Sundays are great for so many things – brunching with friends, staying in your PJs all day, roast dinners with the fam, cuddle seshes, movie nights…
Did I mention I love Sundays?
But besides all this, Sundays are also great for one other reason: because they help you prepare for the week ahead!
I know, I know, this one’s a bit less exciting than Netflix and all-day onesies, but let’s be real: if there was anything you could do to help make your Monday a bit less hectic, wouldn’t you do it?
I sure would!
That’s why I’ve started using my Sundays as a “prep day” to help me prepare for the coming week. And trust me, it’s been a total game-changer.
So without further ado, here are the 10 productive things I do every Sunday that YOU can start implementing into your routine as well! The best part? You can do almost every one of them in your PJs!
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Productive Habit #1: Do a brain dump
Every Sunday, I spend a few minutes doing a brain dump of all my thoughts, hopes, fears, and concerns about the coming week. Think of it as a stream of consciousness journal entry, but less “journal-y”.
Instead of writing everything down line-by-line, just scribble down all your thoughts about the coming week anywhere on a scrap piece of paper. It doesn’t have to be organized and it doesn’t have to make sense – it just has to be there in one big mess. The organization of this mess comes next…
Productive Habit #2: Organize your thoughts into a to-do list
This is where you pick out the most important points from your brain dump and make them into a concise to-do list.
Read over what you wrote. Was there anything in particular you wrote about a lot?
For example, if you realize that you wrote down a lot of things you have to do, then you’ll know that the week ahead may be a bit on the busy-side. Take some time here to write a list of all the tasks you need to get done.
If you notice that you wrote down a lot of worries or anxieties you have about the coming week, take time here to analyze why you’re feeling anxious and if there’s anything you can do about it. Is it because of one particular task? If so, spend time here breaking that task up into smaller chunks on your to-do list. Is it just general anxiety you have about the week? If so, I suggest checking out my free Anxiety Handbook to help you get a better idea of why you have this underlying anxious feeling.
You should spend a good chunk of time on this. The more organized and thorough your to-do list is, the more clarity and focus you’ll have in the coming week.
Productive Habit # 3 – Write down your intentions
This is different from your to-do list because it’s not about tasks you have to get done, it’s about ways you want to feel.
Spend some time clearly stating to yourself how you want to feel next week.
Do you want to feel productive and motivated? If so, then figure out what you could do to help you feel this way and make sure that it’s on your to-do list (for example – dedicating 30 minutes each day to working on your passion project).
Perhaps, however, you want to feel calm and at peace. If so, you may want to think about replacing a certain task on your to-do list with a self-care strategy. Is there any task that can wait until the following week to get done in order to make room for some “you-time”?
If you need help getting clear on how you want to truly feel, then check out my Dream Life Goal Planner. I created this planner to help guide you in finding out what your true desires are so that you better understand how you can accomplish them. This is something that’s quite difficult to do on your own, so I highly recommend getting some guidance on it!
Productive Habit #4 – Make a schedule
Now that you’ve written your to-do list and you’ve set your intentions for the week, it’s time to combine both of those into a master schedule.
I like to begin writing my schedule from the most important task to the least important task rather than writing it out Monday to Friday. This allows me to make sure that my priority tasks get into the best time slot (therefore making it more likely I get them done!).
Remember – when scheduling your tasks, make sure to keep your intentions in mind.
For example: if my intention was to feel at peace, my most important tasks may be to exercise and to spend time doing something I love. I would therefore schedule these tasks FIRST, and I would put them in priority spots (like Tuesday afternoon when I know I’m free).
Productive Habit #5 – Plan your meals
This is something that I used to struggle with quite a bit. Instead of planning my meals in advance, I would always hem and haw trying to decide what I felt like eating in the moment. This just doubled my time in the kitchen.
So recently, I’ve made a point of setting aside 30 minutes each Sunday to plan my meals for the upcoming week. I usually do this in the early afternoon so that I have enough time to pop into the grocery store if I realize I need to buy something
Planning your meals in advance may sound like a bit of a boring chore, but honestly, you’ll be SO thankful each time lunch rolls around and you don’t have to put any brain power into making a decision!
Productive Habit #6 – Plan out your content
If you’re anything like me, you probably spend a LOT more time than you should deciding what to do in your free time (especially during your evenings!). You may know that you want to read, but you may not know what to read. And you may know that you want to watch a TV show, but you may not know what TV show.
There’s a lot of choice out there – and it can be overwhelming.
To combat this, I’ve started using my Sunday to plan out all the content I want to consume during the week.
This means planning out:
- Books to read
- Articles to read
- Podcasts to listen to
- TV shows to watch
- Movies to watch
It may sound a little silly planning out what movies you want to watch, but it’ll save you tons of time scrolling through the never-ending feed on Netflix!
Productive Habit #7 – Go over your finances
We can sometimes go a bit overboard on our spending during the weekend. That’s why taking some time out of your Sunday to look at your bank account(s) and make sure you’re on the right track is a good plan.
If you’ve been a bit heavy on the spending, know that you’ll need to tighten up in the week to come. Is there anything you were planning on buying that you could postpone until next payday?
If your finances are looking good, rest assured that in the coming week you’ll have some nice wiggle room to spend a little extra cash! Maybe you can treat yourself and go out to your favourite restaurant on your lunch break. Or maybe you can order that thing that’s been sitting in your Amazon shopping cart for ages!
Productive Tip #8 – Clean
Okay, this one’s pretty self-explanatory.
We all know that Sunday’s cleaning day. And as much as you may not want to clean, get it into your head that spending an hour doing the dishes and getting a load of laundry done will drastically cut down your worries during the week.
My tip? Turn on your favourite podcast while you clean to make it seem a bit less suck-y (or check out this article on how cleaning is a form of mindfulness to develop a new appreciation for it!).
Productive Habit # 9 – Catch up on messaging people
The craziness of the weekend can sometimes make us forget to respond to people over text or email. I myself have a bad habit of waiting to reply to people until the “perfect time” when I’m “fully available” – but that never seems to happen!
Instead of letting people hang, try using Sunday as a correspondence catch-up day. Reply to anyone who’s reached out to you during the week and spend some time calling/texting anyone you haven’t heard from for a while. It’ll only take a few minutes, and it’ll make you feel so much better before getting caught up in your own life during the workweek!
Productive Habit #10 – Make time for self-care
We can’t forget about self-care.
Sunday evenings are the perfect time to set aside an hour (or let’s be honest – two or three) to engage in all things self-care. Switch your phone off, get into something comfy, and take some serious you-time before the week begins. If you want some ideas on where to start, check out these 100 self-care ideas – you’ll have plenty to choose from!
Feeling productive is probably one of the best ways to boost your mental health and make you feel more fulfilled (therefore happier!). That’s why I’ve dedicated a lot of my time to figuring out ways I can be more productive each day.
It took me quite a bit of time to learn these secrets, but it doesn’t have to take that long for you. I created my Productivity Secrets and Goal Planner to share with you ALL my top productivity tips and guide you in incorporating them into your routine.
You can get it all right here, so there’s no need to spend time searching for all this on your own. All you have to do? Sign up and get started!
