Sunday night, you can feel the stress start to build as you think about the week ahead.

Countless emails, innumerable voice mail messages, the anticipation of unexpected colleague visits, and always, new requests and changing deadlines. These demands culminate in a growing anxiety, a feeling of being overworked and overwhelmed.  Too much information, easy access, and not enough time provide the recipe for frustration, dissatisfaction, and, potentially, illness. This is the challenge facing business owners.

What should you do? Focus on Friday to insure a better Monday. Take time at the end of the day to organize, review, and plan.

Organize: Sort and file all loose documents including business cards, receipts, and notes. Process your general notes, journal entrees, and meeting notes by turning them into appropriate action items or projects.

Log any significant accomplishments, training, and good-will actions. Don’t forget to attend to financial matters. Friday afternoon is a great time to balance your budget and process invoices for payment.

Review: Skim previous daily calendar pages for remaining action items. Take a few minutes to think about why it didn’t get done. Is it worth doing? If so, move it to the beginning of the next. If not, delete it from your to do list.

Evaluate the status of each project, goal, and outcome. Note action tasks which are pending responses from others for information, results etc. Take a few minutes to send notes, requests for follow-up and update others on your project status.

Plan: Transfer new, active projects and consider the associated responsibilities to address. Prioritize and estimate time commitments for the following week and month.

Identify the resources required to complete your action items. Schedule time to meet with key individuals. As your business grows you may need to seek external support to meet your deadlines.

The Result: You will sleep better on Sunday night, knowing you are off to a good start on Monday morning.