Sunday Power Hour: My Secret to a Productive Week Ahead
As the Routine Queen™, I wanted to share my new-ish Sunday night ritual. I realized that my Sunday Night Blues were mostly due to having a vague sense of dread of not knowing what I would be walking into on Monday Morning. With this new routine, I'm able to reflect on the past week, see (and celebrate!) the progress I've made, and come up with a big picture game plan for the coming week that leaves me feeling focused and grounded.
The whole thing takes less than an hour and is best paired with a cup of tea and a cozy couch.
Here's what I do!
Review and Summarize Last Week
I use our Schedule Magic planner to track my daily to-dos and timeblock my days. During my Power Hour, I transfer the highlights of what happened every day into my Moleskine planner (which I use more as a diary). (For more on how I use my Schedule Magic planner, check out this Instagram post.)
Underline Highlights
Next, I underline the highlights of my week. This way, when I'm looking back during my quarterly or annual reviews, I can pretty quickly see what that week's big moments were.
Write Next Week's To-Do List
While I track my daily to-do's in Schedule Magic, I track my weekly to-do's in my Moleskine. I transfer any to-do's that I didn't complete last week onto the following week's to-do's and add any other tasks that are on my mind.
(Note: if I notice that I'm carrying a task forward to the next week for several weeks in a row, I'll try to pause and ask myself why it's not getting done. Am I avoiding something hard or uncomfortable? Or maybe it's just not a priority and I can remove it, delegate it, or make a note to revisit it in the future.)
Pick My Top Three Priorities
This step is huge! A long to-do list can be super-overwhelming, so I take a moment to ask myself which of these tasks will help me get closer to my goals. These become my priorities for the week and everything else gets scheduled around them.
Roughly Sketch Out the Week
As a solo biz owner, I try to keep my weeks structured to make sure I’m making time for the must-do admin tasks, as well as the fun and important deep work.
Monday: Admin (Email! invoices! etc!). Getting my must-do admin tasks out of the way on Monday frees up my brainspace for the rest of the week.
Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday: Deep work tackling my priorities (usually one per day)
Friday: Leave open to tidy up from the week
Make Sure Something Fun is On the Books!
Scheduling fun may sound pretty lame, but is critical for us overachievers! As someone who can easily veer into workaholism territory, it's important for me to call out the time where I won't be working. Sunday night is a great time to schedule plans with friends for next weekend or block out time for you to work on art projects, test a new recipe, or hike a new-to-you trail. I'm way more likely to do these acts of self-care if they're on my calendar.
I hope these ideas help make your Sundays a little less scary! If you liked this post, sign up for our monthly newsletter for living an intentional and creative life. Thanks!
