Create an ideal week template

Design a blank-canvas week that shows where each type of activity should live, before any specific week's demands arrive.

Why it works

Without a default template, each week starts from the empty calendar that others fill first. A pre-existing template acts as an intention architecture — a pre-commitment structure that makes deviations from priorities visible, rather than invisible. The template is not a rigid plan but a gravitational center the week returns to.

How to do it

1. On a blank seven-day grid, assign broad activity categories to each time block (deep work, meetings, admin, family, recovery, flex).
2. Do not fill in specific tasks — only categories and rough time allocations.
3. Review the template against your actual priorities: does the category distribution reflect what you say matters?

Evidence

The ideal week template is a practitioner tool in Hyatt's coaching system. It applies the implementation-intention principle (planning the when and what of goal pursuit increases follow-through) at the weekly architecture level. (mechanistic)

The template format itself has not been tested in a controlled study; the underlying planning mechanism is well-supported, but the specific benefits of the "ideal week" framing versus other planning forms are not established.

Sources

• Gollwitzer & Sheeran (2006), implementation intentions meta-analysis, Advances in Experimental Social Psychology

Common mistake

Making the ideal week so detailed (specific tasks in every slot) that it becomes impossible to execute and is abandoned after one week — the template should be categories, not a minute-by-minute schedule.