Do These 5 Things on Sunday to Have a Productive Week
If you’ve ever struggled with the “Sunday scaries” aka getting really anxious about the week ahead on Sunday evenings you should try these 5 tips to help you prepare for a productive and less stressful week!
Planning things in advance might seem a little bit daunting at first but once you start it will eventually become a habit. And lemme just tell you - there really is freedom and ease that comes with things flowing smoothly because of a little preparation.
Kicking off your week with a healthy headspace and a plan that prompts true productivity is just an all around win.
Little side note: If Monday isn’t the start of your work week then just fill in the blank with whatever day is! So let’s say you have Mondays and Tuesdays off and you work Wednesday-Sunday - you can do these things on Mondays to set yourself up for a productive week. I hope that makes sense!
I like to do the first 4 of these things early Sunday afternoon, like right when I get home from church so I’m not scurrying around at 10 PM trying to cram everything in. Then I have time to enjoy #5 too - you’ll see what I mean when we get there.
5 things you can do on Sundays to set yourself up for a productive week:
1. Compare schedules with your loved ones so you can have a master overview.
This can be as intense or as casual as you’d like it to be but make it a point to touch base with people you live with and compare schedules with them for the coming week. This will help make sure everyone is on the same page and it will keep things from falling from the cracks or someone being double booked - I know we’ve all been there...where you have a plan to grab dinner with a friend only to come home to find out that you’re expected to be at dinner with your in laws in 45 minutes with a side dish in tow. My husband and I keep our weekly meeting super casual - Sunday nights we just do a quick verbal check in and ask the other what they have going on that week. That way we can both make notes on our calendars (or mental notes if you’re like my husband) so nothing catches us off guard during the week. If you have a big family or live with a lot of roommates, consider having a home base schedule of some sort - whether that’s a giant wall calendar or a shared Google cal - just somewhere everything can live and that everyone has access to. Honestly, I do this for just my husband and I and it’s so helpful to see everything on one master schedule.
2. Figure out your food situation.
I like to do this after creating our weekly master schedule in case we have dinners planned with family or friends - no need to use brain power on planning a meal for a night that you’re actually going out to dinner ya know?
At this point in my life, figuring out my food situation is making sure that our fridge and pantry are stocked with healthy food to nourish our bodies. We do the majority of our grocery shopping online which has been a game changer because it saves time AND I’m even convinced that it saves us money because I’m not walking the grocery aisles impulsively chucking things into our cart. As Amazon Prime members, we use the Prime Now app to get free 2 hour grocery delivery from Whole Foods. Pro tip in case you didn’t know that Prime members get free Whole Foods delivery!
My husband does meal prep his lunches to take to work but since I work from home, I just go to the kitchen and make a salad for lunch pretty much every afternoon. For dinner, as long as we have a stocked fridge, we usually just decide each night what we’re in the mood for.
If you have a family and/or a lot of evening commitments I think meal planning and prepping would be wise. When I was in grad school I meal prepped my lunches and pre-planned all of our dinners because I didn’t have as much wiggle room in my schedule at that point in my life.
Figure out what your needs are and meet them!
3. Clean your space.
Y’all, I’m telling you - your physical environment has such a deep effect on your mental environment. When my space is cluttered, my mind feels cluttered and when my mind feels cluttered I cannot focus on what I really need to be focusing on.
I spend like 30 minutes each day tidying up our house so that on Sunday when it’s time for my weekly deep clean, it only takes me about an hour to get the whole house in tip top shape. Usually while I’m working on the inside, my husband takes care of the outside.
Tidy up your office or workspace and make it somewhere that you look forward to spending time.
Imagine how you feel when you walk in from work on a Monday and your house is chaos. Dirty dishes are overflowing from the sink. Last night’s socks are on the coffee table. Papers are scattered all over the countertop. This would stress me out and automatically send me into panic mode when I got home from work.
Now imagine walking in to a tidy space after a busy work day on Monday. You can grab a glass of water, get your diffuser going, and enjoy sitting down on your cozy couch for a moment to let your mind unwind from the day. Then you’re ready to get up and tackle your home tasks that need to be done - maybe that’s working on your side hustle or getting in an at home work out. Your surroundings are calm and so is your mind.
Clearly the more appealing option here is #2 and that’s totally possible if you just make it a priority to tidy up your space on Sundays!
4. Bust out your planner and make note of any important dates + deadlines that week.
This includes birthdays, anniversaries, field trips...all that kind of stuff. Not only do I want you to make a note of them, but make a note of anything that you need to do to prep for them. This is a big reason why I like to do these tasks at the beginning of the day on Sunday - it gives me time to run any errands I need to without feeling rushed or stressed out about stores being closed by the time I figure out I need to run out and grab something.
I always feel more at ease about the coming week when I have a general idea of what is coming up and what is expected of me.
5. Get your mind right and do something you enjoy doing.
Like I mentioned earlier, I like to take care of numbers 1-4 kind of early in the day so that I can spend the latter half of Sunday filling up my cup. My husband and I like to do something active like go on a bike ride or on a long walk with the pups on Sundays. I know that fresh air is good for my soul so I make an effort to experience it every Sunday because I know it’ll help get me in a good headspace for the coming week.
I also take a few minutes to go back and read over my journal entries from the week on Sundays. I like to re-read my daily gratitude lists and any I am statements that I wrote down throughout the week.
I usually go over the top with my nighttime routine on Sundays too. I make tea, diffuse sleepy time oils (shout out to lavender and cedarwood), sometimes I take a bath, and read my favorite fiction book while I’m cuddled up on the couch with my husband and our pups. I make my Sunday night routine an experience that I truly look forward to.
Doing all of these might sound like a lot, but I’m telling you, you’re going to save so much time and energy throughout the week by doing this kind of stuff on Sundays.
Make these tasks fun! Get your family involved. Make a playlist to listen to while you clean and meal prep. Diffuse your favorite oils while you sit at your desk and look over your planner. If you make these things something to dread, they’ll be something that you dread. But if you go at them with an excited and grateful heart then you’ll probably get them done quicker and honestly done better.
If you want to listen in on this conversation, tune into episode 015 of The Hustle Sanely Podcast below!
