How I Plan my Week with Notion and GTD + Template

TL;DR: In this post, I talk about GTD, a method that guides you to create an inventory of organized actions which are aligned to your own goals and priorities, and how I use Notion to organize my weeks using this method. I list a step-by-step process so you learn how to plan your weeks in Notion.

Get all my Notion Templates (including this one)

“Get your shit together!” Was my personal catchphrase I kept saying to myself over and over again, scribbled all over my notebooks during my high school years.

Why did I feel like I needed to get my life together so badly?

I was not doing well in school; I was not at all organized because my focus was non-existent. Oh… the things I wish I knew.

I struggled all the way through University but I was lucky enough to leave my country, Venezuela, to find the time to focus on myself.

It wasn’t until years later when Tiago Forte published a class on Skillshare. He introduced me to my now productivity religion: the GTD Method from the Getting Things Done book written by David Allen.

Tiago, if you are reading this, you are a rockstar in my eyes.

What is the GTD method?

Getting things done is a book that guides you to create an inventory of organized actions which are aligned to your own goals and priorities. Check this crazy workflow chart out.

If you haven’t already and you’re somewhat obsessed about productivity then I recommend you read it; it’s a whole new world! *sings in Aladdin*.

Thanks to the GTD workflow I was able to comprehend that I shouldn’t rely on my ADD fueled brain (disclaimer: I haven’t been diagnosed, but I tick all the boxes).

I realized I wasn’t lazy, unmotivated or depressed. I was just lacking clarity.

What I needed was a system which could be molded into my habits (or the other way around, not sure yet).

I had to become the architect of my own life, meaning stop reacting to the shit that happened to me and start having the control to pivot my life where I wanted to go. No one was going to do it for me.

Even though GTD opened my eyes, I could not make it completely mine. I used it for months and then I abandoned it. The habit cue/reward loop system kind of vanished, it appeared less attractive to maintain it.

I felt that way with a bunch of different systems, including the bullet journal one, I couldn’t keep up. Side note: I picked up the book by Ryder Carroll, it seems promising.

As I continued with my experiments, I realized a system is not built in a day, not to mention it’s definitely not a one-size-fits-all type of deal.

Slowly, I started picking the habits that worked for me, which quickly snowballed into a complete system that allows me to work at my own pace, avoiding the “guilt” of not doing enough.

I’m still optimizing the way I want to work. I’m constantly making improvements every day, week and month.

How I use Notion.so to prioritize tasks and organize my upcoming week.

The practice that has stuck with me which I’ve consistently been improving is the Weekly Planning one. Every Sunday (or Monday) I schedule an hour to plan my upcoming week.

By adding this routine to my life, I’ve been able to tackle big challenging goals by breaking them down into doable tasks which allows me to manage them on a day-to-day basis, therefore I’ve felt focused to do the work with less overwhelm #trusttheprocess.

Notion.so is a game changer. Although it’s not quick to set up, it becomes super easy and effective when you have your workflow in place. It’s highly personalizable and fun to play with. Can’t recommend it enough.

To plan for my week, I use this Notion template button which provides me with a new clean table I can work with.

Here’s the step-by-step process I follow during my weekly planning sessions using Notion:

Notion Template to organize your week with GTD

What’s on your mind?

What’s the next action?

Is the task urgent and/or important?

How much time, attention, and energy will this task require?

Is this a priority?

Is this task scheduled?

Could you delegate this task?

Check this when you’re done.

What’s on your mind?

Take 10 minutes or less on each of these prompts to list and capture everything that you want to get done in the upcoming week:
1. List all the projects not yet started and in progress.
2. Check your previous weekly plan and 90-day plan for any pending tasks to accomplish.
3. Look over the upcoming weeks of your calendar for any new tasks or projects.
4. Is there anything on your mind you haven’t captured? Here’s a great list that could assist you in evaluating your upcoming tasks.
5. Check your notebook, are there any tasks or ideas to develop you haven’t captured?
6. Are there any tasks or people you need to follow up on?
What’s the next action?

It’s time for getting clarity and let’s eliminate or avoid all ambiguity. Ask yourself “What is the very next physical action that can be taken with this project?”.

Examples:

Continue working with the website Write a rough draft on the ‘about me’ copy for the website
Create a content calendar Draw a mind map and brainstorm topics for blog posts
Record a Video Write the script for the video
Meeting with Chris Send an email to Chris to schedule a time & place to meet

Remember a project takes more than 1 task to accomplish, this is when you have to figure out what must get done first and it shouldn’t be subjective.
Is the task urgent and/or important?

Next, you need to decide the urgency of each task. Remember, you need to focus on getting the RIGHT things done, don’t just focus on getting a lot of work done.

To figure out the tasks I need to focus on. I use 4 categories:
- Important tasks are the activities which get us closer to achieving our goals.
- Urgent tasks are the activities which demand our immediate attention.
- Nice to have tasks are the activities which are not necessarily urgent or important but could work as a bonus to your week.
- It can wait tasks are the activities which will be postponed to revise next week.
How much time, attention, and energy will this task require?

You must accept that you have a limited amount of time, attention and energy. Each task demands a percentage of these elements. Evaluate each task and give it a number which represents how much the task will take out of you.

For example, writing the first draft for a blog post would take 20% out of me, but writing a 3 lines email would take 2%.

This was such a genius idea I got from Sebastian Marshall at one of his Ultraworking workshops.
Is this aligned with your values and principles?

By figuring out your “why”, you could easily achieve tasks that are aligned with who you want to become in the future. I have a list of principles which I read every week, and they help me to commit to myself for extra self-accountability.

This is an ongoing exercise I’ve been doing for the past few years. The original idea came from Tylor Pearsons’ Principles.
Is this a priority?

Choose all the items that have Important and Urgent tags on them and what you want or need to get done no matter what, there’s your priority list.

When you’re done sum up all percentages of your commitments. If you are committing to more than 90% you are putting too much on your plate. Reevaluate for a kinder week.

Notion tip: You can add a filter the table on the template where Priorities is checked and sum all of the percentages.
Is this task scheduled?

Go ahead and schedule each item to your weekly calendar.
By the way, the template also has the week calendar spread I like to use.
Could you delegate this task?

Yeah, yeah, yeah… you have as many hours in a day as Beyonce, but she has a huge support team who helps her get where they are. Do you have a glam squad, a team or person that could help you alleviate your task load?
Brownie points for getting more shit together
- Review spending for the past week, and decide on a budget for the coming week.
- Plan food for the week and add items to the grocery list.
- Process inbox & file anything you’ve put into your inbox over the past week into the correct area (if applicable).
- Schedule at least one day for the week to exercise.
Let me know if this was useful to you by tweeting to me about it!

Thanks for reading 🙂