When Friday comes, do you feel like you’ve won your homeschool week and can celebrate? Or are you thinking about all the things you didn’t do well? In this episode, I’ll share tips for winning your homeschool week through proper planning. Before we dive into the topic, I want to thank CTC Math for sponsoring this episode.

Sponsor

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Winning the Week by Demir Bentley

I recently finished reading Demir Bentley’s book Winning the Week. I feel newly inspired and also feel validated in the planning process I teach to homeschool moms.

The key to winning your week is simple: It’s planning it. Most homeschoolers know that they should plan their week for success, just as most of the staff and entrepreneurs Demir Bentley is addressing know they should plan. But only a small percentage of us do.

Why is that?

• Don’t have time

• Afraid of the past

• Afraid of the future

But planning the week is a powerful way of decreasing anxiety and improving motivation. Because it has negative affect associated with it, though, we avoid it. Demir advises us to make planning a pleasant experience.

How to Plan a Winning Homeschool Week

Once you have a pleasant experience planned, start with prayer.

• Calendar

• Email

• Mail inbox

• Messages

• Purse

• Task list

Use the weekly planning page from The Organized Homeschool Life Planner.

Choose leveraged task (The One Thing by Gary Keller)

Choose one goal for the week  – specify on weekly page

Now plan these must-do tasks for the week. If you have the Organized Homeschool Life planner, you can put them on the daily planning pages. I would suggest listing no more than 3 tasks per day to leave room for tasks that pop up. You can plan in more detail each day.

The other way to plan your weekly tasks is with a calendar or agenda. You can see visually that you will not have time to do math on Friday because you have a co-op meeting and a park day following. You won’t expect things to magically get done. You’ll put math on your day at home.

Schedule your tasks with as much detail as you like – in the morning, afternoon, or evening boxes in the Organized Homeschool Life planner, or at set times in Google calendar or an hourly agenda.

Be sure to leave time for what I call walk-in tasks.

Demir advises us to schedule our goal-related and priority tasks at the beginning of the week. I like keeping Fridays for easy tasks and for catch-up time if needed.

If you’re ready for more advanced weekly planning, you can plan your leisure activities, too. Put a dinner party with friends, a game night, or a hike on the schedule, so it is a lot more likely to happen.

Next week during your weekly planning session, ask yourself what went well so you can do more of that. Give yourself credit for it and thank God for the blessings.

Conclusion

With proper planning, you can have less anxiety, more motivation, and a happier homeschool.

Thanks again to CTCMath for sponsoring the podcast.