How to schedule your week as a coach

Feeling frantic or lost when it comes to your coaching business and making money online? I learned this one simple trick from a coach I hired, and it changed my business and life for the better. Learn how to schedule your week as a coach and get your sanity back!

I have become obsessed with using a weekly schedule for my coaching business.

I love waking up on Monday mornings and knowing how my week will play out.

But it wasn’t always this way.

I used to be a hot mess! Ha ha! I mean, if you are experiencing this right now, I feel you. Not knowing what to spend time on can make you feel distracted, frustrated, and torn in a million directions.

I’d often stare at my computer screen asking myself what I should be working on next. My day would go by in a blink of an eye and I always felt like real projects never received my proper attention. And then, I got a coach, and things changed!

Schedule your week as a coach

The very first thing my coach had me do was go to a Google Doc Weekly Schedule template and fill in the tasks for my week.

I have to say when I first opened the template, I stared at it in disbelief. How was this little document going to make things better?

I now attribute 85% of my success in my coaching business and other goal-related areas of my life to the way I plan and structure my days in the weekly schedule.

If you are skeptical, I get it. But what I will say is don’t knock it until you REALLY try it. This means, giving it a go for at least 4 weeks in a row.

Here is what I learned. Maybe it will help you schedule your week as a coach:

Know your highest priorities

Not planning your week can leave you feeling lost about what to do next. If you are trying to schedule your week as a coach, not having your priorities in mind can make things even worse.

Sure, we can fill our schedule with busy tasks and things that make it seem like we are getting a lot done. Have you heard the saying,”Just because you are busy, doesn’t mean you are accomplishing something.”

It’s important to know what your goals are as a coach and to plan tasks into your week to help you accomplish those goals. This means you get clear on your goals first and then outline the highest priorities.

Start with your goals as a coach

Everyone has a different picture of success. It’s important to tune into your own vision and truth about what success as a coach looks like to you.

Maybe it means you get to travel while coaching. Perhaps you want to bring people together in community settings and coach groups of people online on a specific topic. Or maybe you want to host larger retreats once a quarter to inspire and bring value to a specific group.

I knew I wanted to have an online coaching business, and I started a few different websites tailored to each of those niches. Here is a related post about how to start a website for a specific niche. I’m able to live off of the income from all of my online businesses now.

It’s important to get clear about who you are as a coach and how you want to serve. Then you can map out smaller tasks and make them priorities on your weekly schedule.

Block time for the highest priorities

Proactively blocking time on a weekly schedule for the things that are most important in your life and business will help you stay focused and sane!

This was a huge ah-ha for me as I started to use the weekly schedule for my coaching business.

When I blocked out uninterrupted time for the projects with the greatest impact, it started to shift my business and life in huge ways.

Here’s how to start to schedule your week as a coach:

First, use the weekly template to schedule your business and life. Save the template into your own Google account or onto your own Excel spreadsheet, and make it your own. Use your own colors, add and delete fields, change headings, etc. This is just an example to get you started.

To narrow down what to include on your weekly template especially for your business, ask yourself what are your top 3 goals right now for your coaching business. Also, what are your top 3 goals right now in life?

For your coaching business goal, list out a few tasks which would provide the highest value and impact to help you accomplish your goal.

Do the same for your life goals.

These tasks are now your highest priority for your business and life. It’s time to schedule these tasks into your week as a coach.

(Pin it for Later)

Tips for how to schedule your week as a coach

Here are some basic tips for what to think about as you schedule your week as a coach. Try to think in terms of being a COACH. What does a COACH need to be doing? What type of COACH are you? How does this type of COACH live? Make sure to get clear on what a successful coach means to YOU and don’t just copy others’ programs. Allow other coaches to inspire your own growth. As you schedule your week as a coach, make sure you are fulfilling the tasks that match up with YOU.

Do more of what IS working

I found that there were a lot of things I could easily waste my time on as a coach. I kept trying one new thing after the next. But my coach had me simply focus on one thing, what was already working to bring new clients my way and to keep doing more of that.

Schedule the highest priority tasks first in your day

One trick many successful coaches use is to schedule your highest priority tasks for the beginning of your day. I actually used this trick for my fitness goals and it really works. I scheduled my workout in the morning so I would make sure to get it in. If I waited to do a workout for later in the day, I was often too tired or made excuses.

Also, everyone has a “magic time.” This is the time in the day when you are at your peak. As you use your weekly schedule, you may want to observe what hours of the day you tend to feel at your best. Then schedule your tasks in to fit with this magic time.

Time block

Fill in the obvious items on your schedule such as your meal times, health and fitness workout times, relationship and family time, cleaning, grocery shopping, etc. I love using specific colors for each of these items.

Then schedule in your work tasks related to your top goals. Block out tasks into 2 hour chunks of time. Blocking your time in this way gives you a few minutes to get into your task, and then at the 2 hour mark, you can take a much needed break.

Schedule in breaks

Breaks can include time with friends, time with family, time to read, time to meditate, time for fun, fitness time, hobby time. I like to sprinkle these into my schedule and also use them as rewards for when I get bigger tasks completed.

Create themes for certain days of the week

At the top of the template, you will see headings for themes. I found that it was easier for me to stay in a groove for the day if I stuck to a certain theme for the day. Some days can be planning days while others are meeting days. You may also categorize days as creative days, days off, networking days, promotional days, or office task days. Again, make it your own!

Allow openings in the schedule

It might be tempting to fill up every hour of every day with tasks, but I would caution against doing this. Over-scheduling can leave you feeling overwhelmed and stressed, especially if you are a perfectionist type.

Leave blocks of time in your day as a buffer so you can fill in the time with tasks that pop up. These openings also give you buffer time for completing tasks which might need a little extra care. I’ve also found that I don’t feel as rushed if I leave some open blocks in my day.

The goal of the weekly schedule should be to help you feel more relaxed and peaceful about your week. By using the schedule as an awareness tool, you may start to see what wasteful tasks you can cut from your days.

Plan ahead when you schedule your week as a coach

At first, I used a few hours on Mondays to fill out my weekly schedule. As I noticed how much it was helping me to stay on task, I got excited about creating my schedule for the week and decided to use some free time on the weekends to plan my week ahead. This way when Monday rolled around, I could hit the ground running.

Learn what works for you and make this your default template

Once you use a weekly schedule for a few weeks in a row, you will start to see what type of schedule works best for you. Planning your week will become more and more efficient as you develop a sense for how many tasks you can handle in a week, how much time you need for family, your workouts, etc. My best suggestion is to just make sure to have your highest priorities on the top of your checklist and then add in the rest. This could look something like this:

• Business: 5 Goal Related Tasks (2 hour time blocks 5 times a week)
• Relationship: Fun Night Out, Dinner Out, Time together on Sundays
• Health: 3 Workouts, Walk Daily as a Break
• Relaxation: 1 Hobby Time, Self Care Night, Meditation Daily
• Social: Dinner with friends one night, Coffee shop Saturday Mornings
• Fun: 1 Weekend Activity
• Admin: Clean, Do Laundry, Go Grocery Shopping

Schedule your week as a coach to create focus and sanity

The greatest benefit that comes when you schedule your week as a coach is you have something to refer to is you get distracted or lose focus. This was a big one for me personally. It never fails… I often sit down to my computer to start a task and instead I check email and then I’m suddenly watching videos and completely distracted.

Having a schedule helped me know exactly what I wanted to accomplish in my day and gave me my sanity back!

Related Articles:

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How to Make Money Coaching Online
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How about you? Do you use a weekly schedule or list to stay on track with your tasks? Share in the comments below!