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Weekly prep

Issue 161: The separation is in the preparation

David Hoang

Sep 17

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It’s Week 38. No, not the longest NFL season in the history of mankind. I mean we are 73% through 2023. This is how I track the year and prep for each week. My purpose is not to atomic habit every living breathing moment in my life. It's more simple—preparation and clarity.

Sunday nights are my ritual to prepare professionally and personally for the week. This isn't a hustle porn post. I choose to wind down my Sunday nights to combat the Sunday Scaries. NFL quarterback Russell Wilson once said, "The separation is in the preparation." The best way to destroy any work anxiety is to take a breath, write down your plan, and finish it.

People always ask me how I'm able to do so much. The answer is intention and focus. I'll share how I approach the intention setting of the year, Sunday prep ritual, and how I track work throughout the week. In Week 38 of 2023, I’ll share how I approach prep, reflection, and note-making with Obsidian.

Intention setting

Before you can do anything well with preparation and execution, you must know the desired outcome. Without that, you mindlessly go through actions that feel like progress which in reality are flailing actions. Setting intention often transpires into a set of goals. Whether you believe in goal setting or not in your life, the exercise is helpful.

Yearly

My 2023 planning doc looks more like a list of intentions than a list of things to do. I don’t do any annual planning because so much can change in the course of months, let alone the year. Instead, I opt to write a few guiding principles that assist me in making decisions based on original intention.

It’s only until I get to the half year that I can start thinking about more concrete goals.

Monthly, weekly, and daily

This is where the mess of reality kicks in. Instead of having separate apps for tasks, writing, and calendaring, I use only one piece of software to do it. Having everything integrated helps me see things in context. Each Sunday, I lay out my notes to have the week inform the days; breaking them into panes to review the entire week. This helps me identify if certain meetings or deliverables need to be moved.

Notes occur on the daily file themselves. There is a big difference between note-taking and note-making. The latter is the reason I keep daily notes in their own file. As the week progresses, I refine notes in Week 38 and capture what needs to be remembered in the daily notes. Not everything needs to be recalled. Once the week adjourns, I reflect on all the notes and move them into the following week (Week 39) to have important notes ready.

Sunday prep ritual

Let me be abundantly clear. You don’t have to prep on Sunday and do what works for you. For me, I find the ritual brings a lot of calm for me going into the week. Sunday prep doesn’t mean you have to go into an office and turn up the heat. It can be a crock pot-esque slow burner. Recently, my Sunday prep has included binge-watching Warrior to catch up on the seasons.

If you choose to do Sunday prep, make it low-key and fun. Let’s brainstorm a few ways to make it fun:

Go to a third place you’ve been wanting to visit, such as a coffee shop or museum
Lay out your plan on a road trip back when you have a few hours to kill (as a passenger, of course)
Gather friends together who like working on side projects and spend time together

In addition to prepping for the work week, Sunday prep is a time to reflect on important matters on a personal level. As I choose a prep activity, I often ask myself:

Am I prioritizing my time appropriately with what’s important in my life?
What are the big-ticket items I need to accomplish? What might I need to say "no" to in order to achieve it?
Do I have enough un-constructed to invoke serendipity and creativity?
What is my energy level? Is it time to block time to take time off to recover?

Setting an intention and weekly prep is just as much about what you need to focus on as much as it is about what to say "no" to. Having a clear intention for the week keeps things deliberate and helps me avoid distractions. Planning and note-taking are different for everyone. This system may not work for you, but I hope you found some inspiration from this to incorporate into your own workflow.