Day after day a year passes quickly
March will melt down right after February
It seems like yesterday the snow blizzard raged
And today the white fields are turning grey
It’s our winter almost over …
(For my readers who understand Russian:
Как незаметно день за днем год пролетает
Вот уж и март за февралем скоро растает
Будто вчера мела пурга выли метели
А на полях уже снега вдруг потемнели
Эта зима от нас совсем ушла…
And the youtube version of the song)
This is one of the bard songs that I grew up with… (In Russia, “winter” lasts from November till the end of March by which everyone had enough of it and people are very much looking forward to sping).
It is a beautiful poetry and a touching melody. It was not so beautiful when my life became literally a reflections of the song’s lyrics “Day after day a year passes quickly”…
Do YOU feel like your day and your week is over before you can even stop and breath and think what you want to do? Do you find yourself jerking when you notice that the next month has already started while in your mind you are still in the previous month? Do you feel year passes after year with an increasing speed?
It has been certainly my reality, especially during the past 10 years, when I had a full time job as a researcher with always running more projects than it is possible to take care of. Then a full time job was complemented by having two children and caring for them – the life became even more busier and faster.
I would sometimes just collapse from overwhelm and think: “Where am I heading? Why am I doing this? What is a purpose of all this? Why is it never ENOUGH?” And finally “Who is in charge here? Why the life seems to be happenning to me instead of me living and creating my life?…”
Last year I have learned a tool that has been helping me to deal with all of the above issues. It is a tool I call here Weekly Summit that is used once a week and provides you with a sense of completion. You get a feeling that you have actually accomplished something and you get to congratulated yourself and not just feel that the bar has been raised higher with the start of the new week.
The Weekly Summit also allows you to become more in charge and to define your week. Instead of whining and getting scared at things, you’ll get to say to yourself: “This is what we are going to do throughout the week. This is what is important. This is what matters”. It is almost like setting a Satellite Navigation before you start the journey of the coming week.
With this tool you step in more empowering position where you get to create your week, rather than just rushing through it reactively. Even if your week doesn’t work out exactly as planned, this is better than not having any plan at all!
With the Weekly Summit you also get a chance to get in touch with your priorities, re-connect with your intention, remind yourself of your goals, and re-align your course if needed. As Steven Covey, the author of The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People, says: “The essence of effective time and life management is to organize and execute around priorities.”
So today I would like to share with you the Weekly Summit tool, similar to how I have learned it from my mentor Christine Kane, and how I do it myself every week of my life.
Click below to download a pdf file that contains three pages including the 6 questions and an explanation about what each question means and what it is meant to help you achieve.
Click on the above image to download the Weekly Summit Productivity Tool
Happy accomplishing!
Related article:
How to become more productive at your work place