How To Take Charge Of Your Week

Are you ready to take charge of your week so you can get more done? Well let’s jump right in!

Since I can remember I have loved having a day planner. In high school I carried one with me everywhere. I’m not sure why, it wasn’t like I had a TON to do, but it made me feel important. In college I opted for an hourly day planner. I was so busy!

In reality I felt that it made me appear busier than I was – I had arrows drawn, I had a color code that I followed and I made sure to write down every homework assignment that was due in fear of forgetting.

Nowadays my love of planners is still strong. Every few years I splurge on a nice paper planner, only to have it collect dust just a few short weeks after it’s arrival. Not that I’m not busy for a planner – in my adult life I desperately need a planner to keep it all straight! But as a mom I have found that carrying one less thing around in my bag was for the best. So now I opt for my Google calendar. I am still an avid fan of color coding, but now I’ve had time blocking to the mix.

When it comes to setting myself up for success it really falls down to just a few steps to take charge of my week.

Step One: My calendar.

I always take a quick look on Sunday at my week ahead. I use my calendar for just about everything. Here’s my list of color codes – work, volunteer organizations I’m involved in, family events, just myself, and blog.

I tend to do a quick glance at my calendar to make sure I know of any appointments the week ahead. That way if I need to coordinate anything with J then I can go ahead and get it taken care of.

Step Two: My to-do list.

My to-do list is my new baby blanket at this point. I never leave home without. It’s called my mom notebook and it’s priceless around here. Whenever I have a thought pop into my brain it gets written down in my mom notebook.

Then I tend to organize my notebook into a few categories – work, blog, and other. Other usually consists of family to-dos and groups I’m involved in. Once it’s organized then I use that to pull my top three for the day.

Step Three. Meal planning.

Planning out our weekly dinners and making sure lunches are covered is crucial. Not only when it comes to time, but also to our budget. We tend to meal plan for two weeks at a time, which is awesome. We grab the bulk of our items when we do our heavy grocery shopping every two weeks and then any small items like produce and milk once a week. It helps us from overspending, helps us from eating out too much (thanks to the no eating out challenge we tried awhile back), and from wasting food we buy. You can grab my two week meal planner here.

Step Four. Sleep.

Yes, sleep. On Sunday I tend to go to bed at a decent hour so that I can make sure I’m well rested for the upcoming week. It’s not always the easiest to go to bed early, especially with a stubborn toddler, but I try. I have found that going to bed early helps me wake up without hitting the snooze a thousand times and gives me time to get ready before our little man wakes for the day.