How I Start My Week

 Hi, it’s another beautiful week. 

I recall those early years during family evening devotions, Dad would, in his usual way of teaching us the bible, use some practical stories to elaborate his lessons. In one story, he told of a man named “Folorunso” who was a palm wine tapper. Folorunso one day, on the realization of the meaning of his name, (God will Protect), was so confident that he climbed all the way up on a 100m high palm wine tree, without saddling his protective belts, believing that God will protect him from a fall. How did it end? Your guess is as good as mine. 

The moral of the story, he who fails to plan, plans to fail. 

Put another way, don’t expect anything good from something you haven’t put your thought into. 

You would agree with me that even though the holy book says “better is the end of a thing than the beginning … “, it is important to begin well because as a matter of fact, the way you begin a thing would likely have a huge impact on how it would eventually end, following normal causes & all things being equal. 

Enough of the preliminaries, I thought I should give you a sneak peek into how I start my week, let’s roll. 

Head-starts: 

So Headstarts are the “dirtiest” part of my planning. It does not give the kind of “excitement” and positivity needed to start a week, but, they are NEEDFUL. What are headstarts for me? Headstarts are those GOALS and TARGETS that are DEPENDENT on other people. The things you want to achieve during the week, but you CAN NOT CLOSE them UNTIL someone else PLAYS A PART in it. I hope you get it. 

So when you think “Headstart”, think Delegations, Escalations, Preliminaries, Collaborations, and Follow-ups. What do I need to push someone to do? What needs to be delegated in advance? What do I need to escalate? A dormant bank account that I would need to use later this week? A document that I would need to collaborate with a colleague and therefore need his/her input. A document from office XYZ that is required to complete an online VISA application … 

Big Rocks:

I learned the rule of Big Rocks when I had my PMP training with @DejiJemiyo back then in 2011.

You see sometimes our week is choked up with a lot of things to do that if you’re not careful, you’d spend the whole time, doing the little convenient things on your plate and ignore the major items that matter, for later. 

But to achieve phenomenal outcomes, you must train your mind to attack the major tasks on your schedule 1st, before others. 

What is a major task for you should depend on the expected outcome and impact of that task. 

For example, sending a proposal that could fetch me a $5,000 deal this week is major compared to hiring a new staff to replace a team member scheduled to travel by Friday this week. Gerrit?

Cash Map:

This one is where the excitement begins. I get to see the AMOUNT of money expected to come in this week (inflows), and where necessary, I will send email reminders or WhatsApp messages to pre-empt the sender, I cannot afford to assume you will remember to pay me my money lol. I don’t have that luxury. Then I also draft out all the payments and commitments I have made for the week, so I know my NET cash flow. Sometimes, even when your net cash flow is in the negative (or deficit), I feel fulfilled when I know I have put monies in the right investments or settled major debts. 

So what is your net cash flow for this week? :)

Week Layout:

This one is called “Big-picture thinking”.

I want to see what my week looks like from a “bird-eyes view”.

Am I likely to travel between cities? 

Do I need to attend events and connect events to people and places? 

What does my week look like, outside my workspace and reading table? 

This is how I give life to my week. 

Have you planned your week already?

Which of these do you do?

Which of these would you like to adopt? 

What do you think I should add to mine? 

Cheers to a phenomenal week. 

Ralph Obafemi (R.O)