How I plan my weeks (I wish I knew this sooner)

Read time : 4.5 minutes

Welcome to Wisdom Weekly where I help you become more happy, healthy and productive in around 10 minutes a week.

Today's Wisdom:

• My week so far: Crippling debt, stacking wins, and humble pie for the holidays
• A resource for you: The book helping me get my s*** together
• Question or answer: “How do you plan your week?”

My week so far: Crippling debt, stacking wins, and humble pie for the holidays

This week, I’ve been reflecting on my growth this year personally and professionally.

Two phrases come to mind:

• Humble pie: everyone needs a slice of this from time to time. I damn near ate the whole pie this year.
• Cutting teeth: like a baby growing teeth that poke through their gums… doing anything for the first time can be hard and painful, even if necessary.

Total trust, and commitment was required. I gained the willingness to suck at things, and even be told I suck. More skills built than I can put on this page.

How’s your week been?

What I am working on

Last week I announced some completed projects like revamping my website, this newsletter, and my entire identity… only some minor things.

Now let’s talk this week.

In my personal life: I am diving into my routines and spiritual practice.

I have been very productive, and happy as I get back “to the grind” so to speak.

• Sleep schedule.
• Gym time.
• Work hours.

It’s been better than before by far.

Stick around to the end of this letter: I broke down my weekly planning routine if you want to learn how I’m doing it.

The main challenge for me at the moment is my finances. Up until now I always had a savings, and no debt. Now I have no savings, and debt.

Here’s what I am doing to get back on track:

• No using credit cards until they are paid off… and then only for fixed bills like my gym membership for example. Lastly, I will then add an autopay so I don’t ever use it for “out of pocket” expenses anymore.
• Earning income. Getting new clients, booking out my retreats, selling some real estate, and looking for a remote sales position. All so I can stay in Texas while I build this business (my online brand, retreats, etc).
• Being patient. It took time to get into this position, it will take time to get out.

In my professional life: I am working on a few things.

1. The job / income thing I mentioned above.
2. 365 days of posting a short video daily on Instagram and TikTok. I met a kid who grew to 200k+ in around 100 days of doing this, so I am going to follow his lead. Feel free to follow along @crscjourney.
3. Building my practice. I’ve spent the last year training to offer “psychedelic therapy” to put it simply. I am looking for 1-on-1 clients to work with in Utah and Texas, if that is you let's chat.
4. ​Brother to Brother. This is an online Men’s Mental Health (and then some) support group. We have our first call on Saturday morning. It’s a good group of guys I am leading. They will thrive and empower themselves through the tools and advice gained.

Overall things are looking good.

Weekly win and miss

My win: Daily meditation, and exercise of some form (gym, yoga, and walks). It feels damn gooood.

My miss: Social media distraction. It's such a great tool, but quickly becomes an echo chamber for the dark recesses of our minds. Lustful posts, memes, and keeping up with the jones's is what it's become... unless we use it to educate and inspire ourselves.

What about you? Reply and let me know.

A resource for you: The book helping me get my s*** together

The book I am reading (don’t judge I haven’t finished it yet lol), and highly recommend is The One Thing.

I feel like this book has helped me solve my biggest problems with being productive… and I still have around 50 pages to go.

• Staying on task.
• Prioritizing my to do’s.
• Turning long term goals into short term actions.

If that sounds interesting you can grab a copy here.

My ongoing wrestle with productivity...

It's been a spectacle.

On the outside a lot of people think I am a “hard worker”… but in reality I have wasted so much time over the years.

Here’s a few things I struggled with:

• Getting things done I told myself I would… and doing them when I said I would get them done.
• Having clear goals, but not understanding what I needed to do today to get closer to them.
• Putting way to many things on my plate, and overwhelming myself with it all.
• Losing hours of each workday to distractions. Social media, other people, procrastination, and more.

I knew to build my online business, and live out my purpose I had to get my shit figured out.

The funny thing is about 5 years ago I was told to read this book.

Being a know it all back then, I chose not to… I thought I “got it”. I didn’t.

Now over 5 years later, I am kicking myself in the ass for not reading it sooner. But, the good news is I am more productive today than I have been in years.

​Check out the book for yourself, or stay tuned for future letters where I pass along what I learn.

Question or answer: "When it comes down to planning your week, what kind of tools do you use?"

This question comes from a brother named Kien.

For context… I have tried a lot of different things over the years, mostly unsuccessfully. Sometimes it was the tool, but most of the time it was me getting in the way of my plans.

Here’s what I am doing now to keep it simple, and effective (knowing it will evolve and improve with time).

​I use this journal as the tool.​

Here is my system.

Step one: Set aside 30min - 1hr each Sunday to plan for the week ahead.

Step two: Reflect on what went well, and what didn’t the week before. Understand how I can improve for the week ahead. Review my goals, and projects.

Step three: Create 3 sections on a piece of paper.

1. Projects - this is where I put things I am “working on” at the moment. For example, launching my group Brother To Brother was a project this week. Try to keep it under 5 projects.
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2. Goals - this is where I put things I am “working towards” at the moment. For example, getting a high paying remote sales job was a goal this week. Try to keep these to under 5 as well.
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3. Tasks - this is where I put things I "need to get done". But not just anything...I make it super easy on myself to focus, and get things done. All I do is plan out my 3 top priority tasks for each day the night before.
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   I stole this from a mentor of mine, he calls it a “Get Shit Done” list or GSD list for short. It is your top 3 priorities (to do’s) for the day.
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   My rule is to get those 3 things done before anything else. It works because I know if my day gets crazy I at least did the most important things.
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Step four: Block out time on my calendar. Schedule time for my GSD list. Make time for my Sunday planning. Pre plan personal time like date night, and so on.

Screenshot this to save it for this coming Sunday

I hope this helps you as much as it’s helped me.

A quick favor... Let me know if you would be interested in me creating a weekly planner to share with y’all!

Reply to this email with a question if you want to be featured on my newsletter and get some 1on1 advice.

In case you missed it: Last week, I covered why I changed my first name from Riley to Christopher and updated I made to my brand.

You can read it here.