My Sunday Reality Check
Okay, so next week looks messy. My planner? Pure chaos, gotta be honest. Meetings stacked back-to-back, two deadlines landing like bricks on Friday, and the kids’ schedules hitting peak crazy. Typical Monday pre-game dread hit me hard Sunday afternoon. My gut feeling screamed: “This ain’t gonna work unless you wrangle it NOW.”
Spotting Trouble Early
First step? Grabbed the dreaded planner. Actually sat down with it instead of just glaring. Pulled out my blue pen – that’s my problem-spotting color, weird habit, I know.
- Circled Monday morning’s meeting with Supply Chain. Past experiences flashed: delays, last-minute panic. That meeting always triggers a cascade.
- Saw little sister’s dentist appointment smack in the middle of Tuesday, the “deep work” block I desperately needed for the Henderson report draft.
- Stared at the big red circle around Friday – Performance Metrics Due AND the kids’ school concert night. Absolute recipe for disaster.
- Felt my shoulders tense just looking at the wall of Wednesday meetings. Zero breathing room.
My Attack Plan Formation
No point whining. Time to get dirty with it.
- Pre-emptive Strike on Supply Chain: Opened my email, fired off a quick message to Terry there. Kept it simple: “Hey Terry, thinking about Monday’s chat on the Jenkins order. Can we nail down lead times ASAP? Trying to avoid that bottleneck we saw last quarter.” Sent it. Felt proactive.
- Conquering Tuesday: Realized I couldn’t clone myself. Texted partner: “Tuesday – dentist run. Think you can cover? Need that afternoon clear or I’m sunk.” Got the thumbs-up. Small win.
- Friday Firewall: Broke the “Friday Deadline” monster down. Looked at the Performance Metrics doc. Needed stats from Gary and Lisa. Shot them both separate Slack messages: “Hey, crunching numbers Friday. Need your sections by EOD Wednesday? Pretty please? Trying to build in buffer!” Asked nicely, planted the seed early. Also preemptively moved pizza night from Friday to Saturday with the kids. “Concert pizza party Saturday instead? More time!” They cheered. Easy win.
- Wednesday Breathing Room: Looked at that wall of meetings. Felt suffocated. Checked the agenda for the 2 PM “Operations Sync.” Last three were… pointless. Sent the organizer: “Hey, buried Wednesday. Can I drop the Op Sync this week? Promise to catch up on notes? Drowning!” Got a “Sure, no prob.” Breathed.
Tools of the Trade (Super Basic!)
I keep it simple. No fancy apps this time.
- Planner: Old-school paper.
- Phone: Texts, emails, Slack.
- Highlighters: Color-coding for urgency.
- Biggest tool? Asking for help. Gotta swallow pride.
Feeling Afterwards
Took maybe 45 minutes total Sunday evening. Planner looks less like abstract art now. Still busy? Heck yes. But instead of feeling blindsided, it feels managed. Those potential explosions? Mostly defused or contained before the week starts.
That knot in my stomach is gone. Replaced by… maybe not excitement, but readiness. Bring it on, next week. We’ve already met.
