A couple months back I was listening to an episode of one of my favorite podcasts. The host, Meg, mentioned that her themed days of the week were really helping her win at this thing we call life. Minute 34:24 if you want to go listen - it's a great conversation. It all started when she made Saturday "prep for rest" day. This set up Sunday to be truly restful. But it took planning and intentionally, really pushing herself on Saturday to get her errands, housework, etc done. She went on to explain the other days...
Monday: weekend recovery, grocery pick up
Tuesday: tackle to-do's
Wednesday: whatever day
Thursday: pray and prep (standing appointment to go to a prayer chapel, prep for podcast)
Friday: work hard/ play hard
Saturday: prep for rest
Sunday: rest
This themed days of the week idea clicked for me. Many things I do naturally fall on certain days. But I experimented and took it a step further, giving each day of the week a theme to guide the day's activities. And y'all! My weekly routine is my life. I feel as close to caught up as I have ever been as an adult.
It goes like this.
Meal plan Monday: Monday afternoon I make a meal plan and order my groceries (to be picked up Tuesday morning). It is a standing appointment.
To do Tuesday: Tuesday is a day for "to-do's." I clean out my e-mail. I make any needed appointments. I handle bill paying or insurance or budgeting tasks. I think about holidays, birthdays, and gifts. I handle any school or church business. To-do Tuesday!
Catch-All Wednesday: Whatever I didn't get to on Tuesday, falls to Wednesday. Wednesday is a day to catch up on anything that needs catching up on...cooking, cleaning, or administrative type stuff.
Busy Thursday: Thursdays are our busiest day. Busy Thursday means I usually start the day off with a slow cooker meal in the morning and I have low or no expectations for being productive on Thursday...besides getting us where we need to go.
Play Friday: Fridays are for fun. For me this usually means loosening up the screen time rules for my kids and giving myself a little quiet while I read a book. It's crazy, I know.
Prep for Rest Saturday: I adopted from this from Meg. Saturday I try to tie up any loose ends especially surrounding laundry or school related things like making sure I have enough food for lunches, signing Friday folders, and making sure all the school uniforms are clean.
Sunday: REST
This has truly been revolutionary for my stress levels of how (and when?) do I get it all done?!
Two last things -
1. If you do anything, make a standard meal plan and grocery day. It will change your life! Guard that time vigorously and you will be amazed at how much brain space you will get back and how much money you save.
2. Lean in to your natural rhythms. When I made this routine, I basically gave a little more definition to what was naturally already happening. What changed was it gave me permission to really focus on what the theme was for that day and ignore the nagging sense that maybe I should be doing something else.
So how about it?
Do you have a weekly routine?
Do you have theme days?
Great idea!!!
ReplyDeleteLove this! Systems and routines are life around here. Our weeks are very similar.
ReplyDeleteMonday=meal plan, order groceries
Tuesday=pick up groceries, load of laundry. My mom also comes many Tuesdays for half a day so these are my ambitious days to tackle a household project or occasionally escape for a workout class or pedicure.
Wednesday=catch-all day
Thursday/Friday= the two littlest are home with me so I don't plan on much productivity aside from prepping for the weekend. I used to do a load of laundry, restock all the household empties (diapers/wipes/paper towels/tissues/etc etc), fill up vitamin holders, and plan out my following week over the course of Saturday/Sunday but it was making the weekends even less enjoyable than they can sometimes be. So now I try and get all of those things done from Weds-Fri so that weekends can truly be for "rest" and "fun" (as much rest/fun one can get in this stage of life) and it frees me up mentally to know that all I need to do come Sunday night is jot down my to-dos for the next week. (If I do this any earlier in the day on Sunday I find myself sneakily trying to get to some of the next week's things on Sunday.)
I love this!! I'm getting some inspiration from your plan.
ReplyDeleteI used to have a more defined schedule for my life, but if I parse out my natural rhythm, it goes like this:
Monday: big laundry day, meal plan
Tuesday: market
Wednesday: inbox (all the bills, calls, etc. have to be taken care of)
Thursday: project day, often sewing, but sometimes a cleaning or house project
Friday: market, family movie night some weeks
Saturday: cleaning, prep for Sabbath rest
Sunday: Sabbath! no shopping or chores, just napping and hanging with family/friends and church
Oh going to listen to the podcast and chew on this. I sort of do this but I also sort of do things a little bit every day, if you will. Wonder if leaning more to this way would help things not seem so harried. I'd love to hear how your housekeeping routine fits into this method. Great post!
ReplyDelete