How to Plan Your Week When You’re Running a Business

What’s the simplest way to plan a week as an entrepreneur?

The simplest way is one page, laid out for the whole week ahead, filled in the right order. Maggie says she has tried many apps and calendars over the years, and they can be genuinely useful — but she keeps returning to a single planning sheet that she color codes and lays out for the week ahead.

The point isn’t paper versus phone. The point is having one place where you can see where your time actually goes, and where you still have room. If you already have an app you love, she invites you to share it — the method underneath is what makes the difference.

Why should the big things go on the calendar first?

Because whatever goes in first decides what else will fit. Maggie uses the familiar jar illustration: if you pour the water in first, nothing else fits. If you put the giant rocks in first, then the little rocks, then the pebbles, then the sand, and the water last, everything goes in.

Your week works the same way. The question isn’t how much you can cram in — it’s in what order you place things. Start with the commitments that truly can’t move, and the smaller tasks settle into the space around them.

How do I build the weekly plan, step by step?

Maggie’s process moves from the fixed to the flexible. Here is the order she walks through in the video:

• Give every area of life its own color. On her sheet, purple is her own time, green is her business, blue is family, each of her kids has a color, and yellow is learning.
• Place your non-negotiables first. If you work for someone else, that job is a non-negotiable right now — put it in before anything else.
• Block your own time. For Maggie that means prayer, meditation and exercise, and she uses them to bookend her day, morning and night.
• Add what you want to track along the bottom — she mentions water and protein — so you can see where to adjust.
• Look for the open windows. Once the big rocks are in, the gaps become visible, and you can decide deliberately what goes there.
• Write your top three goals at the bottom of the page: what you’re tracking, what you’re doing, and your specific focus for the week.

Why does tracking matter in a weekly plan?

Tracking turns a vague intention into something you can adjust. Maggie adds a tracking row to the bottom of her sheet so she can see where and how she can adjust. Seeing the numbers each week replaces guessing with information.

How do I plan around my energy and my season of life?

Plan for the person you actually are this season, not an ideal version of yourself. When Maggie laid out her own week, she assessed how many clients she could realistically see and recognized that she isn’t her best self at night — so she keeps just one client in the evening. With kids coming and going, she describes that as the phase she’s in right now.

That kind of honesty is what makes a plan hold. If you are juggling kids, she says, you really need to plan. The sheet shows you where your good hours are, and lets you protect them for the work that matters most.

When is the best time to plan the week ahead?

Sunday night. Maggie calls it potentially the most powerful time of the week — a few minutes to yourself to plan ahead before Monday arrives. That short window is where you get specific: what’s fixed, where the windows are, and which three goals the week is really for.

She is candid that the week rarely turns out exactly as planned. But it comes out much closer than it would without a plan — and skipping the plan, she warns, sets you up for more failure and more frustration.

What if I have too many goals for one week?

Narrow to one focus and follow it through. Maggie’s guidance for the week is to follow one course until successful — pick the specific focus, work it until it’s done, and notice how long it takes you. Three goals at the bottom of the page keeps the week honest; one clear focus keeps it moving.