Planning your week is important for your brain and it keeps stress levels down. Making a plan that you can stick to takes time to get used to and practice. Practice first with just a day or two or maybe you can just write down some daily “to do” items that you can check off. Be flexible with your plan and go easy on yourself if you don’t stick to it. You will get the hang of it. Your goal is to reduce decision fatigue and give your brain an opportunity to make good decisions on your main goals. Make time to plan your week – Sunday afternoon or evenings work best for me. Sometimes I do it first thing on Monday morning but Sunday is my favorite time!
Tips for planning a great week:
• Make it simple – start small
• Make it doable – now is not the time for lofty goals – remember, you are practicing
• Incorporate must do’s, need to do’s and its okay if it doesn’t get done do’s
• Be flexible – you are going to mess up your plan and that is OK
• List your must do’s (goals) and block time on your calendar for them on the days you plan to focus on those goals
• List daily things you need to do
• Choose the way you want to plan – paper or electronic
• Remember that it is about YOU, your life and your decisions
As you progress with your planning, you can begin the think about the previous week and decide what things you want to keep doing, what you want to stop doing and what you may want to start doing. I will elaborate on that theme in a future blog.
In future planning blogs, I will talk about how to plan meals, exercise, self care, etc. I will even talk about planning your joy, comfort, fun food ahead of time.
Have a great week!
Kim