My week always goes better if I am prepared ahead of time.  Over the years I’ve created my own rhythm that helps me meet my goals – and that is the key.  We all have our own goals – and how we prepare and what we prepare will differ as we set ourselves up for a good week.  There is so much freedom in creating our own rhythms and plans.

My Goals

I have two goals when I start organising my week:
1–To have a relationship  focused weekend – which includes spending time with friends, time with just family and time to rest and recover personally as an individual.
2–To have a calm and productive week (Monday – Friday)

My Plan

In order to meet these two goals I have two different times where I get myself organised:  Friday and Sunday night.  This is what works for me –

Friday Prep–

This is primarily hands on housework: Though I clean my house throughout the week, on Friday I do those few things that make our house a nice place to be:

• Pick up clutter, clean the floors, and tidy up my bedroom.
• Make sure we have fresh food for the weekend
• Cook ahead any meals or sweet treats that I need to
• Check that we have clothes clean and ironed for any weekend activities

Sunday Afternoon/Night –

This is primarily an admin time and it has changed over the seasons of my life.

• I check my calendar
• Organise my to-do into a realistic list
• (When I was in the middle of directive-parenting) Consider heart lessons and training that needed to happen
• (When I was homeschooling) Check lesson plans
• Review what housework needs to be done during the coming week
• Make sure I am organised for any specific projects that will be dealt with in the coming week (birthday parties, writing deadlines, home renovations and maintenance, classes I’m teaching etc)

Organise your week to meet your goals

You may have other things that you need to do to meet your goals.  You may need to plan your menu or prepare freezer meals ahead of time.  You may need to organise lunches, and make sure everything is ready to go for busy mornings.  You may need to have clothes ready, or sport uniforms ready for your weekly activities.  Every household will have different goals and different tasks to do.  Each season of life will also present different goals and priorities.  You need to know what your goals are and how best to prepare to meet those goals.

Once we recognise what we need to do to meet our goals probably the trickiest bit is to actually make the changes necessary.

I used to clean house on Monday mornings.  The idea was that there was a mess after a weekend of relaxing and catching up with family and friends and it was best for the week if we started with a clean slate.  But that meant that often our house wasn’t really ready or enjoyable for our weekend and I wasn’t prepared to clean house twice – Friday and Monday!   I soon realised that it actually worked best for us if we cleaned up before the weekend, and then just tidied after.  This also meant that on Monday morning we were able to focus on our studies, instead of cleaning house.  So this is a system that works for me.

Further Reading:

Double Check your Routine – Is it Helping You?  We need to double check our routine that we have made time for the important things, not just good things.

Change How you Think about the Interruptions in your Day:  I need to remember that interruptions in my day are not about my kids interrupting my to-do but rather things interrupting my time with my kids.

5 Decisions to Help Mums Live in the Moment: To live in the moment is an issue of contentment – and it becomes a day by day choice I have to make.

Over to You:

Is there something you need to switch around in how you plan your week?