Weekly planning system to delegate 80% of your workload

Executive overview

Most high performers overload their week without a system to triage and offload. The fix is a structured Sunday planning session that ends with 80% of tasks delegated before Monday starts.

List all projects, break them into tasks, prioritise, time-box, then delegate ruthlessly. Only schedule what you alone must do.

The goal is not to do more — it's to get the highest return on people, time, and money by working in your zone of genius.

Building the weekly task list

• Start with all projects that drive quarterly or annual goals
• Break each project into individual tasks or steps
• Aim for a complete, all-inclusive list before prioritising

Prioritising with A/B labels

• Label every task A or B (C = true miscellaneous, rarely needed)
• Number each group in order: A1, A2, A3…
• Cap A tasks at ~20% of the total list — most tasks feel more urgent than they are

Time-boxing and delegation

• Assign a time estimate to each task (10 min, 1 hour, etc.)
• Add up total hours — it will almost certainly exceed available time
• Target to delegate or outsource at least 80% of the list
• Only schedule ~5 hours of project work per day; the rest fills with email, interruptions, meetings

Blocking time in the calendar

• Place remaining tasks into specific calendar slots (day + time)
• Seeing the calendar fill up reveals overcommitment early
• Adjust before Monday, not after

Running the system

• Do the full planning session on Sunday — 30 minutes is enough
• Delegation and outsourcing decisions happen before the week starts
• Start Monday already underway, not overwhelmed