I used to hate Mondays with a passion. Every meme about how crappy Mondays were, I could totally relate to and I’ve probably reposted a million in my stories on Instagram. Recognize any of these!?
My Mondays were so chaotic from the time my feet hit the floor until the time I crashed into bed! and believe me, I crashed! Chasing your tail all day long is EXHAUSTING! And what was so frustrating was feeling like I didn’t really accomplish anything. Basically the day was running me because I wasn’t prepared, I didn’t make a plan, and I spent Monday making a plan for the rest of the week. So one Sunday evening when the Sunday Scaries started creeping in, (you know, the anxiety about all of the things you need to do in the week ahead) I decided I would start making a strategic plan for Monday and the week ahead on Sunday evenings and it has been my Sunday night routine ever since.
Let me say that I have been doing this a while and it took a few months to really get it down to what works the best for my family. Some things I do, may not be relevant to what you need to do, but I feel like this is pretty generic that you can implement the tasks in your routine no matter what your life looks like.
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The first thing I do during my Sunday evening routine to prepare for the week ahead is grab my phone, my planner and my notebook and have a brain dump. I go through text messages and emails on my phone and I see what’s already been planned for the week ahead with activities at kids school, my real estate appointments, my blog collaborations, or content that is due, or blog posts that are scheduled to post, etc., and I make sure all of those things are written down in my planner. Then I figure out what I need for those already set appointments and my to do lists and I write it down. I then make a list for each day of the week with what my to do’s are for each particular day. I even figure out my workout schedule for the week and write it down in my calendar and on the daily to do list. I know it could change as the week gets started and that’s ok, but I like to write it down so that way it becomes a priority.
2. The next thing I do is start planning everyone’s clothing for the week based off of what’s on the calendar. And by everyone I mean the younger kids and myself. My husband handles his attire ( and since he’s a tennis pro, 99% of the time he’s in sports clothes, so he has it pretty easy.) I have started making my 17 year old daughter do her own laundry ( I feel its good practice since she’s going to college in a year), and she does this on Sundays as well. I wash clothes if I need to and I iron everything that needs to be ironed with what I know is taking place so far the following week.
3. I then assess our grocery situation. I make a meal list for the following week based on some things we still have in the house and then I make a list of the food items we are needing so that I can order on shipt.com, which is an online grocery delivery service. If you haven’t tried shipt, you are missing out on saving time and money. Here is a link if you want to get signed up. Membership is usually $99 a year, but this link will save you $50 off the annual membership making your first year only $49! It’s totally worth it and I promise you will thank me for it! It has saved my life and sanity so many times!! I love the convenience of having groceries delivered right to my door and I love how organized my grocery shopping has become because I can see everything laid out before I submit my order, which mean, I’m rarely buying food that is going to be wasted because we don’t really need it at the moment. I can’t tell you how much produce I used to just throw away! I had this thing with buying the bagged salads and I couldn’t leave the grocery store without several bags every time I went. At least one would end up rotting in the refrigerator because we didn’t get to it that week. Plus, once you order on shipt.com, it saves all of the things you’ve purchased in the past for quick ordering so you can easily add to your cart. Time is so valuable these days, I try to leverage it the best I can. I make sure I also have something quick and easy to cook for dinner for Monday nights.
4. After the groceries are ordered through shipt.com, I start getting everything together the items everyone needs for Monday morning. I make sure school bags are cleaned out from the week prior and all items that need to go back to the kids school are in their bags and their clothes and shoes they’re wearing are laid out and ready. There’s nothing worse than searching 30 minutes for a kids shoe only to find out they took them off on the way home from school on Friday and it’s still in your car! GRRRRR! But that’s exactly what my Monday mornings looked like before this easy routine.
If I have shipments (either returns from what I’ve purchased or things shipping out from my Etsy store) that need to be shipped on Monday I make sure they’re all packaged and by the door for me to grab on my way out in the morning. Or if there is something I’m supposed to drop off somewhere, or I have an early Monday morning appointment, I make sure what I need is ready and by the door.
5. The last thing I do to better prepare myself for Mondays and the rest of the week is plan out my weekly cleaning schedule. I don’t have a housekeeper, so I plan out the days of the week when I can get some of the weekly cleaning things done, like cleaning bathrooms, dusting, mopping, washing sheets, etc. On Sunday evenings, I try to get everything organized and back in its place. Mondays are usually for dusting and mopping and Tuesdays are for the bathrooms. I usually wash sheets on Fridays. There are several things I do probably every day which are at least one load of laundry (towels especially because noone likes to hang theirs up and reuse it) and a load of dishes. I also vacuum every single day which means the kids have to put up all toys off of the floor and back in their places every single day once they’re done. I feel like this helps a lot and keeps things from being so overwhelming.
Well, there you have it, the 5 (fairly simple/no brainer) things I do every Sunday evening to better prepare myself for Mondays and the rest of the week. I hope this helps you in your weekly productivity and helps you start your week off on the right track. I know it really has helped me stay somewhat organized and not feel so defeated at the end of a Monday! It’s such a great feeling when you can crush a Monday and all it takes is a few hours getting everything organizes and a plan of action on Sunday evenings!
