Weekday’s are often hectic with work, dinner, kids, and trying to maintain your home and sanity. Taking some time on Sunday to just set yourself up for the week will really help make the days ahead much easier. Below are some suggestions that I find really help me have an easier week.
1. Plan and prep your meals for the week ahead.
Knowing what you are going to make for all of your meals during the week will take a lot of the thought and last minute ingredient needs that may lead you to the store again.
Make a meal plan, grocery shop, and prep your meals for the week. Once you do this a few times you will get a system down. It does not really take very long at all, and can save a lot of time during the week. Check out Tips to Actually Be Successful At Meal Planning to help you get started.
Go grocery shopping for the whole week. As you are putting your groceries away prep your food, also. Chop up any veggies or fruits to make easy snack packs. We also like to prepare all of our meat before we freeze it. Trim fat, cut in portion size, freeze in meal size. This really makes dinner super easy. It also saves on clean up during the week. So thaw, cook, done! Takes out a decent amount of prep work.
We also prepare the actual meals if we can. For instance, breakfast we will go ahead and make egg muffins or homemade froze breakfast sandwiches and have them ready to reheat in the morning. If we are not doing left overs for lunch, then we will prepare our lunches and have them ready to grab and go as well. Making mornings really easy.
2. Plan out your wardrobe for the week
I don’t know about you, but I am terrible at mornings. If I don’t know what I am going to wear then I am going to stare at my closet for longer than necessary and still pick out the same outfit I always pick out.
Take some time and put together some outfits, and even go as far as planing the jewelry with each outfit. Hang it all together in an easy to grab area of your closet. This takes out the thought each morning and can save lots of time routing through and decision making.
3. Organizer your planner.
Take a few minutes and look at your schedule for the week. Fill in anything that you know needs to be done. Create your Monday to do list and plan. Add in any goals or to do items that you know will need done for the remainder of the week. Including scheduling yourself 5 minutes to do this each day for the next day. This will really help you maximize your time.
4. Plan your workouts.
Especially if you are a morning workout person, know what you are going to do. Knowing how long your workouts will take will help you plan accordingly. Also, knowing what your workout is going to be will save a lot of time from browsing videos or the internet each morning.
5. Tidy up your home.
Not a deep clean or anything, unless this your main cleaning day. But make sure the sink is clean, paperwork is organized, and clothes are picked up put away or in the hamper. Start your week off with the basics done. This is something I do try to maintain mostly during the week but on Sunday’s, I like to do a reset of anything I might have procrastinated on or was lazy about over the weekend.
If you find that this is taking you longer than you think it should, check out “How to Keep Your House Tidy Part 1: Set Your Home Up For Success” to get you set up for the future.
6. Take some time to have fun
Have some fun, relax, get outside, see friends and family. I know there are always things to do, but it;s important to take some time to enjoy yourself. Do lunch with a friend, go hiking with the family, have a movie night. Maybe even dinner and a movie? Just make sure you are spending time doing things you love as well. It is important to take some time to mentally refresh and make sure you are enjoying life and not always working.
For some ideas to have fun this weekend check out this post.
7. Early Bed, Relaxation
On Sunday I like to make it a point to go to bed on time. It’s a great way to help you start your week off right. Go to bed a little earlier, turn off the electronics, read a book, and just make sure you are getting good rest to tackle that Monday.
I know the list seems like a lot, however, once you get a system going this will take you no time at all and save you so much time during the week!
What are somethings that you find helpful to get done to be ready for the week?
