How to create a digital plan of the week - Alexandra Thalassas Blog

Everyone is different, but I’ve realized this: for me, schedules and routines are extremely helpful in staying productive and managing everyday life. Above all, they help me achieve my long-term goals and complete large projects. That’s why I’d like to show how I plan my week digitally.

The avid readers of my blog should know before reading this article that I’ve been strongly influenced by the Bullet Journal method by Ryder Carroll. That means I still keep a kind of analog Bullet Journal, but all appointments and routines ultimately end up in my calendar, where the number of events doesn’t overwhelm me. I only write the most important appointments in my Bullet Journal. I’ve also moved certain planning phases and reflections into the digital space.

My routine

My planning routines cover different time frames: monthly, weekly, and daily. I’ll start broadly and provide some inspiration. In a future article about my digital journaling, I’ll go into more detail about these routines and explain how I implement them digitally (using Obsidian).

Monthly

At the end of each month, I sit down and plan the next one. That means I look at upcoming birthdays and think about what gifts I want to get. I also note down monthly to-dos, milestones for long-term goals (for example: an outline of chapters for the “write a book” project), and things I want to schedule, like a date night with my partner.

These planned activities also affect my weekly plans, since I need to make time for them or enter them as appointments in my calendar.

Weekly

Every weekend, I take time to plan the upcoming week. I look at which appointments are already fixed, on which days I can follow my usual daily routine (which is shaped by my long-term goals), and which monthly to-dos I want to tackle that week. Some to-dos become weekly goals.

What matters to me although the word is starting to annoy me is being mindful. For me, that means not overloading myself. If I have one or two demanding days, I make sure to balance that out the following day. For example, if something was very stimulating whether loud or involving many people I plan the next day to be calmer and less stimulating. If something was emotionally exhausting, I take time for quiet hobbies like crocheting or knitting to wind down. Or I sing or play music, which in my case means loud singing and slightly off-key cello playing for my poor neighbors.

Daily

Daily planning isn’t just about executing my plan. I have a morning routine to prepare myself for the day. That may sound like a big deal, but it simply means I look at the most important to-dos and appointments for the day and ask myself whether they’re realistically doable. If not, I consider where I can make things easier. Most of the time, though, I stick to it, because it often feels good to maintain habits.

In the evening, I do a short reflection: I think about how I felt, what I did well, and what I’m grateful for, and I write it down. For mental hygiene, it’s important to see what you’ve accomplished and what was positive, even if it’s something very small. Over time, this trains your brain in a positive direction: you become better at noticing small, good things and focus less on what didn’t go well.

What does this mean for my avid readers?

The avid readers of my blog may notice that different things work better for them. For example, they might prefer a small gratitude ritual in the morning to start the day positively, and find that looking at to-dos the way I do feels overwhelming. That’s completely fine. Everyone is different and needs different routines or freedom to create a good life.

I’ve learned a lot about myself and my needs through months of testing and reflecting. I want to encourage avid readers to stay flexible, listen to themselves, try what feels right, and adapt when life changes.

Creating a weekly schedule

For a weekly schedule, what matters is what repeats every week whether that’s commuting, work, household tasks, or routines. Avid readers should enter these into a kind of weekly timetable, whether digitally or on paper. Leisure time shouldn’t be neglected either: appointments with friends or time for hobbies.

Here’s an example from my life: I practice singing and cello three times a week and exercise regularly. So I decide which days I’ll do each activity. For example, singing on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday; cello on Tuesday, Thursday, and Saturday; and sports on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday. I also schedule time for cooking and grocery shopping so I can cook in advance for two days.

This plan is then adjusted each week and transferred into my calendar. For example, I can’t practice cello when I’m staying with my partner, so I either reschedule or skip it by adjusting my weekly plan.

Converting the weekly plan into the right digital format

Now let’s move on to the practical implementation as a digital plan. The file format is CSV, which most common calendars can read. I used Google Calendar, where this works very well. Creating this CSV file is a repetitive task, so using AI can be very helpful. You only have to do it once, which is a bit time-consuming, but weekly adjustments are quick afterward.

Create a file called “weeklyplan.csv” and edit it with a simple text editor. A CSV file (Comma-Separated Values) has a header that describes the values in the following rows. For a calendar that Google Calendar can read, the header is:

Subject,Start Date,Start Time,End Date,End Time,All Day Event,Description,Location,Private

Insert this header into the file. Each new line then represents an event in the calendar. For example, my evening ritual (from 9 PM to 10 PM) might look like this:

evening ritual,=K$1+0,09:00 PM,=K$1+0,10:00 PM,FALSE,,,FALSE

As indicated in the header, the line begins with the event name, followed by start date, start time (in AM/PM format), end date, and end time. In the “All Day Event” column, enter FALSE unless it’s an all-day event (then TRUE).

You can optionally add information in “Description” and “Location.” If the description contains a comma, you should enclose the text in quotation marks, for example: “Reading, journaling, drinking tea, scented candle.”

The last column (“Private”) indicates whether others can see the event. By default, it’s FALSE, meaning people you’ve shared your calendar with can see the event. If you don’t want that, enter TRUE.

Avid readers may now wonder why such unusual values appear in “Start Date” and “End Date.” That’s the trick behind my weekly planning system: it allows me to convert a general timetable into a concrete weekly plan.

Weekly adjustment and upload

Let’s look at the evening ritual as an example. At the end of the week, I plan the upcoming week and realize that I’ll be staying with my partner one night over the weekend, so I won’t follow my usual evening ritual on Saturday.

So I edit a copy of my template:

Subject,Start Date,Start Time,End Date,End Time,All Day Event,Description,Location,Private "evening ritual",=K$1+0,09:00 PM,=K$1+0,10:00 PM,FALSE,,,FALSE "evening ritual",=K$1+1,09:00 PM,=K$1+1,10:00 PM,FALSE,,,FALSE "evening ritual",=K$1+2,10:10 PM,=K$1+2,10:40 PM,FALSE,,,FALSE "evening ritual",=K$1+3,09:00 PM,=K$1+3,10:00 PM,FALSE,,,FALSE "evening ritual",=K$1+4,09:00 PM,=K$1+4,10:00 PM,FALSE,,,FALSE "evening ritual",=K$1+5,09:00 PM,=K$1+5,10:00 PM,FALSE,,,FALSE "evening ritual",=K$1+6,09:00 PM,=K$1+6,10:00 PM,FALSE,,,FALSE

I delete the second-to-last line (the entry with “=K$1+5”) to remove that event. The days work like this: =K$1+0 represents Monday, =K$1+1 Tuesday, and so on.

Next, I enter the date of the upcoming week. To do this, I open the file in a spreadsheet program (Excel, LibreOffice Calc, etc.) and make sure formulas are evaluated. Then I enter the date of the upcoming Monday in cell K1 in the format YYYY-MM-DD, for example 2026-04-27.

Once the template copy is edited, inserting the dates for the upcoming week happens automatically. Open the file in your spreadsheet program and ensure formulas are enabled. The program should split comma-separated values into columns; if not, adjust the import settings.

Then, as in the template, enter the Monday date in cell K1 in YYYY-MM-DD format (e.g., 2026-04-27). Finally, format the “Start Date” and “End Date” columns correctly so the calendar interprets them properly. Select the columns, right-click, choose “Format Cells,” and select the same YYYY-MM-DD date format.

The spreadsheet’s “magic” (mathematical evaluation) converts the +0 to +6 values into actual dates. Make sure to save the file again as CSV (e.g., CopyWochenplan.csv), not as a spreadsheet format.

Optionally (not necessary for Google Calendar), you can remove any extra date added to the header row.

The formulas will now have been replaced by actual dates, as you can see in a text editor.

Subject,Start Date,Start Time,End Date,End Time,All Day Event,Description,Location,Private "evening ritual",2026-03-23,09:00 PM,2026-03-23,10:00 PM,FALSE,,,FALSE,, "evening ritual",2026-03-24,09:00 PM,2026-03-24,10:00 PM,FALSE,,,FALSE,, "evening ritual",2026-03-25,10:10 PM,2026-03-25,10:40 PM,FALSE,,,FALSE,, "evening ritual",2026-03-26,09:00 PM,2026-03-26,10:00 PM,FALSE,,,FALSE,, "evening ritual",2026-03-27,09:00 PM,2026-03-27,10:00 PM,FALSE,,,FALSE,, "evening ritual",2026-03-28,09:00 PM,2026-03-28,10:00 PM,FALSE,,,FALSE,, "evening ritual",2026-03-29,09:00 PM,2026-03-29,10:00 PM,FALSE,,,FALSE,,

Finally, import this weekly calendar into your preferred calendar. In Google Calendar, for example, this works via Settings > Import & Export > Import. Select the file and upload it. Once the events are added, a message will show how many were imported. Et voilà – the events are in your calendar.

I look forward to questions from my avid readers and am happy to respond to comments. If anything wasn’t clear or detailed enough, please leave a comment.