Resources
Planning your week
A realistic week of work — how to prioritise it, plan your time, and adjust when something urgent lands.
Workplace context
You've been given the work below for the week. Some items have fixed deadlines, some depend on other people, and one urgent issue will interrupt your plan. Prioritise the work, build a plan, and be ready to adjust and explain what's affecting completion. The time management guide and the work-plan, priority-matrix and end-of-day-review templates can help.
This week's work
| Item | What's involved | Due | Depends on | Priority |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| WI-1Lodge IT access request for the new starter | Blocks the new starter from the Operations folder until done. | Mon | Manager approval | High |
| WI-2Respond to the customer feedback summary | Customer Service has asked for a short reply by Tuesday. | Tue | — | High |
| WI-3Update staff contact details in the records register | Three changes from People & Culture. | Wed | Details from People & Culture | Medium |
| WI-4Complete the short operations update | One-paragraph status for the Wednesday catch-up. | Wed | — | Medium |
| WI-5Prepare the agenda for Friday’s team meeting | Send the day before so people can prepare. | Thu | — | Medium |
| WI-6Review the WHS pre-start checklist | Quick monthly review and note anything to report. | Fri | — | Low |
| WI-7File completed forms in the correct folders | Tidy up the week’s paperwork. | Fri | — | Low |
Urgent: customer delivery complaint escalated
On Tuesday morning your manager asks you to help draft a response to an escalated delivery complaint — it needs to go out today.
This becomes the most urgent item for Tuesday and pushes the lower-priority work later in the week.
Note from your supervisor
“The customer response is the priority today — please get it to me by 2pm. Let me know early if anything else will slip so we can re-plan.”
— Caitlin Murphy (Operations Support Team Leader)
A re-planned week (worked example)
After the interruption, a sensible re-plan for Tuesday and the rest of the week:
- Tue AM Draft the customer response (new urgent item) → to manager by 2pm.
- Tue PM Send the customer reply once approved; then the feedback summary reply (WI-2).
- Wed Chase the contact details (WI-3) and write the operations update (WI-4).
- Thu Prepare the meeting agenda (WI-5).
- Fri WHS checklist review (WI-6) and filing (WI-7).
WI-1 (new-starter access) was done Monday as planned, so the starter isn’t blocked. The low-priority items moved to Friday — and the manager was told early.