If Sunday planning takes you the best part of an hour and you still start Monday feeling behind, you are not the only one.
In this video I’m going to show you how I use Claude to plan my entire week in twenty minutes, from my vision board right down to what actually lands on my calendar.
I used to sit with a blank notebook every Sunday night, guessing at what mattered most.
Now Claude walks me through five steps and I’m done before my coffee goes cold.
But one of those steps writes straight into my Google Calendar without me typing a single date in myself, and that’s the part people don’t expect.
Let’s get started.
Workflow
Here’s how I’ve got it set up. I keep a Vision Board note in Obsidian that covers everything I care about this year, health, relationships, home, family, money, and the channel. Alongside it I’ve got a Weekly Check-in note that measures how the week actually went against that board. Every Sunday I open both with Claude and we work through my plan for the week together.
With that, let’s get started.
Step 1 — Start With the Vision Board
Before I did this, my Sunday planning had no anchor. I’d write a to-do list based on whatever felt urgent that morning, and by Wednesday it had nothing to do with what I actually wanted my year to look like.
Now the first thing I do is ask Claude to read my Vision Board note. It’s one file with a section for each area of my life, so instead of starting from a blank page, I’m starting from what I already said mattered to me.
On screen here you can see my Vision Board note open in Obsidian, with sections for health, relationships, home, family, wealth, and the channel. I ask Claude to read through it before we plan anything.
There are three ways this helps someone with a busy schedule.
The first is that every week ties back to the bigger picture instead of just whatever’s loudest in your inbox.
The second is you’re not re-explaining your goals every week. Claude already has them, so you go straight into planning.
And the third is it catches the areas you’ve been quietly ignoring. For me that’s usually the house. It’s easy to let it slide when it’s not written down anywhere I look every week.
Once Claude has the full picture, the next step is turning that into something I can actually act on.
Step 2 — Set Goals for the Week
I used to write things like “lose weight” or “spend more time with family” and then wonder why nothing changed by Friday. Those aren’t goals, they’re wishes.
So the second step is asking Claude to turn each part of my Vision Board into one specific goal for that week. Instead of “lose 15kg” I get something like “go spinning Monday, Wednesday, and Friday, and log my weight Monday morning.” It’s the same ambition, just small enough to actually do.
On screen here you can see my Weekly Check-in note, with a section for each area of the Vision Board. Claude fills in a goal under each one based on where I am and what’s coming up that week.
There are three ways this makes a difference for someone juggling work and life.
The first is you get a target you can actually hit this week, not a target for the year that never moves.
The second is it keeps you balanced across everything, not just work. If I only planned around work I’d never write down date night with my wife or the trip we’re planning.
And the third is you can check it against last week, so you know if you’re actually moving or just staying busy.
Once I’ve got goals for the week, the next problem is turning them into something that fits into actual days.
Step 3 — Break Goals Into Tasks
A goal like “go spinning three times this week” sounds simple, but on its own it’s still too big to just do. I’d write it down and then somehow never get round to it because it wasn’t attached to a day or a time.
So the third step is asking Claude to break every goal down into specific tasks and spread them across the week. Spinning becomes Monday, Wednesday, and Friday mornings. Reviewing the budget becomes a twenty-minute task on Sunday evening. Nothing sits there as one big vague line anymore.
On screen here you can see my daily note template, with a task list Claude has filled in for the day based on that week’s goals.
There are three ways this helps when your week is already full.
The first is there’s no ambiguity left. You open the day and you know exactly what’s on it.
The second is the load gets spread out properly instead of piling up on one day because you kept putting it off.
And the third is when a week feels like too much, I just tell Claude and it helps me cut the list down to what actually matters, rather than me trying to do everything.
Once the tasks exist, the real problem used to start, actually getting them into my calendar.
Step 4 — Connect to Google Calendar
This used to be the part that broke the whole system for me. I’d plan everything beautifully in Obsidian and then have to manually retype it all into my calendar later. Half the time I never got round to it, and the plan just stayed a plan.
Claude connects directly to Google Calendar, so once my tasks are set, I ask it to add them straight in with times, working around what’s already booked. It can see my existing calendar, so it’s not stacking a workout on top of a meeting I forgot about.
On screen here you can see me asking Claude to add the week’s tasks to my calendar. You can see them appearing with times already set, based on the gaps I actually have.
There are three ways this saves real time.
The first is no more double entry between your notes and your calendar. It happens once.
The second is it plans around your life realistically, because it can see what’s already there.
And the third is shared commitments land where they need to. My wife and I have a shared calendar, and things like our Thursday date night go straight onto it, so she’s not finding out about our own plans from me forgetting to mention them.
That’s the part that changed how reliable this whole system feels. But a plan is only useful if you actually look back at it.
Step 5 — Track and Adapt
Before I built this in, my weeks would just end. No pause, no check, straight into the next one, repeating whatever wasn’t working the week before.
So the last step is going back through the Weekly Check-in note with Claude at the end of the week. We go through what actually got done, what didn’t, and why. Then Claude helps me adjust next week’s goals based on that, rather than me starting from a blank page again.
On screen here you can see the Weekly Check-in note filled in at the end of the week, with the wins and the misses both written down honestly.
There are three ways this keeps the whole system working.
The first is you get an honest picture of your week instead of just moving on and hoping next week is better.
The second is Claude spots the patterns you might miss yourself, like always skipping the same task three weeks running.
And the third is next week’s plan starts from where you actually are, not from where you wish you were.
Closing Wrap
So that’s how I plan my entire week in twenty minutes. Starting with the Vision Board. Setting weekly goals from it. Breaking those goals into tasks. Getting them straight onto my calendar. And tracking and adapting at the end of the week.
Every one of them comes back to the same idea: plan from what actually matters to you, not from whatever’s loudest that morning.