Think about your long-term goals at work, your strategy, and what you think will having a lasting impact in the future.
Now open your calendar and look at last week.
How much of your time was actually dedicated to those long-term priorities?
It’s a confronting exercise. Because for many leaders, there’s a painful gap between strategy… and schedule.
In this video, I want to share two processes that have made a huge difference to my performance and to many of my clients’.
Today I’m in Santiago, my first time in Chile.
It’s absolutely stunning. The city is surrounded by mountains, and in the distance you can see snow sitting on the peaks. Blue sky, crisp air, it’s seems like a great place to live. I’ve just finished a workshop with the leadership team of a large company here. In preparation, the CEO said something that really stood out: “Our diary doesn’t reflect our priorities.”
They knew their strategy. They had invested time and money defining their key goals. They reviewed them regularly. But when they opened their calendars, it was filled with reactive meetings, operational issues and business-as-usual noise. Very little time was allocated to the work that would actually move the business forward.
Sound familiar?
Over the years, two simple processes have consistently transformed my performance:
• The Ideal Week
• The Weekly Plan
They are cornerstones of sustainable high performance.
1. The Ideal week
The Ideal Week is about stepping back and asking: If my calendar truly reflected my priorities, what would it look like? How much time should I ideally spend on:
- Strategic thinking?
- Key projects?
- Leadership conversations?
- Personal priorities?
Most people think about it. Few actually implement it.
The real shift happens when you block that time in your calendar as meetings with yourself. Non-negotiable. Protected.
2. The Weekly Plan
The second process is the Weekly Plan. Every single week, you take 20 minutes and ask: What do I need to do next week to move my key priorities forward? Because you’ve already created your Ideal Week, you’ve protected space. Now you simply fill that space with the right tasks. Instead of reacting to the week you design it.
What’s interesting is that when I run this exercise, we don’t just include business priorities.
We also block time for:
- Family
- Health
- Personal growth
- Activities that matter
The results:
Performance improves.
Clarity improves.
Work–life balance improves.
When your calendar aligns with your values, everything feels more intentional.
So, I ask you this: Have you clearly defined what your Ideal Week looks like? And do you invest 20 minutes every week to intentionally plan the next one? Because if your strategy doesn’t show up in your diary, it’s unlikely to show up in your results.
I’ve just wrapped up the workshop here in Santiago now it’s time to explore this beautiful city a little more.
This is this week’s Work Smarter: Live Better tip.
Hope you have a beautiful and lovely day.
A bientôt,
Cyril
