Weekly Plan

Weekly Plan Skill

Strategic planning for the week ahead. Sets direction, allocates resources, identifies dependencies.

Run this: Monday morning, before daily standup

Opening

"Let's set the week. What's the landscape look like?"

Conversational, not prescriptive. You're thinking together.

Load Context

In this order:

1. Friday retrospective – ~/ops/daily/weekly/retrospective.md (what you learned last week)
2. All project statuses – ~/ops/projects/*.md (current focus, blockers, waiting_on, payment proximity)
3. Financial calendar – ~/financial/financial-ops.md (invoices due, tax dates, payment schedules)
4. Personal goals – ~/personal/plan.md (weekly values, health goals, personal projects)
5. Energy patterns – ~/business/memory/patterns.md (what weeks tend to look like, seasonal factors)
6. Client calendar – Extract from project ops files: meetings, deliverable dates, decision deadlines

Analyze the Week

Ask:

• "What's the constraint this week?" (deadline? client decision? team availability?)
• "What sets us up for next month?" (planning, scoping, delivery prep?)
• "What's broken that we should fix?" (from retro friction list)
• "What needs deep focus?" (what can't be interrupted or delegated)
• "What's a quick win?" (high impact, low friction)

Show the landscape with three lenses:

Revenue Lens

REVENUE PRIORITY (weighted by payment proximity + milestone impact):
1. [Project A] – $15k on milestone delivery (due Wed)
   Impact: Unblock next $8k milestone
   Risk: [If any]

2. [Project B] – $5k retainer invoice (due Fri)
   Impact: Monthly cash flow
   Risk: [If any]

3. [Project C] – Proposal due Mon (worth $25k if won)
   Impact: Pipeline for Q2
   Risk: [If any]

Capacity Lens

TIME AVAILABLE:
- Mon-Wed: Deep work available (planned project time)
- Thu: Admin + meetings (reviews, planning, sync calls)
- Fri: Light (retro, planning for next week)

CONTEXT SWITCHING COST:
- If you're context switching between [Project A] and [Project B], cost is [time + friction]
- Recommendation: Batch by project where possible

Pattern Lens

ENERGY & PATTERNS:
- Your energy typically [pattern from memory]
- This week's constraint is [weather, personal commitments, seasonal factor]
- You tend to avoid [avoidance pattern] under deadline pressure
- Recommendation: [Preventive structure]

Set 3-5 Weekly Objectives

Based on landscape analysis, define weekly OKRs. Format:

WEEKLY OBJECTIVES

1. [Objective Name] – [Revenue/Capacity/Growth/Health]
   Key result: [Measurable completion state]
   Why this week: [What makes it urgent/important]
   Micro-allocation:
     - Mon: [Specific work]
     - Tue: [Specific work]
     - Wed: [Specific work]
     - Thu: [Admin/other]
     - Fri: [Buffer/catch-up]
   Blockers or dependencies: [What needs to not get in the way]
   Success = [Concrete, checkable state]

2. [Objective Name] – [Type]
   Key result: [Measurable completion state]
   ...

Criteria for 3-5 objectives:

• Each is achievable in one week (not "finish project," but "complete milestone")
• Each has clear completion state (not "work on")
• Together they move revenue, fix friction, or build towards next phase
• They're realistic given energy, capacity, and constraints

Resource Allocation

Ask: "Where should the best hours go?"

Create a rough weekly schedule:

WEEKLY SCHEDULE (rough)

DEEP WORK BLOCKS (protect these):
- Mon-Tue: 9-12, 2-5 → [Project A] work
- Wed: 9-12 → [Project A] work (if continuation needed)
- Wed: 2-4 → [Project B] async review

COMMUNICATION/ADMIN:
- Mon 1-2pm → Client sync [Project A]
- Tue 4-5pm → Follow-up calls
- Thu → Review, admin, checklists
- Fri → Retro, next-week planning

BLOCKS/CONSTRAINTS:
- [Any meetings already scheduled]
- [Any personal commitments]
- [Any energy dips to plan around]

This is loose—daily standup will adjust. But it prevents "I'll figure it out" scrambling.

Dependency Mapping

For each weekly objective, ask:

• "What do I need from others?" (client decision, team delivery, external resource)
• "Who's waiting on me?" (what blocks them)
• "What's my wait time?" (how long until response)

Create a simple map:

DEPENDENCIES & WAITING

I'm waiting on:
- [Client X] for [decision/feedback] – Needed by [date] for [objective]
  Follow-up strategy: [When to ping if no response]
- [Team member Y] for [deliverable] – Needed by [date]
  Backup: [What if it's late]

Others are waiting on:
- Me for [deliverable] → [Who needs it] → Due [date]
  Status: [On track / At risk]
- Me for [decision] → [Who needs it] → Due [date]
  Status: [Ready to decide / Need more info]

Waiting time:
- Client typically responds in [days] (from patterns)
- If I don't hear by [day], I'll follow up on [day]

Write Weekly Plan File

Create ~/ops/daily/weekly/plan-{week-number}.md:

---
week: YYYY-W## (ISO week number)
date-range: Mon YYYY-MM-DD to Fri YYYY-MM-DD
objectives: [Number of objectives]
---

# Weekly Plan

## Landscape Analysis
[Copy revenue/capacity/pattern lenses from above]

## Weekly Objectives
[Copy all 3-5 objectives with allocations]

## Resource Allocation
[Copy weekly schedule]

## Dependency Mapping
[Copy dependencies and waiting items]

## Weekly Checkpoints

### Monday
- All objectives clear
- Deep work blocks protected
- Daily standup: Align to first week objective

### Wednesday (mid-week)
- Check: On track for weekly OKRs?
- Adjust if: New information, blocker emerged, misestimated time
- Accelerate if: Ahead of schedule
- De-risk if: At-risk items detected

### Friday (retrospective)
- Weekly retro uses this as reference
- What did we actually achieve?
- What blocked progress?
- What patterns showed up?

Close

"You've got [number] clear objectives. Let's start with Monday's standup and make it real."

Philosophy

Why this works:

• Three-lens analysis prevents tunnel vision (revenue OR capacity OR growth—actually all three)
• 3-5 objectives is constraint; forces prioritization
• Micro-allocation prevents "I'll figure it out" thrashing
• Dependency mapping surfaces hidden blockers
• Protective language ("deep work blocks") makes it explicit what matters
• Mid-week checkpoint enables course correction

What this prevents:

• "What was the week for?" (objectives are written)
• Missed deadlines from dependency blindness (waiting list is explicit)
• Energy waste on low-impact work (landscape is weighted)
• Context-switching thrashing (schedule is rough but intentional)
• Friday surprise ("I thought we'd have that done")

Neurodivergent defaults:

• Objectives prevent vague "be productive" overwhelm
• Schedule is loose (not rigid) but structured
• Energy patterns are accounted for
• Deep work blocks are protected language
• Capacity is realistic (not aspirational)

allowed-tools: Read, Write, Bash, Glob, Grep, Task