Early in my coaching partnership with new clients, I introduce them to the concept of creating a template for their “Ideal Week” by dealing with these two questions:
1. How many hours a week do you feel it is reasonable and realistic to work?
2. When will you work those hours?
When you decide when you’re working, you’re also deciding when you’re not working, and that’s where everything else in your life goes.
The biggest single issue that almost all my clients struggle with (in one way or the other) is finding a healthy balance between work/ministry, personal life and family life.
Here are some excellent thoughts from my friend and fellow coach, JT Ayers.
Be sure to subscribe and check out CoachAyers.com for more essential Leadership training. I follow him and recommend you do as well!
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Life is crazy. Life is chaotic. Life can feel like you are putting out fires one after another. I once heard it like this: You are given a plate. This plate holds all your roles and responsibilities. Some leaders can handle a lot, while others not so much. All depends on the plate size. As a leader, wouldn’t you want a larger plate?
An Ideal Week can increase your plate size.
HOW DO YOU INCREASE YOUR PLATE SIZE?
Take charge of your day/week/month so you are productive and feel like you have accomplished something of value.
Wake up each day with purpose and a priority list of goals
Create a schedule that demands your very best without Burn Out.
MAKE AN IDEAL WEEK
Michael Hyatt states: “You have a choice in life. You can either live on-purpose, according to a plan you’ve set. Or you can live by accident, reacting to the demands of others. The first approach is proactive; the second reactive.”
A few years back my mentor Dave Kraft introduced me to an Ideal Week – A way to be more proactive. It is important and productive to have a game plan you can come back to when you lose course. An Ideal Week is your compass.
The ideal week is a visual of how you would like to use your time. In reality you are never really able to follow the schedule perfectly, however, you now have a game plan.
Here’s mine:

This keeps me balanced. You can find my focus areas on the bottom of the spreadsheet.
When I feel out of “whack” or unbalanced, I look at my ideal week. I will make adjustments to the seasons of life I find myself in. It is simple. An excel spreadsheet and I added color.
Interested in the Ideal Week.
Click here to download a blank copy (.xls)
Get started on your own and let the productivity begin!
CONCLUSION
– I have coached/mentored college athletes who have put their class schedule in their ideal week and when they were going to study, go out, sleep, and workout.
– I have coached/mentored business professionals who wanted to make better time when they traveled and when they were working out of the house.
– I have coached/mentored pastors that desire to be more effective in their ministries and can give everyone the time they are asking for.
– I have coached/mentored teachers and coaches who wish to end their day feeling like they didn’t waste any time.
People count on you. This is just a tool. A means to an end. I personally don’t like my life as a template, however there is great value in routine, structure, and discipline. Time is a non-renewable resource. You only get so much of it. Use it wisely. Make an Ideal Week.
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