning lets you plan the weekend too, so it doesn't evaporate.
How to run it
- 1
Reserve Friday afternoon
Block time on Friday afternoon, when little of consequence gets done anyway, for planning the week ahead.
Pro tip Because Friday afternoon is often wasted, repurposing it for planning costs you almost nothing.
- 2
Run through your spinning plates
Review all projects and spheres: what needs you to push it, what's spinning without help, what stops entirely, and what new plates to add.
Pro tip Collaborators are still at their desks Friday afternoon, so you can set up meetings or request what you need.
- 3
Build the weekly priority list
Write a list of everything you need to get to over the course of the week.
- 4
Pull daily lists, leave slack
Pull each day's three-to-five tasks from the weekly list, firming up Monday through mid-Wednesday and leaving later days open.
Pro tip You can't know everything Thursday will need a week ahead, so don't over-schedule.
Watch out Making the entire week's daily lists at once fails because stuff always comes up.
- 5
Plan the weekend too
Use the same Friday session to decide what would be fun on the weekend and handle any logistics.
Pro tip Planning Friday means you have more fun than waiting until Saturday morning when no one feels like organizing anything.
In the wild
Someone tries to plan the week Sunday at 8pm and realizes they need to set up a meeting or get something from a colleague, but no one is at their desk to respond.
→ Shifting the planning to Friday afternoon means collaborators are reachable during business hours and the week is set up properly.
Common mistakes
Planning on Monday morning
Monday morning is your highest-energy block and should go to big speculative work; spending it on planning wastes peak energy on a low-cost task.
Scheduling the entire week in advance
You can't know everything Thursday will require by the prior Friday, so locking every day leaves no room for what inevitably comes up.
Is it for you?
Best for
People juggling multiple projects who want a reliable weekly cadence that feeds their daily short lists.
Not ideal for
People with highly unpredictable schedules where a week can't be meaningfully planned in advance.
From the transcript
“i plan my life in weeks i heartily recommend this and i have a weekly priority list of all the things i need to sort…”
“if it would be wasted time there's no opportunity cost to now rework it for planning time so let's make it planning time”
From the episode
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Laura Vanderkam