How I Set Up My Week
Each Saturday or Sunday I sit down and look at the upcoming week. Because Sunday is a big day in my week, I start preparing for it on Monday. Due to this, I plan my week Monday to Sunday.
Let’s walk through how I set up my week.
Look ahead at upcoming dates.
Check your calendar for what is happening this next week. Appointments, special school days, dinner plans, etc.
What upcoming events do you have that you need to start (or continue) preparing for? Don’t forget the simple ones. Do you need to have a teacher gift purchased for an upcoming birthday? Did you sign up to bring something to the upcoming youth night your teen has at church?
Fill these in on your weekly plan. I use my planner to do this. I highly recommend the Full Focus Planner. You can grab one HERE and use the code SHELLEY10 for 10% off your order! I have a template you can use HERE.
What are your daily focuses? I use my IDEAL WEEK for this.
Here are some other things I add to my weekly planner:
Cleaning tasks - I have a WEEKLY CLEANING PLAN. But sometimes I have certain things that cause we to switch days around. For example, I clean my downstairs/main living areas on Wednesday. But if on Tuesday night I am having friends over for dinner, I will switch Tuesday and Wednesday’s cleaning tasks so I have clean floors for my dinner guests. If we are going out of town or have a particularly busy end of the week, I may move a cleaning task up to the first part of the week to get it done early and out of the way.
Meal Plan - I plan my meals when I clean out my fridge as part of my WEEKEND ROUTINE. I will jot down my meal plan on my Weekly Plan. This way I can see what we are having for dinner (and what I may need to do as prep, thawing out meat, etc.) at a glance.
Tasks.
I keep tasks in 2 places, the reminders app on my phone on a to-do list and then on my planner. If I have something I know needs to be done next week I will usually go ahead and write it down on my planner list for next week.
I use the weekly plan to write down when I think I’m going to get certain tasks done. This helps me to see if my week is balanced or if I have overloaded a certain day. I do try to get the most important things done early in the week. I shared those tips with you last week - you can check that out HERE.
Margin/Free time. Don’t forget to leave room on your calendar. If we fill in every blank space, there will be no room for LIFE. Life happens. Kids get sick. You get sick. A friend needs to meet you for coffee to share a heartache. Your friends call and are headed through your town tomorrow! Leave margin for goodness. Also, don’t be afraid to schedule time for things you want to do. For some reason, our culture says that we celebrate this, but what it seems we celebrate is busyness. “I’m too busy to read. I’m too busy to learn that. I’d love to, but I just can’t.”
One thing I have found myself doing lately is grabbing that free night on the calendar and blocking it out for a family night. I block the entire evening, from the end of the work day until bedtime for this. Our family devotion time is usually around 15 to 20 minutes and dinner only takes 30. But we need a night with nothing else planned. We NEED that. Use your calendar to plan the important things, like a night off! Someone asks my husband if he’s available and when he looks at the calendar (we share our Google calendars with each other) he can see that he has something planned. A really important date with his family.
Taking the 30 minutes to plan your week is an important investment. You will find you are more productive with a plan!